Practice Plan: Ball Control / Sliding & Recovery

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Activity 1: Inside Out Chaos Passing
Defense Station: 4 Corner Approach
Offense Station: Shooting on the Run
Activity 4: 22 Slide Drill
Activity 4: Scoop and Chase Game

Please Note: The practice is designed to bring value across multiple age levels. You can use this as a foundation to build and develop your own practice. With that being said, we highly encourage you to adjust the drills based on your team’s age and skill levels. Lacrosse Drive should always be used as a starting point — you can make drills easier or harder by changing the constraints.

To make a drill easier, you might Increase the playing area, reduce the number of defenders or rules, add time or space to make decisions

To make a drill harder, you might: Shrink the field or add boundaries, add defenders or touch restrictions (e.g., “one-pass before shooting”), or Limit time or space to force faster decisions

Small adjustments to field size, player numbers, and rules can significantly change the challenge level while maintaining the same core learning goal.

Practice Theme & Objective: Slide and Recovery — a core defensive concept focused on protecting the middle, supporting teammates, and restoring structure after sliding. Through small-sided games and adaptable constraints, players will learn to recognize slide triggers, communicate early, and recover quickly to rebalance the defense. The emphasis is on reading cues, anticipating danger, and working as a connected unit. By the end of practice, players should be able to:

Identify when to slide and which defender becomes the “hot” slide.
Communicate clearly and early to initiate support.
Recover quickly and efficiently to fill vacated space after sliding.
Apply these habits in live, game-representative situations where decisions are time-pressured and unpredictable.

The ultimate goal is for every player to feel confident supporting a teammate defensively while maintaining team shape and balance — learning that great defense is connected, not individual.

10 Minutes

Activity 1: Inside Out Chaos Passing

Do this in front of the goal or around the field in open space

Set Up

Create a small playing around area, in this video specifically we’re using the right side restraining box. Split your group up in the two teams. Each team will have three players on each end line. The rest of the players will be around the playing field, alternating dark white dark white. Coach will put 6 to 8 balls in the middle of the field, and on the whistle the players in the end line will run to try to gain possession of a ball. After a player gain possession, they will find a teammate on the perimeter and make a pass. That teammate that just received the pass will now bring it in the playing area trying to find another teammate to pass it to while the other teammate takes their place on the perimeter. Play for 1 minute, the team in possession of the most balls, wins! Play best of 5, or 7 depending on your time. It’s really fun, engaging, and players will learn how to play within the chaos inside the box and finding teammates to pass to around the field.

Coaching Points & Principles

Groundballs! The game starts with a live ground ball, that is the best time to gain possession!
Ball Control – Players must be able to cradle through chaos inside the box to find open space and teammates to pass to
Communication – Perimeter players should be ready to receive a pass, and calling “ONE MORE” or HERE”S HELP”
Defense – If you don’t win a ground ball and are stuck on defense inside, try to force bad passes/turnovers.

Tags

Advanced Anticipation & Recognition Game - Live Play Ground Ball Battles Ground Balls Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Small Area Games Small Area Games Team Passing U10 U12 U14

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10 Minutes

Defense Station: 4 Corner Approach

Set Up

In front of the goal, set up 4 cones in a box not he 4 corners, and 1 cone in the middle. Have the defensive player start in the middle cone, which is the house. They will approach each cone, and recover to the house cone, and repeating until the finish all 4 cones. Put players in a line behind the cage, and start the next player once the player has reached their 2nd cone.

Coaching Points and Principles

Focus on your angles at each cone getting the proper foot upfield, that would drive a player away from the goal, and not to the middle of the field
On approaches, lead with your stick and break down by chopping your feet
On recoveries, open up to the inside with your stick in the passing lane
Switch hands if you are a more advanced player

Progressions

Add a coach/player at each cone to emphasize the angle of approach

Tags

Advanced Beginner Block - On Air (no opponent)College Defense Defensive Positioning & Footwork Foundational Skills High School Intermediate Lacrosse IQ Men’s Lacrosse Offense & Defense Footwork Positional / Tactical Stick Control (without the ball)U10 U12 U14

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10 Minutes

Offense Station: Shooting on the Run

A great drill to work on your shot on the run, getting back down hill!

Set Up

About 8-10 yards away from goal, set up 2 cones about 5 yards apart, 45 degrees from goal. Players will dodge towards the top cone, and start to get loaded. They will then run over the second cone, getting back down hill running toward the cage!

Coaching Points & Principles

Keep your feet moving, make sure players don’t stop their feet and they run through the second cone
Work on shooting overhand, as this will help with momentum getting back toward the goal

Advanced Attack Block - On Air (no opponent)College Foundational Skills High School Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Positional / Tactical Shooting Shooting on the Run U10 U12 U14

Tags

Advanced Attack Block - On Air (no opponent)College Foundational Skills High School Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Midfield Positional / Tactical Shooting Shooting on the Run U10 U12 U14

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10 Minutes

Activity 4: 22 Slide Drill

Put 3 defensive players on the crease, and 4 offense players on the perimeter, with 1 on crease

The offense must pass the ball around, and the defense will approach while the back 2 defenders guard the house. As the ball gets passed, the player guarding ball recovers to the crease the a new teammates approaches the ball

Set Up

Create a small area playing space, in this video we are using the restraining box on 1 side of the field. We have split the field in half with cones, so players get some form of visual on where to be defensively and offensively off ball. We have the white team going 1 direction and the dark team going the opposite, so everyone played both offense and defense. To start, put an offensive and defensive player on the crease. The drill initiates with a 1v1 dodge from the high wing, if you want to give your offensive player a little advantage, that works just fine. They will run down the alley, and the defender will slide off the crease to double team. The offensive player off ball should show their stick, call for the ball, and if they need to, step to the pass to catch and finish! The two players on the crease will move up to the opposite wing and the two players who ran down the alley, will now move to the crease area

Coaching Points & Principles

Run hard down the alley like you are trying to score in transition!
When the double team comes, make sure to get the pass off while your hands are free, or bounce to get your hands free
Crease offense, should move to a passing lane for their teammate to get a clear path and reduce knockdowns
Shooting! Nice hard overhand shots through the net!

Progressions

Put 2 players on the crease, and offense has to read where the slide comes from

Tags

Anticipation & Recognition Beginner Game - Live Play Intermediate Transition U10 U12 U14 U8

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Activity 4: Scoop and Chase Game

Set Up

Split the group into two teams, and put them in alternating lines at the midfield. On a Half field, we would have 4-6 lines of each color, being a full team drill. If working in smaller spaces like video, you can do 3-4 of each color. The drill starts with coach rolling a live ground ball into the play. The first player in each line will go try to win the ground ball. Which ever team wins the ball, gets the ball to the goalie and initiates a clear. If you don’t have a goalie, just have the players clear to a Coach up top. Once they successfully clear the ball, they will go back in on offense, and attack the goal. Coaches can manipulate the rules or constraints to make uneven situations or get players to explore other team concepts like picks, off ball play, etc..

Coaching Points and Principles

Ground balls – players should be working hard to win ground balls to start the drill
Clearing – Team is spread out and finding open spaces
Even & Uneven scenarios

Progressions

Add extra players in on offense to creat uneven looks
Number the lines up top, so only select players go into the drill (1,2,3,4 would be a 2v2 groundball play)
Shot Clock – Once on offense, create a shot clock to speed up play

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