Practice Plan: Small Area Game & Stick Protection

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Sharks and Minnows 2
5 Player Line Drills – Roll Away with Guided Defense
Station 1: Mini 1v1
Station 2: 2v2 Wide Field Game
Read The Movement of the Defense 4v4

Phase 2: Play & Decide – Focus Points to build on our fundamental skillsets, while adding in some light decision making

Week 6 Practice / 60 Minute Session

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.

Theme Description This practice is designed continue to build on our foundational skillsets. Players are working on stick protection and then building in small area games where they should play vs pressure and working on protecting the ball

10 Minutes

Sharks and Minnows 2

A fun way to build off the traditional game the kids love!

Set Up

Create a center zone five yards wide. Place three small goals on each end line. One or two players or coaches (sharks) start in the center zone. The sharks cannot leave the zone. Three or four minnows try to carry and dodge past the sharks. After going past, they shoot the ball right away into one of the three small goals. After they pass, the next turn starts. When a minnow loses the ball, he/she becomes a shark.

Coaches Points & Principles

Ball Control and escapes around Sharks
Shooting

Progressions

If you are limited with goals, use whatever you have and balance off that
The shark gets one point for each time they force a dropped ball. When they get four points, they become minnows and pick new sharks

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10 Minutes

5 Player Line Drills – Roll Away with Guided Defense

Set Up

Put players on the sideline in groups of 5, and a coach about 8-10 yards away. The players can start with a ground ball, it just carry. They will cradle the ball up to coach, who will shade them to force a roll away. We want players to pop their hats away to the outside from the defender, exchange hands, and either carry back to line or make a pass to next player in line

Coaching Points and Principles

Cradling – keep the stick protected up by the shoulders
Roll Away – Drive off inside foot, and pop your hands away to protect stick, LET THE STICK LEAD YOU, then exchange hands
Carry the ball back to line, or make a pass

Progressions

Add in passes
Make the defense unpredictable
Add in Curls or QB passes

Station 1: Mini 1v1

Set Up

Create a small area 10×10 or so, with 2 goals in the middle back to back. You can use smaller goals if you have, and don’t necessarily need goalies. Split the players up into 2 teams, and line up on sideline. The game starts with coach rolling a live ground ball in, and the winning team must try and score a goal on their opponents net. Once there is a dead ball, goal, our ball out of play, coach will roll a 2nd ball in for the same 2 players for another rep. Do 3-5 reps then change with new players starting from the sideline.

Coaching Points and Principles

Groundball – Players should be working hard to win the ground ball, accelerating and running away from pressure.
Defense – Focus on containment, don’t let the offensive player get to the middle of the field
Offense – Use dodges and deception to win your 1v1 battle!
Conditioning – a great workout for with multiple reps

Progressions

Play 2v2
Add in constraints or shooting areas

Station 2: 2v2 Wide Field Game

A fun game that works on teamwork and live gameplay

Set Up

Create a 30 yd wide × 20 yd long (wider than normal — this is intentional). Two teams of 2. One small goal each end (or two cone goals 6 ft wide). Regular lacrosse rules apply, passing allowed, carrying allowed. The extra width is the entire teaching tool here. Don’t tell kids to spread out, the wide field makes spreading out feel natural and rewarded. Watch what happens. Play 3-minute games, Winners stay, losers rotate if you have enough players. If small group, just flip possession after each goal.

Coaching Points & Principles

Are kids opening up to space naturally?
Using the attack to space principles
After goals, see if kids can answer questions like, “How did that space open up?”

Progressions

String the field
Add a offensive players that is ALWAYS on offense, like our Rabbit Game

3v3 Ball Control & Cradling Beginner Defensive Positioning & Footwork Game - Live Play Intermediate Men’s Lacrosse Off Ball Defensive Play Off Ball Offensive Play Offense Spacing Principles Small Area Games U10 U8 Women’s Lacrosse

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15 Minutes

Read The Movement of the Defense 4v4

Set Up

Put player on field in a 4v4. The offense will start with their backs turned to coach, and coach will tell which defender is the slide/help. Offense can turn back and get set, on whistle, the defender guarding the ball leaves the field and the directed help player slides to the ball. The offense must read where the slides are coming from and move the ball to find the best shot. The defense must slide, rotate, and recover to try and get the offense back to neutral by the time their 4th player gets back into play!

Coaching Points & Principles

Offense – read the slides, move the ball to pressure
Defense – Slide, Recover, Communicate

Progressions

Play 3v3 with the youngest players
Build to 5v5 and 6v6 for youth, high school, and college levels