Defense for young kids

[riddlebox]

Hey all you coaches out there, I'm taking a Novice team this year (7-8 year olds) and most of them have never played field lacrosse before, coming from a mostly dominant box lacrosse part of Canada. I am in charge of teaching them defense this year, and most of them have never held a longpole in their life before. What are some good drills to get these kids a feel for the longpole and also for them to learn some basic checks, ground balls, and proper positioning?

Thanks so much

Riddleboxx

[cololax]

I'd start by not having them use long sticks. I've coached the same team for two years and they're now in 4th grade. A lot of them are pretty good little lax players but still would have no way of being effective with a long pole. Our leagues start long-stick use in 5th or 6th grade.

As far as drills are concerned, I would have them focus primarily on the poke and lift checks while emphasizing good positioning and footwork. I always explained good positioning like, "playing a game where their buddy was in room with one door (the imaginary door is the goal) and you don't want to let him out (move toward the goal)." I taught them to try to always keep their back to the imaginary door while throwing controlled poke checks and not lunging.

I always try to make sure the drills we run help with the players' agility. We start practice with small lines doing high-knees, reverse-pivot-step, shuffles, etc. A lot of our drills involve sprinting and then cutting off a strategically place cone.

Throughout practice I emphasize the importance of ground balls. I teach the players how to box out and use their body to shield opposing players from the ball. Although body checks aren't allowed at this age, I do teach the idea of "man-ball" where one player attempts to shield opposing players while their teammate gets the ball. One-on-one always works well and the players look forward to it. Just make sure you have more than one drill going at a time so the players aren't all waiting in line. At this age I believe each player getting as many reps as possible in practice is maybe the most important thing. They don't have the focus to listen and execute complicated drills. If they're involved, they most likely will be having fun which translates to them picking up the stick at home and hopefully for seasons to come...

[KnightsLAXDad]

As with box, footwork is everything. Teach them to stay in front of their man. Long poles aren't necessary, but one thing we did was use goalie shafts instead of a full long pole. Some kids could handle, some couldn't.

[Titanoh]

Poke checks, tell them to not do contact hits. Don't punish them, but just drill poking into their brain.

[PCO6]

As with box, footwork is everything. Teach them to stay in front of their man. Long poles aren't necessary, but one thing we did was use goalie shafts instead of a full long pole. Some kids could handle, some couldn't. Good advice KLD. For our younger players I replaced all of our club's Box goalie stick shafts with regular players shafts (30' - 32"). Box goalies of that age shouldn't play with a regular length (40") goalie shaft; they are too long. That freed up lots of 40" shafts to be used for "short" long poles.

[3rdPersonPlural]

I get the kids to play without sticks. Just body positioning. This also helps in half field offensive work, as the defenders usually get the upper hand at that level.

[Drew'sDad]

My son's league does not let them play with long sticks until the 5th grade. They will be much better off with a short stick. You may even want to cut some of them down if the kids are small or are having trouble with their stick skills. When my son started playing in the 2nd grade (7 y.o.), the coach marked each players stick at the first practice with a piece of tape and told all the parents to cut them down before the next practice. This made a world to the kids. Check with the league to determine the minimum stick length. Our local league has minimum and maximum lengths for each position.

[FlucoDpole]

If they've all played box,they should be great with body positioning,as it's more demanding with a short stick defender IMHO. As far as drills for new longpoles,I like to make them run 1v1s from X until possession change, score or penalty.

Teach the poles to cheat their footwork to one side of their position a bit,taking advantage of the long pole. Slap and poke check drills will be in order,and should be done at speed. Fast break drills are great for teaching poles to fall back and still check effectively. Also re-teach them their holds,as those will differ a bit with the pole since you can cheat the stick side to gain a step on the attacker.
Besides that,the regular passing/catching/scooping drills are mostly the same.

[LALAXMAN]

For footwork and positioning I use something called the bucket drill. Create a grid (square) with cones and put a bucket of some sort at the center (small trash can, laundry basket, etc.). An offensive player takes a ball and tries to dunk (not shoot) it in the bucket. A defensive player with no stick must use body position to keep him away from the bucket. I usually use a small 6" dowel (or cut down shaft) to for the defender to hold onto to simulate good hand position and minimize holding.

Fun for kids and great for defensive fundamentals. Not bad for dodging and individual offense too.

[savo]

Awesome drill idea. One of the few very very good ones I have heard.

[pvlax02]

footwork, footwork, footwork. this is the basis for everything from body positioning to being able to stay with your man. As others have said kids at that age, even older sometimes, have trouble getting a handle on poles because they are twice as tall as they are. Check with your league about when they can start using them. if they are allowed to, i would strongly suggest you cut them down to a more manageable size.

For defense, a few mentioned not allowing their kids to use sticks. i agree 110%. its a great way force kids to move to the ball and not rely on the length of their stick to get the job done.

you are def going to want to do man ball drills, but make sure when doing this you stress the wingmen to yell "ball" or "man". communication is another thins which gets over looked, but is very important. a team which communicates effectively is a lethal weapon.

for drills check out kudda.com they have everything from defense to offense. best of luck this season