defense practice levels

[UNCdefense]

Alright, I was doing one on ones with my boy today, we always play together & I got to thinking how hard do you guys go in practice? Like I know they say practice like you play & I agree completley you don't get better if you're not pushing you body, but when I'm playing an opposing team with guys that I view as my enemy( :angry: )I'm throwing as many checks as possible, pushing them over, man handling them as much as possible & trying to hurt them. I'll throw poke & slap checks as hard as I can & get a rush out of hearing them moan in pain, any defender does, but if I'm supposed to practice like I play don't you think that's extreme? myself in this case, I run & hit hard & with accuracy but basically go A LOT lighter....those senseless pain increasing poke/slap checks are almost never thrown & there's a lot less man handling. I go hard & play a lot of basics/fines basically, because I want him to get a lot out of him but I don't want to hurt him for the entire season just because we wanted to practice like it was a game...what do yall think?

[b-waterlax]

ooo, thats a tough one. I woul hit them as hard as you can without injuring them, so they are not suprised in a game when it hurts

[UNCdefense]

ya see im not worried about him wimping out im worried about hurting him because im much larger then him & even on days were im going for more precision & finese like today i can tell i got him good a few times cause when i grabbed a short stick so he could play D he was railing on me harder then usual(course it oculd have been the lack of all pads but gloves but still)

[Lurch22d]

i personally go pretty hard in practice...not enough to hurt somebody but enough so that i can improve and they can improve sothat they actually have some1 whose trying as opposed to some1 that just lets them go by and they dont get any better.

[UNCdefense]

ya i guess you just have to find a happy medium cause you don't wanna hurt them but you dont wanna go to easy

[GBaschski]

Go as hard as you effing can.

Unless you're practicing with me.

[Z12/AM]

seeing as how the guys that bug me the most are on my team, i go hard , but not hard enough to break their arms, but hard enough to sometimes make them cry, if i'm in a bad mood :agree:

[vroom125]

I go in btwn during practice. Everything other than the checks and stuff is usually my 100%.

[exile lacrosse]

ha...well lets put it this way. My Coaches sometimes need to tell me to back off a little in practice. Because i practice like i play, and sometimes its easier to go harder in practice, because you know what your team mates will do, so you can stop them easier. In my opinion, the harder you play, the better you AND your teammates willl get.

[truste1]

If you go hard against your own team they'll be ready when the other teams defenders are giving their 100%.

[EphLax26]

I go as hard as the coaches let me, because this is lacrosse by the way you are going to get hit. So get them used to it

[bloodilax977]

There is definetly a line. When we were just playing around a few years ago one of my friends got flipped over and almost broke his neck. Even worse, just last season, some of our defenders would hit harder in practice than in games...

[PoleofD]

Dude, you need to ALWAYS go 100% with power and play at all times, even in practice versus your friend, because you may say you dont want to hurt him or whatever, but you will only make him stronger and more capable if you show him how a good defenseman's stick feels.

[WickedDpole21]

ive bruised a kids rib in practice. i think that practice is a great oppurtunity to try to work very hard on footwork and fundamentals. try to not make pointless and painful checks(like we all do in practice). i try to make very tricky checks like lifting the bottom hand and trying to play d with ur body position only

but i get wut u r saying. its hard to draw the line. if ur playing for a spot on a team or anything, go all out all the time.its def a tricky situation.

[busdriver44]

every school team i've ever played on, we play atleast every school day. There is no way your body can maintain 100% 5 days in a row, every week. Before a game we always go a half hour shorter and like run through things.

Usually at practice we learn new things, like new formations and stuff. Some people learn a little faster, so you can't go 100% when your team mates don't know what's going on. When it is apropiate is when its good to go 100%. Usualy my coach tells us when to, and when we're just trying to work it around and fix out any kinks, and make sure everyone knows where to be at what time.

[AusBadger]

Your Peoblem is that your playing to hurt people try and train so that yourbe trying as hard as you try in a game. during practise do the best defence you can.

[UNCdefense]

ive bruised a kids rib in practice. i think that practice is a great oppurtunity to try to work very hard on footwork and fundamentals. try to not make pointless and painful checks(like we all do in practice). i try to make very tricky checks like lifting the bottom hand and trying to play d with ur body position only

but i get wut u r saying. its hard to draw the line. if ur playing for a spot on a team or anything, go all out all the time.its def a tricky situation.

ya, im trying to find a happy medium, the other thing that sucks is this guy i play with is the one who lives closest to me, so we always play together, but he plays middie, & though i do play LSM it's not as often as close D...so, he's used to ripping them from outside more often then trying to take it in :bull: he works on his accuracy, & certain likes around the world shots in full motion or whatever, but we're playing on an open goal so he can basically shot wherver he feels like shooting from which sometimes pisses me off cause i could be playing awesome defense, he never gets within 15 feet of goal & he'll like bounce out & rip some shot, & im jsut left standing there like WTF? :ahhno: plus i only wear gloves when we play & occasionally a helmet so its not like i can go diving in front of his shots or anything :nofear:

[MinnetonkaLax]

i play defense, and what ive done is go a little lighter on the checks and stuff but to remember to be slidding, adn working on your footwork as hard as possible, because thats something you can improve without hurting anyone... so basically lay off on the checks a little but remember to go all out when it comes down to footwork, etc.

[alexhawk]

Our defence got told to chill our checking by our coeach, so I go 100% on body and all my fitness, but on stick checks, Iease back a little bit, and I keep them all by the book.
Whereas in a game I will deliberatley check people as hard and as illegally as I can get away with I keep it clean in training, that's the main difference.

[Z12/AM]

you can't go easy, you have to put pressure on your offense, if you don't pressure them in practice, then in games, they won't be able to handle it

[UNCdefense]

ya, & not that im trying to brag but what if there is noone tougher?not syaing i am but what you siad is if i dont go hard they cant handle it in games, but if i go harder & stronger then other teams do in games then wouldnt i just be pointlessly hurting them?course then at the same time you can look at it as IF im the best & i go hard all the time then there will be no match up for them whereas if i let them slack, the match will be a bit harder or not quite as easy.....& to clarify here by practice i meant like for fun (hence it's just me & him practicing if you didnt catch that) in real practices i would definitley go A LOT harder simply excluding pointless rib checks & stuff, cause in practice whoever losses or embaresses themselves has to run & I AINT DOIN DAT

[GriffsDad]

ive bruised a kids rib in practice. i think that practice is a great oppurtunity to try to work very hard on footwork and fundamentals. try to not make pointless and painful checks(like we all do in practice). i try to make very tricky checks like lifting the bottom hand and trying to play d with ur body position only

but i get wut u r saying. its hard to draw the line. if ur playing for a spot on a team or anything, go all out all the time.its def a tricky situation.
It is usually the coach that will dictate how aggressive he wants the defense to play (or at least he should be). Now I agree with WIcked, work your positioning and footwork (more important than stick checks anyways) but throw checks if the attackman is getting lazy and showing his stick too much. I use this especially in high school.

The last thing any coach wants to see is a starting attackman showing up to the next practice in a cast. You can be just as aggressive on defense without a stick by constantly hand checking the offensive player. Then in a game, your teammate will be better equipped to avoid the defenders as opposed to being good at absorbing checks.

But it should be entirely up to the head coach, unless he's a goon.

[UNCdefense]

haha, just now noticed this...you dont need any pampering greg i think ill throw those pointless checks w/ u! :agree: :nahya: