stacking middie lines?

[The Doors]

do any of you guys have ur middie lines stacked in particular manner. This is what I mean

Line 1: All tremendous offensive threats....can easily score on about 60% of the posessions, but play absolutely terrible defense

Line 2: Absolute studs on defense, hardly ever give up goals... but lack luster on offense...maybe 1-2 goals a game come from this line

Line 3: A mix of both...1 lights out pure shooter, but cannot play D to save his life....and 1 ex-lineman who plays the best D ive ever seen, but can barely scoop/cradle/throw

Is there a better way to set up the lines??? Its very difficult to discern the "best" players cuz everyone has very specific talents....

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[spenny]

you dont say what level you coach, and that make a difference. I coach U15.

i try to balance my midlines as much as i can, so each line cancompete reasonably. I dont do the o-mid, d-mid thing, sometimes i will pull a mid off and put on a LSM if i have a pole that can handle the ball well. i do however have a line with my best 6 players that gets used for EMO.

if you segregate the players the way you say, you may hamper their ability to improve thier weak areas.

[WHEELAX2]

I think you have to see what players play well with eachother.. and work from there..

[The Doors]

its just club ball at U16...but its really competitive. At practice, they all the lines work well and are good at what they do. And its not like the 1s never play D and the 2s never play O... cuz that would be ideal....but its almost playoff season and im scared that if i change now then they will lay a complete egg

[spenny]

you can always change back.

[CTLaxer]

I believe that having the most even lines possible is the best solution. There is nothing better than watching a team with all star 1st line middies come off for a shift change and having horrible 2nd and 3rd liners come out. If you can have a balanced 2-3 lines, you'll be better off in the long run, especially playing against a team described above.

[SachemsGoalie40]

so out of those 6 middies take the best offensive guy and put him with 2 of the 3 defensive middies and take your best defensive middie and put him with 2 offensive middies that way they will improve by playing with better players on both sides

[UCANCALLMEGOD]

dont worry about your third line if it is even, but try to get a more even first line, as a dpole i hate a middie who cannot stick to his man, because that makes me have to slide because the middie gets beat or have to watch 2 people because the middie cant find his man or cant play defense

[Torque42]

No, the amazingly good offese players play attack, and the all around best middies are on the first line and so on and so forfth

[CHSlax]

on our lines our players who can play offense are fine a really good a D so it works plus me and a senior who unfortunatly i will not have as my road dog next year just really never came out so it was basically just us playing together.

[viking goalie]

my coach puts one middie from each of the three styles, O mid/D mid/transition, on the same line. he also works it out to each ine having a face off guy becasue we dont have a fogo. Our lines have an O middie, D middie, and transition middie. we mix it up a little if the guys dont play to well with each other on the field.

[DO IT BIG]

this is coming from a player not a coach, but as coaches do you try to keep the same three guys together on a line? and do you think that would help the players be better on the field?

[tall_chris]

We have tried different approaches. One time we took our three best players and split them into three different lines. Sometimes it just takes someone with confidence on a line to make the other two step up.

I think it doesnt matter what line somone is on. In a perfect world, I can put 12 middies in a hat and get four great lines.

The big thing is to be aware of your own lines vs the other teams lines. Never put our #4 against their #1, etc.

Other times we just changed our rotation. 1,2,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,1,2,3 etc. Granted it depends on the fatigue factor so its more of a play around and see what works best. Dont be afraid to rotate!

[EastCoastDeft]

then put the kids who cant play offense to save there life on D take the most offensive dmen on mid so u have a good chemistry

[CoachK]

this is coming from a player not a coach, but as coaches do you try to keep the same three guys together on a line? and do you think that would help the players be better on the field?

When you have the numbers do so, keeping your lines together in practice/games works great. In real life, most of the time it isn't feasible to do so. A player may get stuck on the field in transition and be too tired to join their line on offense the next trip down among other things.

We've decided to keep our 1st & 2nd Line Middies together in practice for 30 minutes just working together. If we're doing 3v2 GB's, each one of those teams is a line, 6v6, we're challenging them against each other. I disagree with a lot of this balance talk for lines on here, I really do believe that it's up to your individual personel.

When I first started coaching college I had 2 phenominal middies, each averaged just under 3 ppg when I started. They were the same player, both could drive, dump, shoot & were great in between the lines (ideal middies). Both on the same line weakened our 2nd so I split them. Besides, you don't always need two guys driving on the same line. The split upped their production to just under 5 ppg. In the necessary situations (when we didn't put a team away) I've have them both out there after the time out and drive with the best matchup.

My team doesn't have that kind of luxury now, we had to find balance and have gone to pure specialization (5 offensive middies & 4 defensive). There aren't many clear and concise rules for lines guys, they change constantly to matchup against the other teams lines or to take advantage of mismatch in your favor.