Coaching 5th & 6th grade boys lax

[acamera]

Played HS, College and 10 years club. This is my 1st endeavor coaching. I was a D and Middi - D. I need some coaching techniques for man-man, slides, fast breaks, clears, poke vs. wrap...etc :banghead :cry

[JUSLAXIN]

Teach good fundamentals 1st . Stress the fundamentals everyday.

Slide from the crease it is much easier IMO for young kids.
L break again its easier.
Poke check (again good fundamentals) this is the easiest way to keep good body position. You get beat chasing a stick.

Clears teach one perfect it. Remember these are young kids. Your opponents are young too 90% of kids this age will gravitate to the ball beat them off the ball.

Defense is a bit of a crap shoot. Pick one work it to perfection. If you get one down use another. The key is the slide package you have to be consistent. Again I would slide from the crease. Slough down away from the ball. Slough off 2 or more passes away.

Just my 2 cents. I'm sure others will disagree but these things hve worked for me.

[Waynelax]

Make it slow and simple!

Teach cradling, scooping, passing and throwing, fundamentals etc.

Offense: Put an attackmen behind that the net every offensive drive. This wreaks havoc with opposing defenders at that age.

Defense: Teach them to poke check and harrass middies and atatckmen. Also teach body positioning. We do "man down" drills every practice to teach positioning on defense. Easier to play man then teach a complicated zone at this age!

Keep the players busy during practice. Don't do a drill involving 2 people while 20 watch!!

Remember. keep it simple! This is 10 & 11 year olds, not high school kids!:bye:agree

[SheepShank]

Passing, catching, cradling, and ground balls is an important skill for everyone to know no matter what position. Like waynelax said don't have two kids running the drill and twenty watch. Instead run a half field scrimage so this way you can practice man up, and man down for both offense and defensive, in a game like situation. Also with something very important for everyone but especially D is ground balls, and clears.

[pissedofflaxdud]

Follow the K.I.S.S. method. They are young, keep it to the basics - how to properly catch, throw, shoot, cradle, keep the stick in the box next to your head, put is simple o and d schemes.

I know you played, but teaching how to play is kind of odd at first...you have so much you want to teach because your level of knowledge is higher than theirs and your abilities dwarf theirs. IMO try using some of the info in Bob Scott's book to teach the fundamentals to kids and your library should have it. Another book from US lax is http://www.lacrosse.org/cgi-bin/uslstore/BCYL2.html.

Hope that helps.

[Thrillhouse]

The thing my coach did with us that really made use understand defense was playing without our sticks. Once you learn body position, everything just kind of clicks.

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by Thrillhouse
The thing my coach did with us that really made use understand defense was playing without our sticks. Once you learn body position, everything just kind of clicks.

Very true! We also do footwork drills as body positioing and footwork is the key for defense! We do "L's" Which is you run backwards for 10 yards and then run, side to side for another ten yards thus making an "L"! Make sure the defense do not cross their feet!! :agree

[CTLaxer]

Well, this is going to sound cheesy, but make a game out of every other drill/exercise you do. This will keep them all focused as well as it keeps their mind off of distracting things and before they even know it, they learned a defense while they thought they were just having fun.

Also, make them competitive. At that age, i've found that it's hard to punish or reprimand a bad action. It disheartens the kids really quick which just compounds your problems cause then they refuse to do anything and turn into little brats! When doing drills see who can get the most reps, or what group can get 5 goals doing proper technique first on a settled offense drill. Stuff like that, keeps it fun and competitive as well as keeps them focused and learning

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by CTLaxer
Well, this is going to sound cheesy, but make a game out of every other drill/exercise you do.

I agree! From Shooting contests to face-off contests to 4 on 3's, we also have ground ball relay races where we split up the team and put a bucket of balls in the middle of field for them to pick up!

Make everything a competition to keep them interested. And again, don't do a drill involving 2 people while 15 to 20 kids watch. They will wind up fighting with their sticks etc. real fast!:agree :bye

[spenny]

at any age making it a game steps up competition, my 13-14s yesterday were dogging it in 6-6 until we said 1 point for goals, 1 point for clears. that ramped up the level of play.

go here: http://www.uslacrosse.org/magazine/index.phtml
and check out kevin sheehans pdf towards teh bottom of the page. great stuff.

theres been a lot of good coaching stuff in lacrosse mag in the last year, i'd definately say becoming a member if worthwhile
i'd also do some reading at teh positive coaching alliance http://positivecoach.org/ theres a lot of psychology to coaching that i didnt realise when i was a player, this was a big help in effective ways to communicate with players, esecially youunger ones

[CTLaxer]

Another thing, and this is for any level, repitition is key. When you think you've done a drill enough times, do it more. Doing a drill or a play enough to where they finally get it is good, but they'll lose it within 10 minutes. Structure and repitition is a must at any level but especially at the younger level

[AXL]

"Offense: Put an attackmen behind that the net every offensive drive. This wreaks havoc with opposing defenders at that age."

LMAO. that was my position when i started playing lacrosse, 5th and 6th grade. all i did was chase the shots :p

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by AXL
"Offense: Put an attackmen behind that the net every offensive drive. This wreaks havoc with opposing defenders at that age."

LMAO. that was my position when i started playing lacrosse, 5th and 6th grade. all i did was chase the shots :p

I disagree!

First, if you chase shots, you are also maintaining possession of the ball....obviously a plus.

Secondly, we move the ball around well and our attackmen behind the net goes to the goal and gives goalies and defensemen fits because everyone converges on him and he either takes a shot or passes to an open man on the crease....this is common sense, no? If you kids can throw and catch then this works great!:agree :clap

[AXL]

ya but im just saying it was funny when i used to just sit there. all i would do was watch the game. i would occasionally get a pass, maybe like 3 times per game.

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by AXL
ya but im just saying it was funny when i used to just sit there. all i would do was watch the game. i would occasionally get a pass, maybe like 3 times per game.

We do move the ball around pretty decently for 10-11 yr. olds! But we have an 11-2 overall record and have really crushed some of our competition!:clap

[D4lax]

good luck

[endoftheline]

you should choose one goalie who is comfortable for being goalie the whole season. This will make a huge difference to the team.

[LAX-L-DER]

Just an offensive thought:

Have them make three passes in practice before they shoot. This really gets a lot of kids involved. You will notice a difference in ball movement.

[Frihed89]

After the fundamentals, teach position play. Buy that I mean, how to be at the right place at the right time to catch the ball and advance it, score, pick it up, cut off a man, etc. Call it "ball sense", whatever. Most have to pick this up instinctively, as it isn't taught. But having played as many years as you have, you must know what I mean. A person can have great stick skills, but if he doesn't know have a sense of position, he will spend a lot of time running around with and without the ball, accomplishing little.

Teach them to be agressive! How many players do you see who get the ball and burn up all their energy trying to run around the D. Teach them to cut back to the inside and to drive in on the D when they have the ball. And teach them to body check! There is no better check in the sport. If a guy puts his head down to pick up a ball, someone needs to be there to knock him into the stands. Same goes for hitting guys who are getting ready to catch the ball. Never let a guy catch the ball if you can knock him on *** first.

If you teach tme good basic skills, position play and agressive play, you'll develop much better players and the coaches up the line will thank you.