Face-off advantages?

[red9535]

I'm just curious, what are some ways to get the advantage on face offs? I've heard about trying to jump the whistle, but i dont really understand how your supposed to do this. Can someone explain it to me please?

Also, what are some other things i can do?
Please dont refer me to the faceoff tutorials, i've read them. Thanks!

[stinisonfire]

Well, the tutorials are going to be your best source of face off help; that's why they are the tutorials.

Pretty much the only advantages you can give yourself is to be faster than the other guy. Not faster than him? Then you better make sure you're stronger so you can barrel into him when he clamps faster than you.

More often than not, if you can get better body positioning than the guy you're facing off against, then you will have a better chance of winning. That's all I can throw at you.

[scruffy221]

use the jump move, it's so very great. and if you do it right it'll beat a good clamper.

[red9535]

Well, my clamp is very fast. At our game today, i won 13/14 faceoffs, and the one i lost was because one of our mids jumped the line. I did a clamp eveyr single time, and put it behind me and just scooped it. I cant realy do anything else though, just clamp really fast. Whats the best kind of positioning? I'l take any advantage i can get

[goalieskcickay]

I'm no FO guru, but the advice I've always heard is that you can sometimes get a jomp on the whistle because the ref is predictable...
i.e., the ref will tell you down, then immediantly whistle, or the ref will call down, then wait 2 seconds, then whistle, etc.
Also, this guy at a camp I went to who used to play LSM was telling us that you should see how observant the ref is, then jam is he's not very observant.

[WickedDpole21]

i dont face off or anything, but the key in the body position battle is to stay low.
different techniquies work for different ppl. i know a guy who does evry single move, a guy who just clamps and pulls it through his legs for our really really really fast middy to get, and everywhere in between.

[keenan]

I think this guy is looking for some of the cheats that faceoff guys use
the best ways to get an advantage is to line up as close to the ball as you can
as long as you dont touch the ball on the way down, or for NCAA rules there isnt a well defined neutral zone line, the refs will tell you to move back, they wont give you an illegal procedure, at least not the first time, and most of the time they aren't paying that close attention anyways
after going down some people try to turn their stick past the perpendicular mark
if clamping is your only move go for it but I dont like it becuase i have a few differnet things I do
as for jumping the whistle I dont really like to do that because if you mess up its so obvious, but somehting you can do on some refs is listen for them to breathe in hard
some refs have kind of squaky whistles, and after a few draws you can see if they do make a noise breathing in, and if they blow their whistle right after doing so
is they take a second you might have a sneaky ref who is going to change this up throughout the game but there aren't many who are that precise about their faceoff mechanics
I hope thats what you were looking for
also just a note in general don't go brag to your friends about how you cheated or whatever, cheating makes lacrosse worse
facing off is the one place in the game where your opponent can see exactly what you are doing and they have the chance to gain the same adavatage you do
in my opinion this is alot different than doing something like knowingly playing with a stick that traps the ball, where your oppenent who is playing by the rules is at a disadvatage

[stinisonfire]

i dont face off or anything, but the key in the body position battle is to stay low.
different techniquies work for different ppl. i know a guy who does evry single move, a guy who just clamps and pulls it through his legs for our really really really fast middy to get, and everywhere in between.

If you can't add anything new, stay out of the convo.

[TRELAX1201]

One thing I do when I face off is keep my hands off the ground. It helps you get a quicker jump on the ball. But be careful, some refs will check, so just slitly(sp?) lift your hands up about 1/2 inch. Sometimes, the extra second will be the difference in beating your opponent

[UNCdefense]

The whole thing with jumping the whistle is especiall from a wingmen's (LSM) point of view you can tell when the whistle's going to be blown...i'ts hard to explain & it's completely different for you guys because you're on the ground & probably focused on your opponent but refs normally take the same steps/wait the same amount of time to blow the whistle so not that I jump but I have an advantage because it's so easy to predict when they're gunna blow the whistle...You just lean your body forward almost to the point where you're about to fall so the second that whistles blown you're in a full out sprint....It's not that you're actually cheating I don't think...Just that youo're giving yourself an advantage

[MeTHLax18]

faceoffs is also mental.
if hes clamping do something that would beat the clamp
and change up your face off move so it keeps him guessing to what to do.

[WarriorLax14]

like everyone else is saying work on your fast clamp. have some blow a wistle and go down without playing agaisnt someone. then practice with someone there. a cool little trick if your getting beat everytime is to put your foot in the way of the rake. what i mean is the whistle will blow and the player wil clamp and start to rake. you brind up your right foot and get it under his stick. when he trys to rake it out it will hit your foot and you get the ball from there. :read:

[teamLI07]

i like to cheat i use the deflator, u basically grab hhis stick and pull

[the next 'one']

there are a lot of things you can do to get an advantage.

like some have already said, body positioning is a big thing in faceoffs. imagine in football, the big dummies that they push backwards, and sometimes the coach rides on those. the football players have to stay low and keep driving their legs in order to keep it moving. if the guy is faster than you on the clamps, and keeps winning because of his speed, you can skip the whole ball thing and just drive him back as if he were one of the football dummies. just make sure not to hit him in the face.

another thing is try to twist your butt into the other guy. usually it will get you in a better position, more so you are hovering over the ball. if the guy has a clamp, you can shove your foot under his back hand, and when he goes to sweep it out, he pulls the ball into your foot. from here you can do anything basically.

cheating is so easy in faceoffs because the average faceoff is less than second, and for a referee to see something minute and sneaky in that small of a time period, is very seldom heard. the most popular cheating move and probably your best bet at gaining an advantage is to take your middle and index fingers and jam them under the opponents top sidewall while you hop the ball. this is like an extenison that blocks his clamp and also pulls him back as you make more time and room for you to perform a hop move, from there you just pull back and scoop.

[UVAlaxer432]

I'm not sure what this move is called or if it is even a move i just use a lot and i win almost all of my face-offs so dont flame if its been said...

Ok, right when the ref blows the whistle calmp down as fast as you can,--if you dont clamp first this move is still workable but not as effective--then swing your right leg around so its is between both of the sticks (very important) and the other guys body so then he wont be able to see his stick to get the ball, and you go from there.

NOTE:If the other guy is a faster clamper than you forget the clamp and just swing your leg around adn try to get the ball.

Sorry if you dont understand its kinda hard to describe.

[holyschnikes101]

There is that guy that I believe Alex Smith talked about in an interview with IL, or maybe US lacrosse, who picked the ball up with his fingers really fast and pulled it out. Not exactly the smartest move.

[Diesel4958]

At a camp recently I was told you don't have to be faster, or stronger than your opponet just smarter. Then he showed us how to do the two finger, and plunger, and some other cool tricks. Jumping the whistle is all anticipating it and just going a little faster.

[RockStar]

Jumping the whistle works really well when you consistently have a referee that uses almost the same rhythm on every draw. (I'm one of these referees on occasion. I'm also a total jerk.....if I notice the same guy winning all the draws, I'll sometimes change my rhythm half a beat, and blow him if he's moving early).

There's a few I see doing my games where I know their tendencies. This lets me go a fraction of a second earlier than the other guy, but not too soon that I get called for going early.

[THALAX]

My advise is get good at a bunch of different faceoffs and mix it up, because there is basically a counter face-off move for all of them. And if you use the same one over and over again your opponent will wise up and use one of those counter face off moves.

[UNCdefense]

A way to cheat the face off is just to have great/determined wing middies...Just ask someone like Gbaschski how much of a difference it makes...He probably one every face off he took this season yet they never gained posession....Hmmm...puzzling?

[MIExLax]

i dont face off or anything, but the key in the body position battle is to stay low.
different techniquies work for different ppl. i know a guy who does evry single move, a guy who just clamps and pulls it through his legs for our really really really fast middy to get, and everywhere in between.

If you can't add anything new, stay out of the convo.

Actually he is right body position is key and staying low and pushing foward is often a good idea, like if you miss the clamp you and always put your head (stick) on top of the other guys and move foward while staying low (knock him on his @$$ w/ your sholders ) and take possesion (you have to do this tactfully(SP) and carefully so you don't get called for a penalty)

the only other thing is to work on faster hand-eye coordination...

it is totally not even worth trying to jump the ref... you'll get called on it and your coach will probably be pissed.

[RockStar]

.........

it is totally not even worth trying to jump the ref... you'll get called on it and your coach will probably be pissed.
You're kidding, right?

If you know the ref, and are careful, you can totally jump the ref.

[lancerlax3]

when i face off i just do a quick clamp, rake the ball through my legs, and scoop it myself. im small, and i win almost all my faceoffs. so in my opinion, its more about quickness than strength or size, so practice your moves and make them faster. when someone just tries to hit u over, just clamp and get as low as possible so your almost laying on the ground, then rake it wherever u want. one last thing, if your like me and u just put the ball behind u for yourself, somtimes the person will just go around u to get the ball. if that happens just push it forward for a fastbreak and they wont try it again

[MIExLax]

like everyone else is saying work on your fast clamp. have some blow a wistle and go down without playing agaisnt someone. then practice with someone there. a cool little trick if your getting beat everytime is to put your foot in the way of the rake. what i mean is the whistle will blow and the player wil clamp and start to rake. you brind up your right foot and get it under his stick. when he trys to rake it out it will hit your foot and you get the ball from there. :read:

Haha... THis really works... if every you loose the clamp immediately use your leg to lift the other guys stick...

good tip i always use this...

[GBaschski]

use the jump move, it's so very great. and if you do it right it'll beat a good clamper.


Not if the clamper is faster..

[GBaschski]

A way to cheat the face off is just to have great/determined wing middies...Just ask someone like Gbaschski how much of a difference it makes...He probably one every face off he took this season yet they never gained posession....Hmmm...puzzling?

Yeah, its very hard to win a 3v1 ground ball battle, so be sure that your wing middies know what they're doing. You can clamp before your opponent on every draw, but if your wing middies aren't competent, the other team is going to pick it up off the rake either way.
I went to a camp recently, and my team was able to pick up posession on almost every face-off because I would clamp the ball, and then I could rake it forward or behind at will. I just made sure to let my wing middies know which way I was going to rake the ball before each face. It worked really well and we made the other teams look stupid.

[laxplayz88]

i heard a trick to use its right b4 they blow the whistle blow ur nose kinda like a snort and they might jump and get called for a false start it worked on me for a few times. :read: