my defense sucked... help!

[corsair]

alright guys, being a goalie and having to coordinate my long stick defense (and pretty much being in charge of them at practice from now on) I need some help

in our last three games my d has been horrible
we're not playing much of a contact game
we're missing slides and jumps
we're getting destroyed on breaks
a lot of the guys have stopped stopping shots and are moving out of the way at the last second for some wonderful screens
we're playing worse than some first year teams

what can I do to help getting these guys moving again? I've talked as much as possible in our games and done all I can while on the field, how can we shape up in practice? we have a few games left and I'd like to keep our record in our favor

on edit i'm mostly referring to my long poles, they've lost their physicality, and some guys have sunk down to the point where they won't even land a poke check on attackmen

[shtbrkd00]

thats their will.. and they dont have the fight in them (wanting to win)
you have no control over that... its their problem

im surprised to hear that you have NO poles that hustle.. if you do, put them in. doesnt do any good to put in good players that dont try

[BigTony]

If you are really doing all that you say you are it is not your fault. Sounds they have just lost the will to play. Maybe you could talk to you coach about making some middies defensemen or if you are on varsity bring up some jv guys to try and scare then into shape.

[corsair]

alright thanks guys,
on my starting defense I have 1 pole that really does almost everything right and he's on the crease, I have one other guy who hits really well but always gets penalties with his stick work and doesn't move the ball up the field, the thrid guy used to be real physical but I guess he lost that spark this year. As for bringing the JV, most of them are pretty inexperianced and seem to be in the same boat as the other guys. There are a couple of middies who could play long stick, I'll talk to my coach at practice tomorrow.

[cbhslacrossemid]

tell ur d were the ball is at all times: top lest ,top right, bottom lest, bottom right etc... they tell them to use there body more than ur stick. it is tough though to get D back into the swing off things

[nuge44]

You need to light a fire on these guys. I would try converting someone on O who is not a starter but who is physical and hustles. Most times on D, people count on someone to lead them on the field. You need someone, who may not have as much talent as the three guys you’re working with, but twice as much heart and hustle, to lead by example. You also need to encourage them after a good hit or good hustle and have the goalie speak up while on the field as well.

Personally, I would probably take 3 D-men from JV or even freshmen who hustle and play with fire and start them in a game or two, just to show up your three starters now to get them motivated. Something needs to be done.

As for me, I played D throughout high school and various leagues and I always led the D with intensity and pride. Granted, there were a hell of a lot more guys on D who were better stick handlers then me, but I can honestly say, no one played D harder then me and no one tried harder to keep that ball out of the net from me.

* Try giving them a star or something else on their helmets for every ball they get hit with in front of the net or every bruise they can show you, make a game out of it....

[shtbrkd00]

i wanna know what happened, this is a really old thread. hows your team doin/did they do

[Spoon's]

I think what you should do is simply identify the problem, like if the midfeilders are getten burned or not covering there man on a man to man and leaving the defenders to cover 6 people, that can put alot of stress on a D, and sure as hell none of them are going to be able to handle a 6 on 3. If it is just because they have gotten lazy, next time your coach calls a time out just cus out the Defenders and make it sound like its all their fault in front of the whole team.. my goalie did that to me and it worked.

[corsair]

well guys we have a tourney next saturday that we host (Really post season I know) and we've had little or no turnout at practices, my best creaseman is going on vacation, and my coach kicked one guy off the team for not showing up at a game when we needed D

that game we should have won, we started off strong 4-1 but the mids fell out on us, the defense actually got it together but we were missing 2 poles out of 7 and played 4 of them for most of the game... in fact i don't think we scored more than 2 goals after the first quarter

that was about it for the season, i'm now having trouble getting these guys to show for practices but i guess with finals and school ending we've had more trouble getting more than 10 people to practice, let alone 6 longpoles

[LSMiddie]

Tell your coach to run loads of full-field passing drills, if that one guy is having a hard time clearing the ball.

Run lots of 2v1 drills before a game. That gets my D nice and pissed off.

[fungi27]

to improve practice attendance, get your coach to start a new rule: be at 4 practices a week or no playing in the next game (unless they talk to the coach about absence ex:vacation, injury, etc.)