Take-away checks

[Nj.kingston]

My club in the UK has just moved from 1 - 2 teams. This means that everyone has to fight for a place in the 1st team and find something to make them stand out from the crown.

Here is part of an email i have had from our coach "If you're looking for something extra to make you stand out. We don't have a take-away artist in the club. Defence is an art form, try and learn the take-away checks. These are timing checks rather than 1 big kayak, set your man up and take the ball off him... if you can do this and play your normal solid D, and get fitter, we'll struggle to leave you out." Do any of you know of any articals or even better video clips on line about D men throwing take-away checks that I can study?

Please post links.

[UNCdefense]

If you have ESPN just watch the games & pay clsoe attention...If oyu're lucky you'll have live Tvo or whatever to where you acn rewind & stuff....I've been seeing a lot of well placed kayaks in the MLL lately (more so then the past) & that's what I do. I wish there was like an entire defense lacrosse montage or something on the web but I've never found any such thing & I've been looking ofr quite sometime

edit:along w/ the practice comment if you're doing one that you're not used to/feels kind of awkward walk through it w/ a friend & have them go ahead & set u up for it so to say then after u've gotten the actual check motion down you can do the reverse & set them up for it

[pantherLax]

http://insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?PageRID=14

near the lower middle area of the page

[tiplax]

^^what they gave has good advice, but what you really have to do is play. You have to have the instinct and the feeling of when to take away check. Get a friend or set up a scrimmage and practice

[spenny]

just remember that take away checks are high risk checks, almost all of them will leave you out of position if you miss.

[BuckWyld]

I don't think takeaway checks don't have to be high risk, I get 95% of my take aways with pokes and slaps, like your coach said the key is timing.

[spenny]

poke and slap arent really take away checks they are nuisance checks that get players out of rhythm which makes them make mistakes. (which is why they are such great checks) i was talking about more classic take away checks like the kayak or rusty gate. they will take you out of position.

i tell my players to stick to the classics, poke, slap, lift.

[BuckWyld]

From the quoted text in the original post, the coach seems to be talking about something closer to what I was saying


Defence is an art form, try and learn the take-away checks. These are timing checks rather than 1 big kayak, set your man up and take the ball off him


no one can protect all of the stick all of the time, you just need to make him hang the right part at the right time. I like throwing a bunch of poke checks in front of the guy, and get him in to a rhythem then throw one behind. If I get stick I can usually knock it out of their hands and if you miss, alot of times you still end up with your stick inbetween their stick and their body and you can rip up and out, up and in can be fun too. Another way I am sucessful is when someone is getting close push them out to knock them off balance and get a quick slap in.

[lax4life6]

ding dongs are great. i played attack this year and our middies didnt know what they were doing so half the time i would have to cover a middie. just fake like youre gonna go behind the other guys back then bring your stick down right in front of him.

[UNCdefense]

ding dongs are great. i played attack this year and our middies didnt know what they were doing so half the time i would have to cover a middie. just fake like youre gonna go behind the other guys back then bring your stick down right in front of him.

A CLASSIC!however, it doesn't work often because players learn that if they just one hand cardle parallel to their body then you have no aim for the coming back down motion & you have to start selling the behind the back part more by maybe even letting them get a step on you....I used this 3 or 4 times in a scrimmage yesterday though & it is a great check..the biggest thing is just harrasment...I was talking to Gbaschski the other day & he was remanising on a defender from his school, Pat Mulholland, that got recruited to West Point...He said the worst part about this guy was the second you had the ball he was harrassing you w/ quick accurate checks. It took all you had to just to keep from being stripped, going to the goal wasn't even an option....Work on some of the take-away checks but at the same time just make sure you put loads of pressure on whoever your guarding & that should get you starting position

[Nj.kingston]

Thanks for the comments guys. keep them coming.

[DJ Death]

The tick tock isn't bad either. There's a video on IL that shows what it is. It's when you time your checks with your opponent's cradle so you make contact when your opponent's stick is furthest away from his body.