Formation offense

[WezAlmighty]

Ok, couple of questions.

Our team lacks any kind of formation when in offense. I've heard all about the 2-3-1's and so forth but not sure how to use them. I'm looking at a 2-3-1 formation because it seems kind of sound. 1 guy at X, 1 man at crease, 2 men just above GLE, and 2 up top.

1) When does the team get into formation? When the ball is being passed round the outside?

2) How essential is the crease attackman to a good formation, could we run one without him?
I ask this because I'm not 100% sure exactly what to do with a creaseman.

3) Does he stay in the goalies face all game or only sometimes? how far away from crease is he allowed to stray?

4) Should there ALWAYS be a player behind goal?

There'll probabily be more questions to follow, let me know what you think.
Wez

[WHEELAX2]

1) the team gets into the "formation" when the ball is settled
2) the creaseman is there to clog up the middle and he is usually a very vital part of the offense.. he is always moving as the ball moves. he disrupts slide packages, and is probably the 2nd or 3rd most important guy in the offense... gone are the days when you just stick a guy on the crease and forget about him..
3) he can't technically "stay in the goalie's face"... it's actually a penalty in men's field lax (correct me if I'm wrong)... here again, he should be moving at all times.. when the ball is high to the left, he should be low to the right.. always opposite the ball, and moving toward the ball carrier when looking for a feed.
4) yes, there should always be a player behind the goal.. number 1 reason: to retain posession if the ball is shot, and misses the goal.. you need back-up..

a key to any offense is to stay spread out, and work the ball around..

[WezAlmighty]

So the creaseman hangs around the crease to recieve the ball and dunk it?

I'm just wondering how I can explain the creaseman position to the other captain, because he seems determined that man at X and the creaseman are the same position.

How do I go about teaching a player how to play crease?

[WHEELAX2]

So the creaseman hangs around the crease to recieve the ball and dunk it?

I'm just wondering how I can explain the creaseman position to the other captain, because he seems determined that man at X and the creaseman are the same position.

How do I go about teaching a player how to play crease?


essentially, yes... but that's just a very basic way to describe the position..

the X guy is generally the guy with the best feeding skills... he should almost always be behind the goal..


to keep it simple.. I would suggest that the crease guy should be opposite the ball most of the time as it moves around the perimeter... that is if you have more of a dodging offense than a passing offense.. you want to make sure he isn't allowing his defender to slide early to the guy who is dodging

[WezAlmighty]

Our team seems to lack the confidence to dodge but thats something we can work on.


to keep it simple.. I would suggest that the crease guy should be opposite the ball most of the time as it moves around the perimeter... that is if you have more of a dodging offense than a passing offense.. you want to make sure he isn't allowing his defender to slide early to the guy who is dodging

How would he stop his defender sliding early? By putting himself in a position to recieve the ball and shoot if left alone? Or literally making it difficult for the Dman to slide?


Ok, so we'll get a guy at X and a creaseman. Then 2 above GLE and 2 up top. the 4 players facing goal, they're all shooters? Or is it better to put players who can dodge somewhere up there?

[WHEELAX2]

he would prevent his defender from being in a good position to slide.. he would be far enough away from the ball that it would be a long slide for his man.. that's generally when the crease man scores the most.. when his defender is sliding.. if he is closer to the ball, his defender doesn't have to move very far (if at all) to help double the ball..

generally your two wing men are your best shooters and your top two guys are generally your best dodgers..

[faceofflax15]

There should always be a man behind crease. Snagging ground balls, Missed shots good place to feed.
Not having a man at crease isn't the best idea but the next best thing would be a 2-2-2....2-3-1 seems to be a great offense, We use it.

[Swishy K]

The creaseman should also be in the rotation for when the middies iso. I like to keep the two triangle approach between the attack and middies where there's movement to create space and fill in to keep the triangle more or less intact unless it's a switch into a different formation.

So if the top left middie dodges, the top right middie drifts over slowly to the top left and the creaseman moves high towards the top right, but is also looking for the pop out pass if his defender has to slide. You don't need specific plays that way but rather the "formation" and movement allows for creativity looking for an opening. But you could also have a midfield swwep from it where if the top left middie is the strong one on one player the top right and creaseman both clear through towards the left to open space for the top left middies to go one on one towards the right and beat his check down the middle. If a slide comes from the crease he can dump off to an attack around the GLE.

And if the middies can't get it to work, drop it down to one of the attack and then look to cut for a give and go backdoor pass. If that's not there, the attack then work the same triangle, rotating to create space and fill in space as they try to go one on one. And of course this doesn't even address what a good feeder can do from behind the goal when the other players are cutting, rotating, and switching.

I find this is simple for players to grasp. The attack and middies simply have to know how to stay more or less within their respective triangles and keep the motion going, all the while looking to take advantage of an opening when it's there. Patience, ball movement, and motion.

[laxlover8]

The creaseman should also be in the rotation for when the middies iso. I like to keep the two triangle approach between the attack and middies where there's movement to create space and fill in to keep the triangle more or less intact unless it's a switch into a different formation.

So if the top left middie dodges, the top right middie drifts over slowly to the top left and the creaseman moves high towards the top right, but is also looking for the pop out pass if his defender has to slide. You don't need specific plays that way but rather the "formation" and movement allows for creativity looking for an opening. But you could also have a midfield swwep from it where if the top left middie is the strong one on one player the top right and creaseman both clear through towards the left to open space for the top left middies to go one on one towards the right and beat his check down the middle. If a slide comes from the crease he can dump off to an attack around the GLE.

And if the middies can't get it to work, drop it down to one of the attack and then look to cut for a give and go backdoor pass. If that's not there, the attack then work the same triangle, rotating to create space and fill in space as they try to go one on one. And of course this doesn't even address what a good feeder can do from behind the goal when the other players are cutting, rotating, and switching.

I find this is simple for players to grasp. The attack and middies simply have to know how to stay more or less within their respective triangles and keep the motion going, all the while looking to take advantage of an opening when it's there. Patience, ball movement, and motion.

Basically there are 2 triangle rotation, but how should the team arrange those two triangle?
1. For the attack triangle, two x men plus one Crease or one X man plus two wing attack is better? If we use the latter format, wouldn't the right wing attack has to travel alot to get to the left wing position if the rotation is going to work?
2. The same question for the middle triangle?
3. your strategy is one triangle movs while the other stand still? Cannot be the case that two triangles are moving?

[Swishy K]

Sorry if I was a little vague. It's hard to get detailed with trying to keep the message a reasonble length.

The attack triangle has one at X, with two on the wing, pretty much about GLE. No, it's not far at all for an attack to move from across from one side to the other. The key is to make sure you can drag your defender with you from one space to the other. Most defenders get comfortable being in "their spot" and if you can pull them away from that zone it's an advantage. And nothing will get a defenders attention to you more than driving to goal across the front. Unless they play a zone he will follow you, or should.

The midfield triangle has two up high with one in the middle. Basicly a mirror image of the attack triangle.

Yes, it's best if there's constant movement from all players. But if a high middie can dodge his man, even if the two wing attack aren't moving, one of their defenders has to slide and the middie can dish off the pass to one of them sneaking in closer to the goal.

It's explained better in a couple of articles by Kevin Sheehan at youthlacrosseusa.com. Scroll down the main page until you see the articles "finding space". It will explain the basics clearer than me, and then you can adapt it to suit yourself.

[handbag3]

Both triangles should be rotating, the dodging triangle away from the ball (either from x or up top) and the opposite triangle moves the other way.

e.g. If a middie was dodging from up top on a right handed sweep then

the middie on crease would come high to where the dodger started and the other middie would cut to the crease to create an arc to dodge into.

At the same time the left handed attacker playing to the dodgers right would run across the goal creating more space to dodge into. The attacker at x would run wide to GLE (closer to the dodger) to provide an outlet pass if necessary.

The real benefit of moving the middie from crease up and the left handed attacker across the goal is that it confuses the crease and adjacent slide packages

Hope that kind of makes sense!

[Bobsch]

Look at the second article by Kevin Sheehan here: http://amityyouthlacrosse.org/Page.asp?id=14722&org=AMITYYOUTHLACROSSE.ORG

It explains the 2-3-1 motion offense very well.

Another way to use the 2-3-1 is to have the creaseman pick diagonally from the ball. We use the motion offense so far and will add the picks later (all but four of us on my team are beginners, so we're focusing on just one offense to start with....my last team used 2-3-1 with motion and with diagonal picks, plus the 2-2-2).

[laxstarr99]

dude 3-2-1 or a 2-3-1 2-2-2 its called a revolution offense you pass and cut alot not very organized but trust me it works arizona starz 15-0

[laxlover8]

Personally I am not in favor of a creaseman offence.

First, as the creasemen has to moving constantly to keep himself away the ball, his D man just put 120% attention to him, WHEN the sliding package is an Adj. slide but not crease slide. The crease D actually will not leave the creaseman, and therefore that creaseman hard have a time to receive the ball (not to say to shoot when his D men slides)

Second, as he has to move constantly to keep away from the ball, for example, when the left top have the ball, he has to move to bottom right, and when the ball passes to another player, he has to move correspondly. so the problem is, he is just running and running, and does not offer any help to the offence, it seems he is wasting his energy.

Third, I think it is more feasble to employ those roatating triangle with creaseman. It is better than just making one of your play be creaseman.

Forth, a creaseman always keep the area in front of the goal crowed. my teammates just complain to the creaseman for he stops other players from cutting and receiving the feeds.

May be this is my bias, but once I did believe a creaseman is important for the pffence. But I have played this position for a while, and so do my teammates, we observed that REMOVING creaseman away makes the offence more Successful. If all my puzzles are to be solved, I am willing to become a creaseman again.

[BDLAX]

Does anyone have any practice drills to help emphasize a motion offense?

[jimd619]

If one asks for advice on a motion offense, I highly recommend investing $35 and taking the US Lacrosse online Coaches Level 1 course. Covers how to play and how to coach the basics, including the motion offense. There are many ways to explain, and for many, teaching rotation from a 2-3-1 or 2-2-2 formation is a great way. Here is another way. If someone moves, whether with the ball or off-ball, it creates space. Someone should then find a way to use that space. EG, if I am in 2-3-1 and have the ball as an outside middie, and the other middie clears through I have space to drive in, filling up where he was. As I move to that space I am leaving a space. Someone should fill in. Really does not matter who, because as space is opened up and space is used, eventually the defenseman will watch the ball a second long and we have someone open.

Conversely, if I have the ball and start to drive to initiate movement, I leave space and I might succeed in causing a defenseman to slide on me. Two good things occur. Someone filling in the space I left could be open for a feed. Or when that defensive player slides to help stop me, he is leaving someone open. Either way, someone to pass to. Called Drive and Dump. It is the essence of lacrosse. Triangles are a great way to organize this motion. But not the only way. Basically, if an offensive player is close to the ball, clear out and pick for someone further away. YOu want always to cut toward the ball to get a feed and catch the ball when in front of the crease. So let's say I drive from the top. The man on the crease should clear at least to the far side of the goal. Or he could pick for a far winger who is then filling in the open space in front of the goal. That means the driver can shoot, or might find the charging wingman for a feed.

[NorthernViking]

Try this website. It provide some good visual information of motion offense.

www.kudda.com

[whlaxman]

Thanks Very HElpful