Defensive drills

[Woody]

Does anyone know any good Defensive drills I want my Def to practice and expand their checking range, also anything to improve their team (work) Def (this is a new unit).

Thanks

[Longest]

Make them play defense in drills without sticks or make them play with just a shaft, no head. This will force them to use their footwork more than their stick to play. Beyond that, just do varied drills, 6 on 5, 5 on 4, etc. Don't just go half field scrimmage all the time. And encourage them to work on 1 on 1's on their own outside of practice. It's good for both the attackman and the defender, usually half-speed works great. They can both work on positioning and mechanics and less on just beating each other.

Dan

[Woody]

Thanks man!

[LAX-L-DER]

Drill: Have an attackman face you and split dodge you all the way down the field. While he is split dodging you, practice swiveling your hips and running with him. when he splits then you will practice the drop step. It's like a cornerback covering a wide receiver drill.
Not only does this drill help the D, the attackman practice dodges.

[Waynelax]

Originally posted by Longest
Make them play defense in drills without sticks or make them play with just a shaft, no head. This will force them to use their footwork more than their stick to play.
Dan

Good stuff dude! I likethe shaft without heads idea alot!!! I coach younger kids and these guys love to slash at your arm pads all day long! They have to learn to use their feet and push off (w/o a head on their shafts)

Great thought, bro!:agree :bye :clap

[longpole3661]

IF u have two or three coaches give each coach a peice of paper that says hopw many players to send out one coach sends out the poles/d middes one sends out the attackmen/rest of middies this is good for talking unsetled situations and hgelps build team deffense

[Newt]

Using shafts without heads to get players to focus on their footwork and body position rather than throwing check after check with their stick is a great idea. I hope that everyone understands that you don't use a regular shaft when running the drill. The common practice is to use a "nub", a shortened piece of shaft,(a foot long), with a butt cap on each end. Dom Starsia at UVA takes it a step further by attaching the head of the stick to the foot long nub. The idea behind it is that you still teach your players to use footwork and body position first by having the shortened stick, but still allow them to explode after loose balls and push transition by having the head of the stick on the nub. For youth players, it also gets them to get very low on ground balls with the extremely short stick. We used them with 8 and 9 year olds last season and their position defense and ground balls improved tremendously.

[TheKOB]

We just adjust to it gradually. Once they start looking good with body positioning, then they get their sticks back and play body position first, and checking second.

[CTLaxer]

Using shafts without heads is a pain in the a$$ and just stupid, unless everyone has extra butt ends to put on the top. It's dangerous to play with no head on your shaft without butt ends in it cause you either cut the crap out of whoever you're checking, or if you flip the stick around you chew up your gloves and ruin the palms. Just have your guys flip their sticks and use them upside down with the head on. Not only is there a safety issue, constantly removing and then replacing heads has a tendancy to cause problems. Screws get stripped, shaft holes become enlarged, players forget to replace the heads before games and forget their screw or head, any number of problems can arise....

[laxkevin105]

variety of foot drills...examlpe jump rope

[Havernaf]

Wow... ctlaxer the idea behind this is that the coach has a stockpile of "nubs" that he has accumulated. During practice he takes away the defensemans stick and supplies the nub instead, this nub having a butt end on each end... using a stick without a head isnt the point of the drill, its using and extremely short stick (1 foot) so you cannot do stupid checks, or any checks for that matter, so flipping the stick around would defeat the purpose. It teaches defense men to rely on body positioning rather tha stick checks.

[CTLaxer]

Actually, it doesn't defeat the purpose...and I don't know about your coaches, but none of mine had any "nubs" whatever the hell those are, and I myself as a coach sure don't have any. If you want to work on footwork, don't use stick at all. If you want some drills that work up from footwork to stick checks and body positioning go from no sticks, to short sticks, to long poles upside down, to long poles used normally.... Perhaps they do things differently in Georgia, but that's how the rest of the country does things.

[Havernaf]

haha, way to bring regions into it. but however using a short stick is the same idea, just a nub is shorter. the point is that kids are stubborn and will continue to throw checks, so you give them a stick that they cannot throw a check with but stil have something that resembles a lacrosse stick.
and i hate to get off topic but in reply to your last comment, i played high school in NOVA, and college at limestone and every single one of my coaches has used the nub theory, so id say its pretty hard to argue against, especially when you throw in the fact that desko up in SU uses them and so does starsia at UVA, cerino at W&L, haus at UNC, petro at Hopkins. never once have i ever heard of playing with your stick upside down so no its not how the rest of the country does things.

[Stans]

Individual Defense

15 in 15 - pair up players (stationary)
-One on Offense w/ ball Right, then Left handed
-Other does checks for 15 seconds
-"D" works on speed of checks & change of rhythm
***Need to force the "O" man to think about next check and not determine a rhythm
***OFF hand poke
-Right on Right is different from Right on Left due to different issues and angles
Perform 15 on Rt on Rt & 15 on rt on Lt.

Next: Go down the line (20 yds) working checks (poke-slap-ding/dong) & reverse
-Dummy "O" (defenseman) w/out ball
-then switch

Next: Perform w/ "O" (defenseman) swinging stick
-you might only get two checks in BUT they'll be more meaningful

NOTE: Look at the Offensive player & pay attention to what he's doing in order to set up your checks.

Next: Put "O" & "D" in a ten yard box
-"O" must protect stick
-"D" tries to take away

Next: "In the Shute"… (Alley)
-Offense vs. Defense and vice versa in the Alley to the restraining line
-use the side line to "Pinch" opponent out of bounds
***Body Position… Stay Low
If you leave the ground by leaping or jumping you're worthless to your team

Team Defense Tenets

"You Can Hardly Slide Too Early, But You Can Easily Slide Too Late"

Use athletic ability to apply pressure -pressure on the perimeter

Defense is built on the premise that the defenseman playing the ball is going to get beat

As a team, we need people who are looking to help and slide

Divide the field in half… (both front and rear) so that we can anticipate where the dodger is going

Anticipate that the Middie will get beat and help ASAP

ALWAYS play "Ball Side / Inside"

CALLS:

Said By Goalie…Red - use w/ a bad mismatch (SS/short stick) i.e. whenever a SS is the defender on the ball break your neck and get ready to help.

Said By Sliding Defenseman…Find One - Original Defenseman on ball carrier recovers after slide and goes to the far side of the crease to find the open man.

Said By Sliding Defenseman…Stay - Original Defenseman on ball carrier does not recover, but STAYS on the ball carrier since the Sliding Defenseman didn't fully slide (dummy).

[spenny]

nubs, shorties, chucks. whatever you call them, they are sticks cut down to 18-20 inches. keeps the players from grabbing one another (at least at my level) i cut down 2 old D poles, and this season put heads on them, that way the d can still knock down passes across the middle and force the O to work on their ride.

i used them at both of the HS i went to and in college, so i dont think they are from planet 12 as CT laxer suggests.

Stans, great list of drills, thanks.

spenny

[TheKOB]

I'd give 'em somthing a bit longer so they weren't always going with their fists right together. That's not the correct way to do it unless you don't want them throwing checks either. Probably (for defense) a middie stick would be good. Long enough to slide hands back and forth, and short enough so that not many defense would be tempted to throw a check with it (I don't think I even know how....)

[CTLaxer]

Well, they wern't used at any of the northeast high schools around where I'm from. And I haven't seen them at the college level here either. I've never seen or heard of them before. Oh well.

[Stans]

as a teaching tool has been around for many years at every level. While not practiced universally, you can be assured that its use can be considered "widespread". Obviously, you've had coaches that may have felt a need to address/stress other areas. A person's unfamiliarity/inexperience with a concept or idea doesn't warrant that it should be discounted or dismissed...much less ridiculed.

[CTLaxer]

At what point did I discount, dismiss, or ridicule? I simply said perhaps they do things differently where he's from. To which a number of you stated that you know of these "nubs".

[exile lacrosse]

back on track, if you want to get people to talk on d what u do is have all the d and golie lay down in front of the cage, face down. have the attack and middies set up like normal. give an attack or middie the ball. then blow the wistle. at the whistle blow the d and golie get up and not only do they have to find a man, they have to find the ball. this really helps comunication, especially with the golie

[Stans]

that sounds like a very neat device and I'll give it a try.

[LeeBob802]

.02 cents: For footwork, I had our D-men play without a stick in hand. I saw them play with arms outstretched, as if playing D in basketball, and I did not care for it. I tried nubs, and prefer the handwork compared to no sticks, however, I saw hands dropped, and our D was not honoring the passing lanes. I tried short sticks, and found they worked best for what I was looking for, namely, body position, footwork, handwork, and stick position. The drill also looked more like lacrosse, and I agree with a mentor to practice the way you play.

[BlueJaysDpole]

have your defenders practice the V drill! if your right handed have your left hand down below and then hve your right haand in the middle.....make sure that the left elbow is out so it creates a V........this is so the deffenders can hold the player by hitting the crap out of them and also if the player tries to roll off to the left side then your elbow is out and you push so that the player cant get around you!

[ral]

Using shafts without heads is a pain in the a$$ and just stupid, unless everyone has extra butt ends to put on the top. It's dangerous to play with no head on your shaft without butt ends in it cause you either cut the crap out of whoever you're checking, or if you flip the stick around you chew up your gloves and ruin the palms. Just have your guys flip their sticks and use them upside down with the head on. Not only is there a safety issue, constantly removing and then replacing heads has a tendancy to cause problems. Screws get stripped, shaft holes become enlarged, players forget to replace the heads before games and forget their screw or head, any number of problems can arise....
To get lots of the shorter sticks I collect the unwanted broken sticks which enevitably happen and cover the none butt end with a bottle cap ( after cutting the jagged edge off ) or even better a tennis ball. As a coach you always have to carry lots of stuff around I just add 6-7 shorties to the pile.

[Mike G]

Great suggestion-will let u know how it works out...

[ques]

The reason for short sticks is to force players to use their feet but with the shorts sticks you as a coach can still see that they are holding their hands like the would if they had a stick in them. I made a bunch of them out of 1/2 electicial emt pipe and some rubber cups that go on chair legs.

[live2coachlax]

I coach in the north east and I put old tennis balls on the ends of some old shafts. It does work and it has been used for a long time. Remember we are on this site to learn and share. Keep an open mind and give it a try! It works!!

[bobcobb]

I don't have a pile of end butts or knobs, but I had access to a number of old tennis balls. They work great. I also use old shafts and cut down bent or broken D shafts. THe whole set up is real cheap.

[laxer68]

YA give them short poles and make them use there bodys so they dont have to rely on the sticks all the time and work outs sprints stuff like that