Defensive questions

[kingwolf]

I'm a fairly new , i played around a season and a half and now that i have moved up to the A team i need to be more of a leader with my defense. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to defensive stuff what i need to know is when to tell my defense to slide and what other stuff should i be telling them besides yelling out all the data of the game

[EricL]

The basic ones are calling out where the ball is, CLEAR, BALL DOWN, MAN BALL, PASS TO GOALIE!"

You should always be yelling for your backup and if your defense is awesome they will always respond back =D for this I just yell - " WHERES MY BACKUP! "

Always tell you defense when they should push them out in the allyway - "PUSH THEM OUT THE BOX"

Fast break, when the offense is 4vs3, as soon as the mid passes the ball to one of the attack or you can anticipate this. - "GO" then "SLIDE" for the second pass

When ball is at x and your suspicious of a play turn around and watch the offense, if they are starting to move into their play yell - "CUTTERS!"

Whenever the opponent has the ball on offense I yell at the beginning - "MIDDIES CHECKUP NOW!"

I also point alot and talk such as "WHOS GOT NUMBER 41" (points at number 41)

The most important one is telling your defense because of screen "CLEAR CREASE"

Make sure your defense are talking too like. "I GOT YOUR BACKUP" or "IM HOT"

[TrapDoor]

Tell them to slide when a middie or attackman has or will have a good opportunity to shoot with no d on him especially, and make sure that you always go "Who's hot?" and "Who's two?" to keep your d ready for the slide. Since you said you're not very knowledgeable on this stuff, the hot slide is who slides to the ball carrier, and the 2 is who slides to where the hot slider was before he made the slide, usually opposite the ball carrier. Always call out where the ball is and whne the ball is down, especially if your d seems confused. You're team will go over d plays, and you will have to judge which to use in sitauations. For example, if a team runs a play where they get cuts or feeds in front of the goal or a 1-4-1 or something, you might want to run a zone to keep the other team at bay. Sometimes my d gets too aggressive behind the cage, and gets beat easily. I tell my d "Goal line" for this because the attacker can't shoot from behind the cage, my dman can't get beat, and my dman is put into a better position to hustle to a cutter/pass. Say "Drive" to have your d play physical and not give the offense a shooting opportunity. Telling a teammate to drop in or move out, that pretty much speaks for itself. You might say "Get on his right(or left)" to better position your defenseman. Saying "Check up" or "Numbers" will have your d mark their men and maybe yell their attackman's number, to make sure. I also yell "Bodies!" when there is a loose ball by the crease and attackers/middies in that area, to ward them off and get the gb/clear.

Edit: EricL covered most of the stuff you'll need.

[bplaxg33]

you might also want to tell your d-poles to sink on a fast break because if the stay out they will get back doored and you will be 1v1 or 2v2 and they will draw and dump far post or otherwise put you in a tough postion. however if they sink when the fast break starts they can set up into an I or triangle depending on if one D is playing the ball carrier or not

[cnyminder]

Always have them know were the ball is.Make sure they know how long in man downs and when you get a guy back.Also all the stuff that ercil, trapdoor,and bplaxg33 said.

[Lacrosse4life31]

every one basically said what im about to say, but just reinforcing i guess.

anyway, this one was only mentioned a few times, but make sure you tell your defensemen when you personally think that the attack/midfield are going to shoot.
so when you see a defenseman getting beat, yell SLIDE, which should tell another defenseman to ram that guy

Next one: this one is kind of difficult, depends what level you play on. If you play on JV teams and middle school, usually the players aren't expierenced enough to launch shots out by the restraining box, usually they will try and drive the crease, or take it to X and set up a play where an attackmen will "sneak" up and try to score right on the crease. On Varsity, players are better and will shoot around alot further out. Basically, when you see an attackmen/middy wind up and look like hes gonna take a shot: YELL SHOT! it will help your defensemen see that they need to hit this kid so he can't shoot.

I don't know if you use the Triangle on a fast break, but you have to alert your defensemen by saying: TRIANGLE FAST BREAK! and keep repeating so that they will do it! remember don't only say it once! i usually repeat it at least 3 times just so EVERYoNE hears it.

In my opinion, this is the most important (i play JV so the attackmen/middy's usually try and drive the net like i explained up above) if you see someone going to X make sure you yell your brains out: MAN AT X... MAN AT X!!! so the defense knows that someone needs to be "hot" and slide if the attackmen at X decides to sneak up. Oh, and don't just do it at X either, if the ball is for example on the right side, and your defensemen are caught up defending (lol) make sure you say MAN ON CREASE or WATCH MAN AT LEFT! just so maybe one of the defensive middy's will cover that.

When there are ground balls, make sure you yell GROUND BALL! AND for example: if the ball is on the right and two of your defensemen are in the scramble for the ball, make sure you have 1 long pole sitting on the crease near you just incase one of the opposing attackmen and middy's get it, you can have a slide ready. NEVER EVER have all 3 defensemen in a ground ball scramble UNLESS its in front of the crease or just by the crease in general. Then again, if all 3 are in the scramble around the crease, make sure you have one of your defensive middy's ready for a slide, and YES middy's should know how to slide.

Also, i don't know about your team, buy mine has a long pole middy that always goes out for face offs and when the ball is on our defensive end we take one middy out and put a long pole middy in. Those guys are VERY hepful. but what i just said up above about the ground balls, if all of your defensemen are in the scramble for the ball make sure the LPM has the slide just in case they get it.

Now, if the scramble is REALLY close to the crease, thats when you get involved, take your stick and just clamp the ball and hold it, the ref should then say "GOALIE BALL" then clear it.

Your head must be on a "swivel" if you know what i mean, you must watch for cutters (not the emo people===bad joke sorry) but you MUST have a loud voice! the goalie on the other side should be able to hear you! (yes very hard, but just gotta be loud!) if you are too quiet, then might as well not say anything at all.

make sure you and your defense know how each other plays, if you know that one of your defensemen are a bit slower then others, make sure he is ALWAYS on top of his man. Again, i don't know how your team plays, but we play man-on-defense, we don't play zone. (personally i think zone is dumb, i can see how it helps so there is no confusion when the attack are trying to make plays and all, but the again, your defensemen can always switch the guy that they are covering!)

Make sure you have a planned out clear with your defense. Remember YOU ONLY HAVE 4 SECONDS IN THE CREASE WITH THE BALL! my team has set up where the two wing defenders will run to GLE (goal line extended) and i will pass them the ball, they will either run it up or pass it up, if the middle is clear then i will walk it up WITH THEM! I don't know why, put im terrible at clearing the ball all the way down field... just doesn't work.

Make sure you defensemen can catch too, if one of them isn't too good at catching, pass to another one or make sure that if you do pass to him that it won't go out, i find it very embarassing to lose possessetion of the ball because a defender can't catch.

When the ball is behind the net in a ground ball scramble or one of your defenders has it, GO BEHIND THE NET and get it! make sure your defenders know that you are able to recieve a pass! just remember the 4 second rule, and if your time is winding down, run BEHIND THE NET out of the crease and try to look for an open man.

EDIT: oops forgot to say always always always call out where the ball is. for example: if the ball is top right yell BALL TOP RIGHT! and so on, if the ball is back left yell BALL BACK LEFT! or if the ball is side right YELL BALL SIDE RIGHT!!!

make sure you ARE VERY LOUD!!!! YEE HAWWW!!

Hope this helped, i have alot more to say, but i'll stop here hehe

[Lacrosse4life31]

MAN DOWN DEFENSE: Hopefully you use the "box it up" method on man downs. Have your big hitter defensemen near you, and have the faster defensemen up top. Make sure they know where the ball is and make sure you act like a rubber band at ALL TIMES!!! if you get a gap, then most likely the opposing team will take advantage of that. so basically make sure your defensemen know how to stay in the box formation, and it helps to have a middy that knows how to slide.. and slide hard...

hope this helped

[Lacrosse4life31]

you could ask your coach for help too.... have him set up plays that directly help you!
have six on six scrimmages, those work too.