5 Drills Matt Dunn is Using This Season

Happy Sunday, Coach.

Welcome back to FCL’s Coaches Corner. Our quote of the day is…

Let’s rock,

Matt Dunn & Deemer Class

(Missed the last Coaches Corner? Catch up here.) 

Today’s Quick Links for Coaches:

• 🔒️ Defensive Coaching Clinic: The Approach Women’s (Link)

• 🎧 FCL Podcast: Stop Drilling Moves, Start Drilling Decisions with Gold Medal Shot Selection (Link)

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind over Muscle (Link)

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: Deemer Class Freebie - MIM Finishing

🤓 The Principles Office
5 Drills That Matt Dunn Will Be Using This Season

Today we’re pulling back the curtain on five drills I (Matt) will be running regularly in practice this season.

I’ve used these the past few years since we’ve launched our online coach community.

They really serve more as drill frameworks than just cookie cutter drills. I tend to take the drill structures below and take them for what I think we need.

I’ll do my best to share some ideas on how you can utilize the drills in different ways to solve your needs.

While the examples here are for men’s players, you can use all of these drills for women’s defense as well.

And remember… if you’re drills aren’t showing up in game film, you’re doing the wrong drills. Use that as your north star to reverse engineer what you need.

I/ 3 Man Weave Pick Play - Jordan Stevens

If you need a pick play drill, start here. 3 man weave pick play is a basic framework for repping picks of all scenarios.

You can use it on the wings for up picks and down picks. Below GLE for razors or picks between the hashes. Or really for any type of picks you want to practice.

I’ve used this basic framework in 20+ different styles to intentionally focus on what we need that day.

Drill Notes

• Set up: 3 lines any where on the field. Ball starts in the middle. The offensive players continuously pass and pick in a 3 man weave fashion. The drill starts and ends with the coach’s whistle.

• Rotations: Offense → Defense → Out.

• Optional constraints: no switching, must jump the 4th (or any) pick, must play picks with a certain style (over/under/chip, etc), only one player can communicate, allow moving picks.

• Coaching the defense: defenders play the ball first — encourage offensive players to refuse the picks. Can encourage slips and fly-by’s as well to keep the defense honest.

• Coaching the “offense”: stay spread out (they will creep in), don’t bring the pick all the way to the dodger (dodger runs off the picker), moving picks are allowed, if they drop the ball have a back-up ball ready or go with an “air ball” to keep drill flow. SET INSIDE OUT PICKS. No flat line picks.

• Reference links: drop and shade, stack and chip, etc

Having the dummy offense give a realistic look will determine the drill quality. Hold your defenders accountable to running good offense. If they drop the ball, keep the drill flowing with an “air ball.”

II/ Magic Passing - Jack Rowlett

This drill has two parts, an initial stickwork only portion and a portion where defense is added in.

The stickwork portion can be done with both offensive and defensive players as it reps out the mirror action.

In the defensive portion, the same rules apply, but defense is added in and they are required to slide and recover to every dodge.

• Set up: Start with four players in a box. The ball carrier dodges down the alley, the low player on that side mirrors the dodge. The dodger moves the ball to the mirror, who then transfers the ball to the far side. That same action is repeated.

• Rotations: Sub an entire new group in after a desired amount of time or reps. (you can make it continuous as well)

• Optional constraints: Dodger must throw a pull pass/roll away, must rotate into the throwback from the perimeter, must rotate from the backside crease player.

• Coaching the defense: Sliders must focus on their off-ball triangle and sink with the dodge to maintain a positive slide angle. The backside must communicate the recovery and avoid two players going to one.

• Coaching the “offense”: Prioritize the proper fundamentals and footwork of the offensive stickwork. Focus on the angle and posture of the dodger as well as the timing of a mirror. You may find that the dodger is starting too soon before the mirror is in position. It should feel like good offense.

This drill provides a great framework for first repping the offensive action that you would like to practice against.

Then when it is time to add the defense in, your players are ready to provide a good look for each other.

III/ Adjusted Approach Drill - Jesse Bernhardt

Lacrosse is a flowy game. We need to practice approaching moving targets and adjusting. Toss out the stationary cone approach drills.

A drill like this helps players orient where they are on the field and the leverage they need in a gamelike scenario.

Move this around to different areas of the field to get what you need.

• Set up: Offensive line and defensive line. The drill starts when the defender begins his approach. The offensive player will drift about 5 yards, and then they will dodge one way.

• Rotations: Switch lines after a rep. Reps should last about 4-6 seconds.

• Optional constraints: Dodgers can add in a second move, encourage dodger to dodge topside (if successful, D does a push up).

• Coaching the defense: Defenders must adjust their approach angle and hips as the offense drifts, they should have the proper shade as the dodge starts, they should not be “hopping” at any point.

• Coaching the “offense”: The dodger should wait for the initial approach to be complete, or nearly complete before the drift begins. I teach a 3 part dodge: drift, attack, split to score. Always attack the goal.

IV/ Look Away Drill - Paul Richards

This drill is great for isolating a particular skill: how you move as the ball moves from above GLE to below GLE.

A habit many players have is turning belly to X on the crease. We want to break this habit.

When the ball hits X, the crease is often the next look. Lockdown the crease.

• Set up: Two lines of dodgers set up by the restraining line and just wider than the hashes. There are two lines of defenders on the crease, the 1st guys in line are the crease defenders, the 2nd guys in line are mock crease offensive players. There is one player (or coach) at X.

• Rep Flow: The ball will start with either dodger. Dodge the alley, move the ball to X, the X player will then carry through X and move the ball to the other high dodger. Repeat, this is a continuous drill.

• Rotations: Offense → Defense (stay for two dodges) → Offense…

• Optional constraints: Defenders must establish eyes + contact (stick or hands) on their man when the ball is thrown through X. Have the crease offensive players move around, increase the pace of the drill.

• Coaching the defense: Defenders must fight the urge to open up in the direction the ball is moving as it transfers to X. Defenders should be peeking over their right or left shoulder to see the ball carrier at X.

• Coaching the “offense”: The offense should not start moving at full speed, they should be closer to 75%. This allows the defense to learn under slightly less pressure than a 6v6 setting.

V/ Trail Position Slide Decision’s - Jordan Stevens

This drill is a great drill for replicating slide decisions in practice.

It can be run on both sides of the field simultaneously, as well as in different areas of the field.

• Set up: Offensive and defensive line just outside of the hash marks on either side of the field. The defensive line will be about 1 yard behind, and to the inside of the offensive line. There is a defensive player on the crease ready to slide.

• Rep Flow: The offensive player begins running down the hash (with the on ball defender trailing), and the crease defender must decide if they need to slide, and if so, they will execute a slide and recovery.

• Rotations: Offense → Defense → Slider → other side

• Optional constraints: Place a football tackling dummy to serve as the crease attackman. Change the gap between the dodger and the trailer, as well as the starting location of the dodge.

• Coaching the defense: The on ball defender should assume the slide is not coming and work to get hands on the dodger. The slider must learn to make correct slide decisions, as well as execute proper slide technique.

• Coaching the “offense”: The offense wants to get to a scoring location, and can optionally bounce + redodge.

Wrapping Up: Themes

Once again, these are drill frameworks and options. In choosing any of them, I would always start with the intention. What do you hope to get out of it?

Mess around with them. Change up locations, angles, constraints and timing.

Most of these drills stack skills as well. For example, 3 man weave pick play has approaches, on-ball play, stickwork, pick play, flowing, and communication.

Magic passing isolates slides and recoveries to a mirror dodge, but it also grants the opportunity to work on stickwork with your defenders.

Trail Position Slide Decisions reps not only slide decisions, but also on ball defense.

We hope you have enjoyed this week’s coaches corner, and as always, if you end up using some of these drills in practice this season, we would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Don’t be afraid to send us some clips! We’d love to share them out (with your permission).

Until Next Time

Thanks for taking a trip down the hallway. If you are looking for a deeper dive, we have posted numerous videos on our Instagram, Twitter and YouTube channels on this topic.

Stay tuned for more content all spring and email us at [email protected] with any questions and let us know your thoughts.

🔒 Defensive Coaching Clinic: The Approach
FCL Defense Coach Clinic — WOMEN’S NEW

🚨 Webinar Freebie 🚨

This week’s freebie is from our webinar with FCL Founder and Coach Deemer Class. Coach Class delivered a webinar centered around the the drills that were run at the 2025 BIC Women’s Committed Event in December.

It is an extremely insightful webinar where Coach Class dives into how the drills were set up, constraints added, as well as a reflection on how the drills went given that the players were seeing these for the first time. We wanted to highlight an extra drill shared at the end that Coach Class has been using in FCL trainings.

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🚀 Online Community

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It includes over 40 college coach webinars, 150+ drills for offense, defense, and full-team compete, as well as sessions focused on schemes and strategies.

• 🔦 COMMUNITY TOUR: Watch Community Tour Here.