Coaches Corner: 04/20/25

Morning Coach!

Welcome back to FCL’s Coaches Corner. Where we dig into coaching lessons, share resources, and work to grow together. Every other Sunday, we distill ideas we’ve learned from great coaches across all sports, hoping to give you a few tools and thoughts you can bring back to your team.

At the end of the day, we’re all chasing the same thing — making the greatest positive impact possible on our athletes.

Let’s dive in.

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

Matt Dunn & Deemer Class

P.S. check out our new referral program below.

Today’s Menu Includes:

• 🔦 Coach Spotlight: a quote from Jim Valvano about his father.

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: a book on knowing when to walk away.

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: a defensive breakdown on disrupting shooters with bottom arm leverage.

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: a free drill from Penn Defensive Coordinator, Casey Ikeda on approaches.

🎙️ FCL PODCAST & COACH COMMUNITY

Want to keep sharpening your coaching toolbox?

🎧 Podcast – Check out our free podcast on Spotify, YouTube and Apple podcast.

🔥 Online Community – For coaches who want to level up. Join our men’s and women’s coaching communities for in-depth webinars, drills, and strategy sessions with top college coaches.

🔦 Coach Spotlight: Jimmy Valvano, Believe

Jimmy V gave the kind of speeches that hit you deep. If you have 5 mins, give this one below a watch.

🎥: The Gift My Father Gave Me.

🧠 Outside Inspiration: Quit - The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away

🤓 The Principles Office: Bottom Arm Leverage

Welcome back to The Principles Office, where we break down essential concepts. Today’s focus: disrupting shooters from the trail using bottom arm leverage.

When a dodger gets a step, don’t panic. If we can disrupt from behind, we become much harder to score on.

Understanding Shooting Mechanics

Shooters need to load and then release in order to generate the power they need to score. The best shooters can do this very efficiently.

• Loading - Shooters rotate their torso away from the goal. Their hands generally move upwards and backwards.

• Releasing - Shooters snap their torso and hands back towards the cage.

Disrupting either phase — especially the release — reduces shot power and accuracy.

Defensive Objective: Disrupt High-Quality Shots

A reasonable objective for a team defense is to:

• Limit quality shots

• Regain possession

Today, we’ll focus on limiting quality shots. I broke this down in our post about inside-out defense. As you can see below, one of the key factors in a high-quality shot is the level of disruption.

When dodgers get into dangerous areas, disruption becomes critical.

How to Disrupt: Bottom Arm Leverage

Bottom arm leverage means getting your stick under the dodger’s bottom hand or arm from the trail.

By getting the stick under a shooters bottom arm, we gain the ability to either:

• Prevent a shot

• Alter shot power and accuracy

A major key here is to remain patient. Players are most vulnerable when they load to shoot. If we try to lift or dig too early, we may lose the leverage and they could separate to get a shot off.

Offensive coaches teach shooters to hide their hands so they are harder to lift or skewer; however, the hands eventually need to come back throw to release the shot. Don’t reach. Be patient.

Lifts, Digs and Skewers > Slaps

While slap checks have a place, they’re less effective at disrupting shots because:

• Timing: Slaps require perfect timing, harder to land.

• Accuracy: Easy to miss.

• Force: Slaps follow the shooter’s hands, not oppose them.

Instead, prioritize lifting, digging, or skewering under the bottom glove.

Not only are these checks generally more disruptive to a shooting motion, but they arrive sooner. Slaps require our stick to move away from the offensive player. Lifts and skewers allow us to lead with our stick in front which will always arrive first. In a game of inches, this saves goals.

A better time for a slap is when a dodger bounces or steps away from the goal and their hands are moving up to establish feeding posture.

Techniques for Bottom Arm Leverage

1. Strong Hand Side: “Scoop the Glove”

When a dodger gets a step to your strong hand side (lefty vs righty matchup), scoop under their bottom glove.

A phrase I like here is a "baby C" check — making a small "C" with your stick to scoop the glove.

2. Either Side: “Shoot the Elbow”

When trailing, aim your stick at the bottom elbow to disrupt the release. A term that coach Jesse Bernhardt at Maryland uses is to “shoot the elbow” with your stick. I really like this term - I’ve generally used “skewering” through the bottom arm. Shoot the elbow feels more specific to me.

In this first clip below, one of our FCL NIL Athletes and Maryland defender, AJ Larkin, demonstrates this concept. Check out our full instagram post on the concept here.

In stark contrast, you can see a game example where the Maryland defender does not shoot the elbow. Rather, his stick chops down on top of the shooter’s elbow.

This is a missed opportunity to disrupt a shooter and save a goal. Executing this concept well saves goals.

This next clip is an excellent example of shooting the elbow from the trail by Peter Laake, a freshman at Maryland. In this clip Peter ends up trailing to his strong hand side (ie, his right side).

This is actually a more challenging side to get bottom arm leverage as you do not have the angle you get from a v-hold. However, notice how Peter doesn’t panic after his false step at X, but rather adjusts and skewers his stick through the dodger’s bottom arm.

Once again, this saves a goal.

3. Butt-End Side: V-Hold “Hook & Dig”

The last variation we will talk about is getting bottom arm leverage as a dodger attacks our butt-end side. Great defenders don’t panic when dodgers get a step to their butt-end side. If you can use a v-hold effectively, you will be fine.

From a V-hold, hook and dig underneath the dodger’s bottom arm when they initiate a shot. I’ve posted a full video about butt-end defense here if you want more details.

Game-Changing Skill

As a long pole in men's lacrosse, mastering this is a game changer. If you can disrupt from the trail, you can cover players even after they get a step.

Coaches, I strongly recommend prioritizing this skill with your long poles. Keep it simple: talk about “getting under the glove” when dodgers get a step. This will completely change their ability to disrupt shooters and passers.

Happy skewering.

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.

🚨 Webinar Freebie 🚨

We believe our coaching community is the best resource on the market for any men’s or women’s coaching staff to continue developing through new drills and strategies. It includes over 30 college coach webinars, 100+ drills for offense, defense and full team compete.

As a perk of this newsletter, you get a free clip from one of the webinars. Today’s clip is from Penn Defensive Coordinator, Casey Ikeda

• 📺 FREEBIE: Casey Ikeda Drift Approach Drill Here.

• 🔦 COMMUNITY TOUR: Watch Community Tour Here.