Coaches Corner: 05/04/25

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

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Today’s Menu Includes:

• 🔦 Coach Spotlight: Jenny Levy of North Carolina

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: Dan Quinn of the Washington Commanders

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: Mirroring the Dodge

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: Rapid Fire Picks with Paul Richards

🔦 Coach Spotlight
Jenny Levy, North Carolina Head Coach

Coach Levy came on our FCL Podcast this fall. The Heels just won another ACC championship last weekend in a great game vs Boston College. I loved this quote from that podcast, where one of her mentors, Roy Williams, gave her some advice around believing in what you are doing. If you have some time, check out the full pod!

🎥: Jenny Levy on the FCL Podcast

🧠 Outside Inspiration
Dan Quinn on Building Team Culture

NFL coach Dan Quinn joins the Glue Guys to unpack the leadership lessons he learned from Nick Saban and Pete Carroll, how his Atlanta exit fueled his growth, and the player‐driven culture he’s building in Washington. He explains why competing in everything sets high standards, how he spotlights the “glue guys” who hold teams together, and his approach to developing coaches and players alike—a masterclass in authentic, ownership‐based leadership.

🤓 The Principles Office
Mirror, Mirror on the Dodge…

Welcome back to The Principles Office, where we break down essential concepts. Today’s focus: mirroring the dodge.

Trend: Offensive Principles > Scripted Motions

It’s Saturday morning as I sit and type this weeks newsletter. College lacrosse has been roaring all week with conference tournament play and teams contending for NCAA bids. It’s the best time of year as a lacrosse fan.

If you’re a long time college lacrosse watcher, you may have noticed a trend shift in how teams operate offensively. We have written on this topic before in our positionless defense and offensive principles blogs.

To cut to the chase, offenses now are more positionless and principles-based. What that really means is rather than the structured sets and pre-determined motions we would see in the past, offenses utilize triggers and principles of play throughout the possession.

Sure, we still see the occasional set piece off of a timeout or opener, but in general this trend has redefined how most offenses operate. The coach is no longer the puppeteer; but rather, the choreographer. They set the rhythm and the cues, then trust their players to improvise within the framework.

Today, we are going to dive into one of these principles of play — mirroring the dodge.

Mirror, Mirror on the Dodge….

Mirroring the dodge is a core principle offenses use to maintain spacial integrity on the field. We can install these as triggers and teach our players the benefits of using them. We like to define a mirror with the following characteristics:

• A designated offensive player is positioned between the dodger and the goal and will pop opposite (ie, “mirror”) the ball carrier

• Mirrors can be deeper, or shallow, tighter to the defender

• Player does not set a pick on the on ball defender

• Player pops, floats, or moves opposite the dodger once they dodge a side

Why the Mirror?

A mirror is a way to play a “2 man” game without always bringing the off ball defender into a pick situation. In the men’s game, the mirror might be covered by a pole and you don’t want the pole to switch onto a matchup you like. In the women’s game, you might want to give some dodging room and not allow for an easy switch.

Offenses use a mirror like a read pass option. The first read the ball carrier makes here is whether the defense is sliding off the mirror. If so, they may have an opportunity for a quick throwback into an advantage. And if not, they may be able to quickly dodge for their own shot. It also allows the dodger the freedom to attack in either direction for a two-way go and have an obvious first look.

Mirrors can look very similar to picks. Note this “up pick” from Notre Dame. Syracuse didn’t want to fully go and double, and Kavanagh manipulates the defense well.

Mirrors also naturally help with proper spacing by allowing a player to automatically pop opposite the ball and leave even more space on the backside.

Mirror Variations and Examples

Not all mirrors are made equal. A few factors that affect the mirror are:

1. The threat of the dodger (ie, match-up) - a bigger threat will draw the defense further off the mirror typically.

2. The starting point and angle of the dodge - the mirror needs space to pop or fade and the dodger needs an angle to feed if needed.

3. Whether the dodger goes over or under - if a defense slides off a mirror on a sweep, the throwback is a great option.

4. The off-ball action on the backside - the better the backside can occupy the players guarding them, the more space the mirror will have to pop or dodger will have to score.

You could certainly orchestrate strict mirror rules (ie, pop behind the dodge) or you could allow your players to develop a feel on how to mirror.

We skew more towards variation than rigid structure to promote decision making and feel for our players. This allows players to better exploit the opportunities against the defense.

Let’s take a look at a few examples.

#1 Dodge Under - Pop and Curl
One option on dodges down the side is to pop behind the ball and curl towards it. This allows the mirror player to attack the space just vacated by the original dodger. We are going to look at some clips from the Maryland vs Hopkins game where both teams mirrored to initiate on nearly every possession.

Notice this first clip includes a hard north/south dodge from Hopkins forcing the MD defender to sink off the mirror. The Hopkins middie reads this quick throwback creating a challenging approach for Maryalnd.

This next clip is almost identical where Hopkins scores off attcking the approach.

#2 Dodge Under - Float Opposite
Second, I like mirrors that float opposite. These create for some shot ready catches. The thing to note here is that we do need to be mindful of defenses rotating hard into the mirror action, as we are actually shortening the slide sometimes in this scenario.

In this clip below, we see the Tucker Wade of Princeton float opposite in the mirror as a threat. He puts the Harvard sliding defense in a challenging position and is able to attack the approach for a goal to the middle of the field.

Notice how much space Princeton cleared on that backside by bringing their remaining 4 players so close to GLE or below.

In this next clip, we see Michigan attack on a low wing dodge with a much flatter angle towards the cage. This gives more room for the mirror player to fade into a dangerous shooting spot as his man helps to the dodge. The low angle of the dodge + the flat backside formation creates a ton of space for the pop.

#3 Dodge Middle - Pop / Fade Opposite

One of the best look off the mirrors is the throwback if the dodger gets middle. Emma Lo Pinto does a beautiful job here after BC gets topside on the dodge.

In the women’s game, it’s really hard to rotate up to the shooter here and not get called for shooting space.

In this next one, the mirror is deeper from Syracuse, and even though it’s less of a fade, it shows how she is ready to catch and shoot. The backside is occupied, so the 2 slide is late.

Who’s the Wisest of Them All?

When we incorporate mirrors on offense, we often are faced with shows and hedges that force dodgers to slow down. It’s a chess game. The defense wants to slow you down without fully committing.

The more we teach our players to manipulate these with pump fakes, look backs, hesitations and more, the more openings we create, slides we draw, or lanes to re attack and go we find. They are on the field, and they need to make the reads!

Friday we posted a CJ Kirst hesitation breakdown. One of my favorite examples from that video is his look back off the mirror vs Rutgers. He’s mastered hesitations and it shows in his game.

Lastly, just because a defense slides to a mirror, doesn’t mean we need to bail them out for poor technique. We can certainly move it, but we have discussed this year more than ever attacking and dodging some slides like Duffy does here.

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.

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As a perk of this newsletter, you get a free clip from one of the webinars. Today’s clip is from WLL Sixes Coach, Adam Sear. He did an awesome presentation on Sixes last month. I think analogies like this are sticky.

• 📺 FREEBIE: Adam Sear’s Parking Lot Analogy.

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