Coaches Corner: 06/01/25

Good 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.

Let’s dive in.

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

Matt Dunn & Deemer Class

Today’s Menu Includes:

• 🔦 Coach Spotlight: Connor Buczek

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: NADA: The Antifragile Defense

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: Flipping Fields

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: Kirwan’s 3v2 Push Pull Drill

🔦 Coach Spotlight
Connor Buczek, Cornell Men’s Lacrosse

Cornell is a historic program known for its strong culture of discipline, toughness and commitment. It’s only fitting that a Big Red Alum, Coach Buczek, got to serve at the helm as this group won their first championship in 48 years. They had a talented group, no doubt, but when you hear the staff and players speak you can sense an energy that this team was bought-in and driven by a collective mission. Congratulations, Coach Buczek.

🧠 Outside Inspiration
NADA: The Antifragile Defense 📖 

🤓 The Principles Office
Flipping Fields

Welcome back to The Principles Office, where we break down essential concepts. Today’s topic is crucial to offenses with elite ball movement: flipping fields. It’s not easy to teach, but it is part of a culture that constantly has to be reinforced and promoted. In March, we wrote about ways to attack the flow of a defense, but let’s drill down here.

One of the best examples I saw was for Cornell in the finals. Let’s dive in, and listen to how their players think about offense.

Why Flip Fields?

When an offense starts a dodge, a defense is typically most prepared. Good approach? Check. Second slide designated? Check. The list goes on.

We love referring to the initial dodger as the one who “starts the party.” I am not sure where Coach Ron Caputo got that from, but when he preached that to us in 2013-2016, it really clicked. Who’s going to start the party and get others involved?

That’s where “flipping fields” comes in. There are probably a few ways of saying this, like, “swing it backside” or “move it twice” or “dodge-pass-pass.” Flipping fields makes sense to me. We want to move the ball across halves of the field. From strong side to weak side, from west-east, north-south (top down) or vice versa. A few years ago, newly hired Loyola OC Justin Ward mentioned an “up and over” pass to me that they saw a lot in their 2-2-2. I liked that a lot.

When you flip fields, you quickly set yourself up to attack the backside. It could be catch and hitch, attacking a rushed approach, or simply the next dodge as the defense is more compact.

Let’s take a look at a few examples.

The Backside Dodge.

Recently, we had now National Champions, Michael Long and CJ Kirst on our podcast leading into the Ivy League tournament. They are impressive young man who really “get it.”

Hear what Michael Long had to say about making the right play:

The point he makes about cycling the ball through is everything. Though maybe feeling like he’s not contributing, he notes the importance of how he gets it in and out of his stick in a half second, allowing someone to attack on the backside. Well, here it is in action vs Maryland for a goal.

Here’s another example of a high wing dodge flipping fields into a low corner dodge. I love how the pick is already on the way, which shows that the offense was in sync and anticipated the ball movement for the Tigers.

The Hitch on a Rushed Approach

Flipping fields creates some nice hitch opportunities as well. When shooters are aware of rushed approaches, and spacing on the field after the defense condenses, hitches and short dodges will present themselves. Take a look here at Princeton on the backside.

Kabiri does a beautiful job of catching and swinging from X off the north-south dodge - it creates a rushed approach at 10 yards by getting the ball in and out of his stick, and flipping fields. I believe this is a reason Princeton’s offense has been so fun to watch.

The Decision Tree

One of the hard things a player has to learn, and we as coaches have to empower, is the decisions that made as the ball is swung. “Do I always flip fields, coach?” Well, the answer is no. Take a look below.

Marissa White catches the first pass from Humphrey. She has the outlet available to “flip fields.” However, thanks to the ESPN sky cam, we see the decision tree unfold. She could look inside. There is maybe a “reverse skip” open low. She has the extra pass for the backside wing dodge. She decides to skip low to a flashing Godine, and then Godine attacks from the wing.

Our players need to have confidence to make plays, and you can see there are things to assess. However, sometimes when sticks are “sticky,” I love putting the “move it twice” rule in in 4v4 and 5v5 drills to promote the habit of flipping fields. We can’t always catch and shop! The more they buy into this concept, they more it will guide their style of play as a unit.

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. If you’d ever like to do a staff consultation, webinar, or provide the Coaches Community to your whole staff, let us know.

Stay tuned for more content this summer 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 Dartmouth HC, Sean Kirwan. If you haven’t watched Sean’s full webinar for premium members, it is worth the free trial.

• 📺 FREEBIE: Kirwan’s 3v2 Push Pull Drill.

• 🔦 COMMUNITY TOUR: Watch Community Tour Here.

🎙️ 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.