Coaches Corner: 07/27/25

Good morning!

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: Kirby Smart, the Cost of Leadership

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: Linebacker Drills

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: Recognition > Reaction: Teaching Defenders to See First

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: 4v4/5v5 + 1 - Georgetown Drill by John Hogan

🔦 Coach Spotlight
Kirby Smart, The Cost of Leadership

🧠 Outside Inspiration
Linebacker Positional Drills

We love learning from other sports. Football positional training can serve as great inspiration for how we train lacrosse players, specifically on the defensive side. It is our job as coaches not to just blindly copy these, but to distill what’s important for our players and apply on an as-needed basis.

Efficiency of movement is always something to focus on, and football coaches tend to do a nice job prioritizing this. Mark DeLeone served as the Ravens linebacker coach and has a strong track record on other NFL and collegiate staffs.

🤓 The Principles Office
Recognition > Reaction: Teaching Defenders to See First

As defenders, we’re often told to “play hard,” “be ready to slide,” or “don’t get caught ball-watching.” These cues are well-intentioned, but without the right framework, they don’t teach defenders how to actually see the game.

In modern lacrosse, with motion-based offenses, picks, redodges, and constant manipulation of space, reactive defense will always be a step behind.

If we want to develop adaptable, decisive defenders, we need to move beyond generic effort cues and start with first principles:

Start With the Objective 🎯

A primary objective of defense that I prefer is simple: Prevent high-quality shots and regain possession.

This clarity should shape everything we teach. The goal isn’t just to slide, communicate, or check sticks. It is to disrupt shot quality and regain the ball. Once players understand this, they begin to filter every decision through that lens.

Great defenders don’t just react to what’s happening. They recognize what’s coming. They position themselves early to meet it. That ability starts with the eyes.

Don’t Underestimate the Eyes 👀

In defensive coaching, we often talk about feet, hands, or positioning, but we sometimes forget about the eyes.

The reality is every decision on the field starts with perception. We cannot act effectively until we see clearly.

This is why eye discipline is so critical. Everything else - stance, posture, communication - exists to support our ability to perceive.

Here are a few examples:

• On-ball: Eyes locked on the hips. The stick might fake you, but the hips won’t lie. Eyes on hips helps us to stay patient on moves and not overreact. It also helps us maintain posture.

• Off-ball: Head must swivel. See man and ball. Lose one, and you’re late. A great stance empowers an efficient swivel of the head. We need to scan regularly.

• Hot/help positions: You must be able to scan the dodge and your matchup. This is why stance and head turns are so critical. If your head is frozen, your slide will be too.

The clip above shows Jesse Bernhardt at Maryland drilling on-ball technique. If you watch closely, you’ll notice players eyes are down on hips all the way through the point of contact.

Poor eye discipline leads to slow reads, bad angles, and hesitation. Players often know what to do, but don’t see it in time to do it.

Jon Svec is a Twitter account I’ve enjoyed. He posts content for linebackers which in my opinion has a ton of carryover to defense in lacrosse. Eyes are a major focal point. You have to see the keys, to read the keys.

Recognition: The Hidden Skill Behind Great Defense

When we break down film, we tend to focus on what happened. But if we rewind just a few seconds earlier, the story is usually about what was seen or missed.

Some examples:

• The help defender didn’t recognize the redodge cue.

• The hot guy didn’t read the approach angle and was flat-footed.

• The off-ball defender missed the backpipe cut because their eyes were frozen on the ball.

We blame the outcome; however, the breakdown started earlier, with perception.

This is why I’ve come to believe: recognition, not just reaction, is the separator at high levels of defense.

This focus on recognition includes:

1. Perceiving your environment early

2. Locking in on relevant keys based on training

3. Acting appropriately based off this information in a timely fashion

Watch this breakdown of Will Schaller below recognizing and reading slide keys, before the decision needs to be made - match up, location and intention.

How to Build Recognition Into Your Defensive Teaching

#1 Coach the Inputs, Not Just the Action
Instead of just yelling, “we need to slide earlier,” ask:

• “What were you looking at?”

• “What cues were you reading?”

• “Did you recognize the body language of the dodger?”

• “Did you notice the match-up?”

• “Did you recognize where they were on the field?”

If we don’t teach players how to see, we shouldn’t be surprised when they’re late.

#2 Rep Eyes and Posture Together
Posture and stance support vision. A defender in poor stance can’t scan, can’t swivel, and can’t react. We need to reinforce this:

• If your posture doesn’t allow your head to move and efficiently scan the relevant field space, you might need to readjust your posture.

• Great off-ball stance = knees bent, stick loaded, head on a swivel.

• Knees bent and “loaded” allows us to act more quickly once we perceive and allows us to be more deceptive with hedges and bluffs.

#3 Use Film as a Vision Tool
Most players watch film to see what happened. Instead, train them to pause before the play develops and ask:

• “Based on match-up, location, and dodger body language, what do you think is likely going to happen here?”

• “What should we be seeing right now?”

This builds anticipation and sharpens recognition. We almost always have better than a 50/50 guess of what’s about to happen if we read our keys.

I’d argue and say with proper scouting we should be able to anticipate well over 50% (80%+) of what an opposing offense is likely to do. This obviously changes by level and is a generality, but aren’t most players predictable when we learn their patterns?

#4 Design Chaos, Not Just Technique
Controlled reps are important early. But once stance and angles are clean, move to chaos. Put defenders in challenging spots in practice - harder than the game.

• 3v2 inside drills

• Cover from a disadvantaged position

• Create artificial scrambles

• Use constraints to challenge skills

Recognition gets sharper under pressure. But only if it’s trained.

Coaching through these skills is not a one and done endeavor, it’s a process we need to continuously revisit. Stay consistent in how we communicate to athletes and what we hold them accountable to.

Final Thought

When defenders break down, we often correct the outcome. But the deeper issue is usually a breakdown in vision, recognition, or posture.

If we want to build elite defenders, not just effort guys, we have to coach the way they see the field. Not just how they move on it.

It’s not just the loudest or toughest defense that wins. It’s the one that sees it first and takes away offensive advantages.

We’ll leave you with this great clip of Colin Burlace from Maryland turning his head multiple times and reading his slide decision to X. Both recognition and toughness.

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 🚨

This week’s freebie is from our webinar with Georgetown Offensive Coordinator, John Hogan. Coach Hogan presented many drills, but one we really liked was the 4v4/5v5 + 1 drill. See a brief excerpt of the drill below!

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.

• 🎥 WEBINAR FREEBIE: 4v4/5v5 + 1

• 🔦 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.