Coaches Corner: 09/28/25

Welcome back, 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: Kelvin Sampson on Preparation for the Moment

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: How Champions Think by Dr. Bob Rotella

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: Pillars of Off-Ball Defense

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: Jamison Koesterer - Keys to Off Ball Defense

🔦 Coach Spotlight
Kelvin Sampson, College Basketball Coach

Sampson’s quote is one that resonates with us. He said this line when talking about one of his players making both of his free throws in the final moments of their final four win this past spring vs Duke.

He had players, who he thought were below average free throw shooters, make 150 free throws every day they did not have a game. His staff totaled it up across the year and it came to 297 days with 150 free throws made. Nobody was watching the players. All the sudden when everyone was watching, they had that training to fall back on.

🧠 Outside Inspiration
How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life by Dr. Bob Rotella

Bob Rotella has advised everyone from professional golfers to NBA Superstars to business executives on how to flourish under pressure and overcome challenges.

How Champions Think consists of performance principles that have proven themselves in countless competitive situations, in arenas from which only the strongest minds emerge triumphant.

It explores how to keep the mind from holding you back, whatever your physical gifts or other talents. Its about how to make a commitment, how to persevere, how to deal with failure — and how to train your mind to create a self-image that promotes confidence and accomplishment.

🤓 The Principles Office
Pillars of Off-Ball Defense

Today’s Principles Office focuses on the keys to off-ball defense. Coaches love to say, “you are off-ball more than you are on-ball,” and they may even cite percentages to back that up, whether in men’s or women’s lacrosse.

While this is a true statement on average, how do we actually build a solid off-ball defense?

Today, we’ll break down the four pillars of off-ball defense and why each is necessary to support the entire unit. These pillars are inspired by our webinar with Hopkins Defensive Coordinator Jamison Koesterer. We’ve also had the chance to speak with many different college coaches, and, in some fashion, these same four pillars come up in almost every conversation.

As a reminder, we strongly believe there is no “one way” to do anything. The beauty of coaching is the creativity of it.

We don’t strive to tell you how you should do it (if you’re like me, you probably don’t like being told what to do); but rather, we aim to provide ideas and thoughts that we believe are effective. Much of this is inspired from other coaches we know and have learned from.

Pillar 1: Stance

Everything starts with your stance. Your stance sets the tone for the defense. A proper stance can be defined simply as your readiness to make the play.

In practical terms, this means: Bend your knees, stay on the balls of your feet, stay light and balanced.

Coach Koesterer breaks stance down into 3 parts:

1. Knee Bend

2. Head Turns

3. Stick Position

One thing I really liked from his webinar with us was how he spoke about grading each player among these 3 parts. Is your knee bend and A, B, C or F? Same with head turns and stick position. I loved the clarity.

Another thing we spoke about was the power of visual aids. He likens stance to a “tiger in the low grass,” you want to be ready to spring at any moment. This helps players visualize the spirit of a great stance.

Every second counts on the field. The difference between collapsing on a crease feed or shutting down a backdoor cut often comes down to how prepared you are to react.

Stick Position

Your stance isn’t complete without your stick. Keep your stick up in the passing lanes, with the head held above your shoulders. This posture not only allows you to pick off passes or check down on sticks, but also discourages skip passes from being thrown in the first place.

In college, I was always taught to “punch the ear” on the inside so we were ready to check down. However you want to teach it, efficiency matters. Our sticks need to be ready to make the next play.

Eye Discipline

Eyes are maybe the most important, and under-focused upon, part of lacrosse. You cannot do anything without first perceiving it.

Your eyes play a vital part in your stance. Your head should constantly be on a swivel between your man and the ball. As an off-ball defender, you need information; you can’t make a play without it.

You should be scanning the field constantly, and adjusting your position accordingly while maintaining the proper stance.

Pillar 2: Connection

We define connection as:

Connection = Communication + Stance

Both elements must be present for a defense to truly be connected. If communication is strong but everyone is flat-footed, no one will be ready to make a play. If stance is solid but communication is lacking, defenders won’t be on the same page.

The great thing about connection is everybody knows when you are connected and when you are not. The simple question to our unit of “where we connected there?” Usually evokes a thoughtful response.

We strive for connection. Connected units are tough to beat.

Beyond Communication

Connection is more than communication. Communication is a tool that, when paired with a great stance, allows a defense to move as one instead of as individuals.

I think sometimes we forget that communication is a means to an end, not the end within itself. People always say we need to communicate more, but the purpose of that is to be more connected.

A simple way to picture connection: Imagine a rope tied around the waist of every defender. If one moves, the rest move with them. In reality, that “rope” is communication and stance working together. That’s what binds a defense and allows it to act as a unit.

Are we acting together or alone?

Coach’s Insight

Coach Odierna of Syracuse puts it simply: “Right or wrong, connected is the answer.” This holds true at any level.

A connected defense can make the wrong decision and still recover. A disconnected defense can make the right decision and still give up a goal.

Pillar 3: Spacing

Proper stance and connection naturally help good spacing, but we can still provide some guidance here. Just as connection builds on stance, spacing without connection will not get the job done.

Two important questions come to mind when thinking about spacing:

1. Where is the ball relative to the Heart (paint, etc)?

2. Where are you relative to your man and the ball?

Spacing is fluid. As the ball moves, we must move.

Back-Side Defense

The rule of thumb if you are on the back-side of the defense: help into the heart of the defense.

Former Cornell Defensive Coordinator Jordan Stevens defines the heart to be: “12 yards high, 12 yards wide (the width of the hashes), and two yards below (GLE).” This is the most dangerous area of the field. The area you want slides to arrive at, and the area that offense’s want to attack.

Imagine a line drawn from the back-side pipe to the midline. Stay within a stick length of that line. This puts you close enough to help into the heart, and far enough out to work back to your man if a skip pass is thrown.

Another good cue is to stay “level with the ball” on top down dodges to a certain extent.

If a dodger is going downhill, we don’t want our back-side to linger 15+ yards away from GLE, we want to flow down to ball level until a certain point - maybe 7-10 yards depending on other spacing.

Ball-Side Defense

If you are on the ball-side, you are likely 1 of 2 roles: adjacent or crease. For the sake of this piece, let’s assume we are a crease sliding defense.

Adjacent:
If you are on the perimeter adjacent to the ball, you are likely flowing out to your man or “showing” and clogging space. This may depend on defensive scheme and philosophy as well as other situational factors. This blog we wrote about defending X as the ball moves down the side shines some light onto this topic.

Crease:
If you are on the crease (inside the Heart), it is critical that you have leverage to the ball and are in a proper stance. This means you have an unobstructed path to the ball and are ready to launch (ie, you are not getting sealed + in great stance). A good landmark here is to be on the ballside pipe or ballside crease tangent. Read more about sliding here.

Pillar 4: Mindset

Mindset is the final pillar of off-ball defense. Simply put: It has to matter to your defense.

To succeed as a team, every player must buy into these pillars. All the other pillars build on themselves, and mindset is no different. Even one player not fully committed can break the cohesion of a defense.

Why Mindset Matters

Staying in proper stance at all times requires discipline. Moving as one unit requires multiple individual pieces to act together (connection). Spacing requires an understanding the situation and knowing where every teammate is on the field.

Performing these tasks at a high level is difficult, but this is what separates great defenses from average ones. Without them, breakdowns happen, lanes open, and offenses generate high quality shots.

This might include extra film sessions on your own or with a coach. Bringing notebooks to meetings and taking pride in your notes. Studying those notes so you understand what needs to be accomplished.

As mentioned earlier… it has to matter. Everything above takes a backseat to the mindset.

Wrapping It Up

These pillars provide the foundation for everything off-ball: sliding, recovering, approaches, regaining possession, and more. They are the building blocks of a cohesive defensive unit.

That said, here’s an important caveat: the best off-ball defense starts with great on-ball defense. Strong ball pressure and keeping the offense wide limit their ability to exploit off-ball mistakes, which will happen. The better we are on the ball, the less we need to guess or support, and the tighter we can stay as a unit.

The best defenses excel both on and off the ball.

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 Hopkins Associate Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator Jamison Koesterer. Coach Koesterer delivered a webinar on all things from off-ball defense to drills you can use to rep off-ball mechanics. One segment we really liked was his segment on keys to off-ball defense. See a brief excerpt of the presentation below.

The FCL Circle 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: Keys to Off-Ball Defense

• 🔦 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. Who’s ready for season 2?

🔥 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.