Coaches Corner: 12/14/25

Happy Sunday, 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:

• 💼 Defensive Coaching Clinic: The Approach (New Event)

• 🔦 Coach Spotlight: Steve Kerr

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: Deep Work

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: Pick Play (Part 2) - Navigating Picks

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: Doubling Picks - Jordan Stevens

🔒 Defensive Coaching Clinic: The Approach
FCL Defense Coach Clinic

We’re opening limited spots for defensive coaches to observe The Approach on-site July 15-16, 2026. Coaches will be able to watch training sessions, interact with the staff, and see how we teach individual, small-part, and full-unit defense in real time.

Coach clinic attendees also receive our full coaching packet and access to a private post-event webinar with Matt Dunn and Jesse Bernhardt to dive deeper into defensive concepts and answer questions.

Stay tuned for a women’s announcement.

Current Staff Includes:

• Kevin Warne - Head Coach, Georgetown

• Jesse Bernhardt - Defensive Coordinator, Maryland

• Jack Rowlett - Defensive Coordinator, Boston University

• Ajax Zappitello - Assistant Coach, Dartmouth

• Matt Dunn - FCL Defense

• More coaches TBA…

🔦 Coach Spotlight
Steve Kerr - Golden State Warriors Head Coach

This quote is a reminder that culture isn’t built by copying someone else’s playbook, it’s built by modeling your values daily. Strategies and tactics change, but your values must remain steady, especially when things get difficult.

If you don’t genuinely believe in what you preach, your leadership will feel performative and players won’t buy in. When you lead consistently, trust builds, and trust is what allows players to thrive.

🧠 Outside Inspiration
Deep Work - Cal Newport

In Deep Work, Cal Newport argues that the ability to focus without distraction on demanding tasks (“deep work”) is increasingly rare. He contrasts it with “shallow work”—busywork, constant email/meetings, and context switching—that feels productive but creates less value and is easier to automate or outsource.

He then offers practical rules to build a deep-work life: schedule and protect focus blocks, train yourself to tolerate boredom instead of defaulting to distraction, limit social media and other attention drains, and keep shallow work contained.

🤓 The Principles Office
Pick Play (Part 2) - Navigating Picks

In our last newsletter, we covered the basic roles in pick play as well as a deeper dive into communication. Today, we’re going to look at some specific examples of navigating picks. 

There are multiple ways to cover picks, even the best teams debate this or switch it based on gameplan. While schematically, the way you play picks may change, the options remain similar and we will talk about how to make these reads.

Understanding How Great Offenses Pick

Before we talk defense, it helps to understand what great offenses are trying to do.

Coach Scott Bieda teaches his ball carriers to treat a two-man game like a true one-on-one: dodge hard and dodge to score. The picker’s job is to find the defender’s path and get in the way. And the best pickers don’t just set picks — they disguise them with slips, fly-bys, and swing actions you see all over college lacrosse now.

Because of that, the on-ball defender has one priority: play the ball first. You can’t assume a pick is going to be set, where it’s going to be set, or whether it’s coming at all. The matchup has to be played honestly until communication tells you otherwise.

With that in mind, here are the core options a defense can use to navigate picks.

🎥 Full webinar with Coach Bieda here

Navigating Picks as a Defense

We believe there are four core ways to defend a pick. Every scheme is just a variation of one of these:

• Getting Under the Pick - navigate below the picker to keep the matchup in a less threatening area.

• Getting Over the Pick - fight over the pick to keep ball pressure.

• Switching the Pick - exchange matchups when you don’t care about keeping assignments or contact forces it.

• Jumping / Doubling the Pick - aggressively double the ball when location, posture, or opportunity demands it.

Most teams add nuance and layers to these, but almost every two-man coverage decision falls into one of these four buckets.

Let’s break them down.

Getting Under the Pick

Getting under means the on-ball defender navigates between the goal and the picker to stay with their matchup. We use it when the dodge is occurring in a less threatening area like deep at X, wide on the wing, or high above the cage.

Done well, it’s a softer, safer coverage. You avoid contact with the picker, reclaim angle, and take away immediate scoring threats.

Off-Ball Player Options

When getting under a pick, the defenseman coming with the picker has a few options:

#1 Drop and Shade
This is the most common way it is taught at young ages where coaches often say “2 yards wide and 2 yards back”. The idea is you need to give the on-ball player a path through while also being in a ready to switch position.

#2 Stack and Chip
This is a more aggressive style of coverage where the player guarding the picker will force, or encourage, the ball carrier to take a wider, less optimal path to the goal.

This can be done by physically making contact, or getting a piece or check, of the ball carrier. It can also be done by simply taking a hard jab step at the ball carrier forcing them to widen.

You know you have done your job if the dodger bounces wider than their original path. It is not absolutely necessary to make contact — sometimes players get out of position going for this.

A key here is arriving and establishing your ground early enough to actually change the dodger’s path, not just get a quick piece that doesn’t affect where they go. Players often misunderstand the assignment here. The chipper wants their feet parallel with the pickers to deny the path.

Something to note: You can only chip when the on-ball player gets under the pick, otherwise you may unintentionally set a “double pick” by effectively blocking the path of the on-ball defender.

#3 Pinning the Picker
Pinning the picker helps to stabilize the picker early. Here, you are trying to prevent the picker drifting the pick to create a better path, or angle, for the on-ball player to get under the pick. The advantage of this is that you can eliminate the picker’s ability to “pick the path” like Coach Bieda talks about.

Getting Over the Pick

Getting over a pick is when the on-ball player navigates between the picker and the ball carrier in order to get through the pick. We can get over picks when we want to keep a matchup, or when we want to keep ball pressure in a threatening area.

The most common times to get over the pick are ‘up picks’ and ‘razor picks’, particularly as they get tighter to the goal.

Getting over a pick can be a more aggressive way of getting through a pick. If done well, you maintain ball pressure, and eliminate the offense’s ability to scan or shoot off the pick. The on-ball player will dictate where the offense is allowed to go, and make access to a scoring location difficult.

Off-Ball Player Options

When getting over the pick, the off-ball player will want to utilize the drop and shade option. The reason for this is because they still must be in a position to switch should contact be made.

Teams will vary how much they drop off the pick typically depending on location or scheme. For instance in the clip above, the Carolina player guarding the picker stays above GLE. This puts Carolina in a position to make a read and get to the ball should any contact be made.

In the Hopkins clip above, the player guarding the picker ends up shading so far off of his own man, that Hopkins actually has to execute a bump and recovery as if they had slid to the ball.

Getting over a pick can be difficult. Depending on the amount of space between the dodger and the picker, the on-ball player may have to physically engage the ball-carrier in order to create space to navigate through. If this is not done with precision, the on-ball player may unintentionally play themselves out of good positioning.

Another opportune time to get over a pick is when the pick is “soft,” meaning the picker is trying to pick the path of the dodger. Typically in these types of situations, the ball-carrier will not “brush the shoulder of the picker” meaning that there will be space for the on-ball defender to step up and into.

Soft picks also show up when the picker is looking to be deceptive. If they are trying to sell the pick, and slip it, execute a fly-by, or anything of that nature, there will typically be room to get over the pick.

Switching, Jumps and Doubles

Switching is when the on-ball player and the picker exchange their matchup. We can switch when we do not care about keeping a matchup, and we must switch if contact is made with the picker.

There are some nuances to switching that we won’t have time for today. Some philosophies encourage switching and others avoid it. It is typically best practice to always be switch ready as the off-ball player. Many teams switch all short to short or big to big picks.

Jumps / Doubles

Jumps and doubles are aggressive tactics involving the off-ball player jumping wide to turn the ball carrier back into the on-ball defender. These opportunities occur when either there is a potential play to be made (opportunistic read) or the situation dictates that we must play aggressively in order to prevent a shot (dangerous area).

Coach Jordan Stevens would say reading double is about proximity and posture:

1. Proximity: Are you close enough to make the play (i.e. pressure the ball carrier)?

2. Posture: What is the dodger’s body language:

   1. RB (head down, hands down) vs QB (head up, hands up)

   2. How ready are they to escape pressure?

In the clip above, the Maryland attackman is carrying with one hand, and his head is down, he is not scanning through the defense. Cornell makes a great read to jump this pick and rotate into the throwback creating a turnover.

In this clip above, the pick is set in a dangerous location just above 5 and 5. The Syracuse defender makes contact with the picker and this triggers at least a switch. Syracuse opts instead to play aggressively, doubling the pick, and taking away the adjacent passes. They prevent Maryland from taking advantage of the contact because of their decision to double the ball.

Wrapping It Up

Great pick play is less about theory and more about repetition. Great programs will change how they play picks year by year and game by game. There are certainly styles that prove more optimal and effective for certain units, but pick play is a skill that must be drilled.

Just like offensive players, defenders can develop pick play chemistry. How they read one another and communicate with each other is a skill.

You must have clarity on objectives, but that alone isn’t enough. If you want to be great at defending picks, you need to practice playing against great pickers every practice.

It’s not just about knowing what to do, it’s about developing the capacity and connection to execute in a fast-paced environment.

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 former Cornell Defensive Coordinator Coach Jordan Stevens. Coach Stevens delivered a webinar on clearing, sliding, pick play, and approaches. One segment we loved was on the decision making process when doubling picks.

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: Doubling Picks

• 🔦 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.