Coaches Corner: Sunday 02/16/25

Welcome back to FCL’s Coaches Corner. As coaches ourselves, we are obsessed with learning and growing in our professions. Every other Sunday, we distill concepts and share the resources we find interesting. It is our goal to share nuggets and insights that we’ve been able to gather over the years from great coaches in all sports. At the end of the day, we all want to have the greatest positive impact possible on our athletes.

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Matt Dunn & Deemer Class

Today’s Menu Includes:

• Coach Spotlight: a quote from coach Phil Jackson.

• Some Outside Inspiration: a book on movement solutions.

• A Trip to the Principles Office: a lesson on “attacking the show” as an offense.

• A Webinar Freebie: A drill freebie from Coach Justin Ward of Army.

Coach Spotlight: A Quote to Ponder 💭

Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are two of my all-time favorite athletes. Growing up, I loved studying their teams, which naturally led me to Phil Jackson at an early age.

I first read his book Sacred Hoops in middle school and more recently read his book Eleven Rings. Both of these are worth the read… at least from what I recall of Sacred Hoops.

Deemer and I both grew up playing basketball, and that influence still shapes how we see the game. There’s so much carry-over between sports, and this quote reminds me how easy it is for us as coaches to overcomplicate things.

Lacrosse, at its core, is a simple game. I’ve always found it helpful to pull up and remember the fundamental truths:

• Offensive strategies revolve around getting the ball to certain areas to create high-quality shots.

• Defensive strategies are about preventing that from happening.

There are endless ways to accomplish these objectives—that’s where coaching creativity and execution come into play. That’s the fun part.

Matt

Outside Inspiration: A Book on Movement 📝

Rob Gray is a researcher and scholar renowned for his work in ecological dynamics, particularly in motor learning and skill acquisition. Ecological dynamics focuses on how people learn and perform skills by emphasizing the interaction between the individual, their environment, and the task at hand. In How We Learn to Move, Gray highlights that skill acquisition is a dynamic, context-dependent process, where learners adapt to environmental affordances through interaction, rather than merely internalizing abstract rules or techniques.

You may have heard of “CLA” (ie, the Constraints Led Approach). Rob Gray is a pioneer in popularizing this movement.

A Trip to the Principles Office 🤓

Maryland and Loyola were in a battle last weekend. The Terps squeaked out a win, but Loyola’s defense was disruptive, neutralizing Maryland for the majority of the game.

Back in 2022, I made a Youtube video about the Terps 2022 Offense. One concept they exploited so well was “fading,” particularly around the cage. Their spacing, rotations, and off-ball movement created a ton of action off the initial dodge, making them incredibly difficult to defend.

Today’s focus revolves around “attacking the show”—especially at GLE— something Maryland executed well for two key fourth-quarter goals. As coaches, we often emphasize the fade (or “drift”) at X (I’ll speak for myself on this one). Here’s a nice clip of Penn State executing exactly what I mean.

Defensively a good show can deter a dodger. In the World Games, here is a nice clip of a “show” at GLE, from our very own Coach Dunn (hey now, coach!).

In this clip, he’s occupying space and deterring the dodge underneath before rotating out to X to approach on the pass. Canada wasn’t playing tight to the crease offensively, which meant there was less pressure on Matt in this situation.

How can we “attack the show” more effectively?

Defenders show to clog up space valuable space and get back to their match-up when possible. The less threatening the player they are guarding is, the more they can show. You read our blog here on defending X if you want more in depth defensive strategies.

So as an offense, we want to make defenders pay for trying to show. The first thing to consider is the angle of the dodge.

To keep it simple, let’s focus on 3 angles:

1. North/South
2. 45-Degree Angle
3. Wing/Low Wing

The first two angles make it more difficult to play the sneak/fade game around the pipes. It’s possible, but success depends on how much you value having a forward outlet. Smart attackmen can find that space if needed, but if a defender presses harder at X, the outlet either needs to pop wider or clear through to let the dodger carry.

A nice way to counter, and provide a different variation, is attacking the show. In Q4, watch how Eric Spanos takes a few steps away, then attacks the pass. The dodger picks down and gets in the path of the defender.

Take another look at the defender on the pass. He takes a few false steps on the pass and gives Spanos a step up field to turn the corner. That’s all you need.

In this next clip later in the quarter, Maryland runs off the same action and hits Daniel Kelly for a “reverse fill” look. We will talk about attacking the flow of the defense more in the coming weeks, but this is great execution. The difference here being the slide from the crease was drawn as well, now bringing 3 defenders to 2 offensive players.

When teaching this concept, it’s important to show your players how to read the showing defender.

• When are good times to fade?

• When are good times to provide an outlet?

• When are good times to attack the show?

One our favorite drills in the Coaches Community for working on these decisions is Walled Off 3v3. It’s a great way to develop recognition and train players to adjust in real time. This look can serve as a strong counter to keep the defense on their toes.

That’s all for today in the principles office. We appreciate you tuning in. Remember, if a defender wants to show, it’s the offenses job to make them pay. But hey… that’s just show business baby 😎.

Thanks for taking a trip down the hallway. Stay tuned for more content all spring and email us at [email protected] with any questions.

🚨 Webinar Freebie 🚨

As many of you may be aware, we have a community for men’s and women’s coaches where we host regular webinars with coaches. As a perk of this newsletter, we give away one freebie. This week’s webinar clip is from Army Offensive Coordinator, Justin Ward. Our members can watch Justin’s full webinar on dodging and off-ball play here.

📺 Watch Justin Ward’s “Running Back / Quarter Back” Drill