Coaches Corner: Sunday 02/02/25

Welcome to the FCL newsletter for all coaches in lacrosse. 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 YOU WILL GET:

• A quote we like from legendary coach Nick Saban

• A podcast we like

• A deep dive into some defensive principles

• A freebie from Maryland DC, Jesse Bernhardt, in our coaches community

A Quote to Ponder 💭

I think every coach goes through a Nick Saban phase at some point. Love or hate the guy, you’ve got to respect him. The quote above has serious truth to it. This can certainly create tension between those with different mindsets, but is that a bad thing?

Culture is built on what we accept. If we want to be a team of high performers and achievers, it probably should be uncomfortable to those that aren’t…

Every coach has to navigate these challenges differently based on their unit, experience and mandate. However, I believe sports are a great environment to challenge these comfort zones.

A Podcast We Like 🎙️

The Principles Office 🤓

This week we’re talking passing lanes. As an offense, switching fields quickly to attack the backside creates advantages. Therefore, as a defense, we want to clog those lanes.

Generally speaking as a defense, we want the ball to move around us, not through us. One defensive principle to encourage this behavior is to have our sticks to the inside and in lanes off the ball.

Off-Ball Defense Principle: “stick inside, body outside”.

Having our stick inside and body outside as a an off-ball defender can allow us to:

1. Clog up passing lanes and the crease with our stick and

2. Keep our body closer to the player on the perimeter we need to approach

We want the ball moving around us, not through us as a defense. For example, notice how Hopkins is able to skip it through UVA’s defense to the backside here.

While it’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback, I do think this clip is a good teaching example. Sticks to the outside allow for a dangerous skip through the defense. Most defenses are weak on the backside, so we want to make it challenging for offenses to get the ball to the backside.

Conversely, take note of Will Donovan from Notre Dame below play with his stick inside and body outside. Some players like to go cross hand here and others will switch hand. IMO, dealer’s choice. Coaches have different preferences and players have different levels of comfortability. As long as you get the job done, doesn’t matter how you do it…

While this principle may not be foolproof, it does encourage generally positive behavior from defenders off the ball, and it is simple. Simple and clear principles are effective principles.

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 Maryland defensive coordinator, Jesse Bernhardt.

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