Happy Sunday, Coach.
Welcome back to FCL’s Coaches Corner. Our quote of the day is from Inky Johnson, a former college football player and motivational speaker.
"Perspective drives performance. How an individual views what they do, will always affect how they do what they do."
Let’s rock,
Matt Dunn & Deemer Class
(Missed the last Coaches Corner? Catch up here.)
Today’s Quick Links for Coaches:
🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: "Quarterback Whisperer" Adam Dedeaux on Perfecting Practice and Building Confidence | Youth Inc. (Link)
🔥 A Webinar Freebie: Mikey Thompson - Zone Triggers (scroll down)
🤓 The Principles Office
The Women’s Approach: Why We Chose These Drills
Last week we wrapped up the inaugural Approach. Over the next few weeks, we'll break down a handful of the drills we used throughout the event.
Before we get into diagrams and coaching points, I think it's worth talking about why these drills made the cut in the first place.
When Phil Barnes and I started building the curriculum for the women’s event, we focused on the core question: "If we only have two days, what gives players the biggest return?"
This wasn't about squeezing every defensive drill we know into two days. We wanted players to leave with a handful of defensive concepts they could build on for years.
More than anything, we hoped they'd leave appreciating how much there is to love about playing defense.
In the guys and girls game alike, most defenders are itching for development. Our experience last week reinforced that.
Start with What Happens Every Game
If you watch enough lacrosse, certain things keep showing up.
Defenders approach with no intentional shade and give up easy sweeps. Or they have the player going where they want and they over-run the dodge.
Off the ball, girls miss slides and rotations because they are face-guarding 15 yards away from the play.
The basics of on-ball and off-ball defense go along way. They aren’t that complicated, but they are challenging to execute and drill. We find that many players have not been exposed to consistent drilling here.
We spent our time on the high-leverage skills that players regularly seem to struggle with.
Lacrosse Rewards Execution, Not Knowledge
Nobody learns defense from a powerpoint. The goal was to deliver these concepts to players quickly, and then put them in high repping environments.
For example, we introduced the concept of shading on our approaches early. We then drilled this in multiple different ways:
Ball toss approach on quick wing dodges
Defending long dodge sweeps
“Run the rail” drilling below goal line
The Stop/Start drill
By the end of camp, I wanted every player to know what shade was, why it mattered, and how to apply it without thinking about it.
We took this mindset to all of the main concepts we felt were critical for the girls to walk away with.
These are the drills we executed on the morning of Day 1 at the approach. We had breaks between segments which include notebook sessions and water breaks.
Women’s Defensive Drill Breakdowns from the Approach
With that in mind, here are a few of the drills we used and why they earned a place in the curriculum.
1/ Book End 4 Man Stacks
Why this drill? One of the easiest ways to score in the women's game is by creating confusion off the ball. We wanted defenders communicating through traffic, holding space, and seeing both the ball and their matchup. That's why we start here.
Set up: Four offense and four defense line up around the 12m. A coach stands with balls just below the elbow.
Rep Flow: Offensive players have some level of freedom to run any action. Examples would be a mumbo or scissor cut. Encourage players to cross paths in order to provide the intended defensive actions.
Rotations: Offense —> Defense —> Out
Optional constraints: Require an action (such as a slipped pick). Require multiple actions before a feed is thrown.
Coaching Points: Communication is the biggest key to emphasize here, talking through picks, exchanges, etc. Players should hold space as much as they can, switching matchups to avoid getting stacked on the interior.
2/ Run The Rail & Take the Charge
Why this drill? Angle play and contact is one of the thing most defenders struggle with. This drill teaches patience on the ball and how to let our feet take you to contact rather than reaching and lunging for it.
Set up: An offensive “dummy dodger” lines up in a sprinters stance, with their hips and shoulders pointed to the island (5 and 5). The defender squares them up and can either drop their stick, or using a blocking pad if one is available.
Rep Flow: On the whistle, the offensive player begins running at the island. They are instructed to curl their path into the defender (within reason, no need to be overly physical here). It is very important that the offensive player runs into contact with the defensive player.
Rotations: Complete defensive rep, next time through the line switch offense and defense with your partner. Quick reps — next group ready!
Optional constraints: As players get more comfortable with the drill, change up the starting position. Have defenders start in more of a trail, start with their hips pointed at the endline, add in a change of direction, etc.
Coaching Points: The defense must stay within their frame. Avoid eyes leaning over toes, their hands must not extend (ie, absorb or “chest” the contact). Their feet should carry them into contact. As they get near the island, they must work to get their hips pointed at the pylon on the endline, and should finish in a shuffle. As they get more comfortable with accepting contact, begin to layer in the Chicken Wing.
3/ Inside & Outside Picks
Why this drill? Picks are a massive part of the game and they can be tricky to defend. This is a simple set up that allows for many different variations of picking. Players need to get a ton of reps of pick play to get comfortable with it.
Set up: Two lines on each side, four lines total. Two defensive, and two offensive players start out. The drill can be run simultaneously on both sides.
Rep Flow: Two reps with 1 ball, allowing only the specific action (inside to outside or vice versa).
Rotations: Offense —> Defense —> Out.
Optional constraints: If you would like to practice defending picks a particular way, force the defense to do that specific action.
Coaching Points: The off-ball player (guarding the picker) must communicate the pick. Ideally, you want players to practice staying though picks. If players do switch, they should use it as a weapon and look to be aggressive on the switch. Optionally you may have the ball carrier get wider to force the pick action to be farther from the cage.
4/ 3v3 Slide + Feed/Post
Why this drill? Most young players are not great at slide and recovery, but it is an incredibly important skill for a team defense. This was an awesome drill that tied together off-ball stance, connection, and anticipation.
Set up: Three offensive players, and three defensive players are set around the 12m. Two feeders are at X.
Rep Flow: The high left or high right offensive player will dummy dodge down the alley, and move the ball through X. The defense executes a slide and recovery while the ball is transferring through X. The same alley dodge will now occur on the opposite side. The rep ends when the defenders are back in their original positions. If needed, have the offense ‘check’ the ball with the defense to manage the pace of the drill.
Rotations: Offense —> Defense —> Out. Coaches can be feeders, or if needed, have two of the defensive players become feeders after their rep ends.
Coaching Points: The defense is working on communicating the slide and recovery. That middle (hot) defender must steal space and drop low into the crease to create a positive slide angle. The backside defender must help over, and then communicate the recovery and bump out.
Wrapping Up: If It Matters, Rep It
It's important to remember that drills are tools. They're vehicles for teaching, not the lesson itself.
You could take any of the drills above and tweak the constraints, coaching points, or rules to emphasize something completely different. That's the fun part of coaching.
One point of emphasis I'd leave every coach with is this: if something matters, it deserves reps.
You can't teach the approach once and move on. You can't draw up slide packages on a whiteboard and expect players to communicate under pressure. Players need reps… A LOT of them over time.
If you deem a skill or concept important, consistency is key. We want to consistently rep the same core concepts, but in various ways. Change starting points, constraints, environment to challenge players and help them develop optimal habits that stick.
We also plan to debrief the men’s session as well in a future email. If you are interested in seeing the film of the drills, we plan to upload that soon to our coach community here.
Until Next Time
Thanks for stopping by the office. If you are looking for a deeper dive, we have posted numerous videos on our Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube channels.
Stay tuned for more content 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 Coach Mikey Thompson. Coach Thompson delivered a webinar centered around zone offense.
It is an extremely insightful webinar where Coach Thompson dives into everything from how to get teams to rotate, principles, to ways to drill these skills.
We wanted to highlight a segment where Coach Thompson breaks down his zone triggers. He uses the whiteboard to draw out multiple concepts to get players open in a zone offense.
🎙️ FCL PODCAST & COACH COMMUNITY
🎧 Podcast
Check out our free podcast on Spotify, YouTube and Apple podcast.
🚀 Online Community
For coaches who want to level up, the FCL Coach Community is the best resource on the market for men’s and women’s coaching staffs looking to continue developing.
It includes over 40 college coach webinars, 150+ drills for offense, defense, and full-team compete, as well as sessions focused on schemes and strategies.
🔦 COMMUNITY TOUR: Watch Community Tour Here.