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Your Guides on This Journey…. Matt Striebel.
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Matt Striebel "I play lacrosse because I love it—the speed, the intensity, the teamwork, the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that comes when success is achieved over and through adversity. At Trilogy Lacrosse, we approach the teaching and coaching of lacrosse with the same passion and commitment to excellence that we bring to our play. Nowhere else can you find a community of lacrosse players and coaches so dedicated to the singular values of the game." * MLL Rochester Rattlers 2009-Present* MLL Philadelphia Barrage 2001-2008* MLL Champion Philadelphia Barrage 2004, 2006 & 2007* MLL All Pro 2007 & 2008 * Record 9X MLL All-Star* MVP MLL Championship Game 2007* 3X Team USA 2010 -- Gold Medalist Team USA 2010 -- Silver Medalist Team USA 2006 -- Gold Medalist Team USA 2002* NCAA Champion Princeton University 2001* NCAA 2X All American Princeton University 2000 & 2001* 3X All Ivy League * Academic All American* Assistant Coach Princeton University 2005 * Color Analyst ESPN Lacrosse
1. What level team are you? Youth? Middle School? High School? Youth: Youth coaches are the real money earners in the coaching profession. Your practices need to be the perfect combination of fun and instructional. The emphasis should be on skills—stickwork, groundball drills—and small-field games. Lacrosse is lacrosse no matter what size field you play on. NO LONGSTICKS UNTIL KIDS ARE AT LEAST 13. Middle School: This is where you begin to have serious lacrosse players. The conceptual side of the sport becomes more important. Skills have been mastered, now it’s time to think outside the helmet. High School: Coaching at the secondary school varsity level should be approached with the same organizational intensity as college coaching (if not more). You are preparing with winning games in mind, and you’re adjusting your plans depending on performance. At the JV level, you are trying to mirror what is done at the varsity level, while also understanding skill limitations.
2. Why Plan? Why not just wing it (my players do half the time anyway)? • You have no other choice: In some ways, practice, is all you have as a coach. By the time games roll around, it’s too late. Games are won during the week. • Order in the court, order on the field: Good teams are disciplined teams. Discipline comes from the coach and the coach’s preparation. A good practice plan establishes order and organization. Every team’s game-day performance is a referendum on their practice performance. • With knowledge comes confidence: Preparation breeds confidence. Luck is where opportunity meets preparation. • Efficiency…breeds efficiency. Don’t waste time in your practices! • Believe it or not: Players want, even crave, organization. Provide it for them.
3. What are your goals? For the day? For the week? How about the season? Building Blocks: A practice plan, like the team it represents, is a fluid, organic creature. Your last game, win or lose, will dictate your emphasis in your next practice. Be Goal Oriented: Identify macro and micro goals for your players (goals for a season, goals for a week, goals for a specific practice). 65% EMO/EMD, # Ground-balls per game, goals per game, etc… Be Progressional: Start small. Think from micro to macro, or if you think macro, start micro. Small sided, small field, small numbers. Each practice should generally have a specific goal in mind: All drills will be tailored towards that end. All drills need not be specifically related to this, but any time you’re addressing your team directly in a “concept” based talk, have it be related to your core goal.
4. Scheduling? How does this help/hurt me? What time does practice start? Is your start time close to the end of the school day? Is it late at night? Are players driving in? Busing in? Carpooling? Parents driving them? Recognize and consider your players “life” realities and plan for them (and how they’re going to effect what you try to do at practice). Assume…there’s almost always a fifteen-minute, post-school, post-day, post-arrival hangover. Recognize that your players are going to be sluggish at first and figure out how you want to deal with this so it doesn’t make you completely crazy. My advice: HIT ‘EM HARD EARLY!
5. Pacing…A lacrosse coach’s version of poetry—there is a mix of science, feel and rhythm to it. The Wave Concept: managing your action, intensity, instruction and play as a series of waves with highs and lows. Things to be aware of… When do you instruct? When do you up the pace? When do you sense attention waning? Balance…your high intensity, “fun” drills with your instructional segments. Make you instructional segments brief and manageable. Small units. A good way to manage pacing is: THE WAVE CONCEPT Don’t assume your players have attention spans beyond five minutes (at best). Make sure that your drills and instruction—and how the two are dispersed throughout your practice—take into account the fact that kids get bored, BORED, BORED. Pacing is the key to any good practice. For you AND your players.
6. How are you going to organize your players?How do you balance the desire to help beginners with wanting to push your team to develop. Strike a balance: You don’t want to hold back your skilled players, nor do you want to put your weaker players in positions where they are clearly behind in their skills. At the same time you want to make sure your weaker players are being pushed and your stronger players are understanding how “TEAM” means having to provide leadership and guidance to younger/weaker players. Use Stations/Groups Where Possible: Anytime you can divide the players into smaller groups where they’re working with like-skilled players. Assume the players know where they stand: If you know whether a kid is strong or weak, chances are they do as well. Remind these players that the goal is always to get better. Improvement. Improvement.
7. How much variation do my plans/drills need? • You need just enough variation to keep players on their toes • Some familiarity is good, you want consistency and to be able to move from drill to drill without too much explanation. Too much familiarity is bad. • Always be on the look-out for new stick-work drills (we have thousands) • Some methods feel old and routine because they work—there’s just no way around it! • Name ALL of your drills…so that your players know what drill is coming next and can get into it quickly. This will aid in overall efficiency and will allow your players to feel a greater sense of • personal accountability and involvement.
Some Final Thoughts On Your Practice Goals and Planning (The really important things!)
Things you MUST have… BALLS. BALLS. BALLS. BALLS. And more BALLS. Spend whatever money you have available to your program on balls. Don’t EVER buy rebounders. Kids can find brick walls. Use that money to buy BALLS. At the end of practice be an absolute tyrant about your BALL HUNTS. Every ball is not a ball it is an opportunity to get better. Whistles. Don’t ever come to practice without one. Keep extras in your car for your idiot coaches who always forget. Cones. Kids are attracted to orange cones. No one knows why, it’s a mystery of biology and science. Put cones down all over the place. STOP WATCH. I run all of my practices off a stop watch. I time passing drills, stick drills. A clock counting down creates a sense of urgency that keeps players focused. Did I mention BALLS?
Today’s Practice: Stickwork, Stickwork, and More Stickwork. Oh…and fun.
The Basic Components I have: • Dynamic Warm-up, Stick-work • Fun Game Segments: Ground-Balls Games, Relay Race • Concept Specific Drills (Offensively and Defensively) • Small Field Transition Games • 3v3s, 4v4s • Numbers Recognition Drills • Full Field Scrimmage/Game • 6v6 Half Field Drills
Offense 101 (what we need to be successful): • 1. Balance and spacing: Good offenses starts with (and always has) these two things. Bad offenses don’t. So what are balance and spacing? • Balance: Players are equally distributed across the offensive zone, meaning we do not have five guys on one side and one on the other. In an effective offense a dodge will occur, players will move (relocate), but at the end of the dodge, the field should look more or less as it did at the beginning of the play. • Spacing: Players maintain the same distance between one another at all times (unless setting picks). Proper spacing means that no one player is too close to another, or too far. Good spacing puts the defense on edge and creates longer slides. • 2. Width and Depth: This basically means that players maintain distance from the goal horizontally and vertically. Midfielders don’t shrink the filed from the top down, attackmen don’t shrink the field from X or the sides. Young players have a tendency to suck-in toward the goal and they lose their balance or shaping (a.k.a. the blobification of youth lacrosse players). Remind players that offense wants to spread out away form the goal. • 3. Understanding, understanding, understanding:Players must have a general understanding of what the “macro” goals of an offense are, how dodging and drawing a slide and moving the ball will create goals. They must also have the ability to “READ” what their teammates are doing (feeding, dodging, shooting). • 4. Patience (composure): When the offense has the ball, the other team can’t score. Players must understand that offenses are run to get the “best” shot and not the “first” shot. Players need to recognize when are good times to dodge and when aren’t.
Awesome, now how do we get these? • The short answer…you don’t…at least not at this age level. But we can work toward it. And we can hope. • If the ultimate goal is a 1-3-2 Offense (or something like it), what can I do to take baby steps in that direction? • The “How To” plan: • Know the building blocks: The 1v1, 2v2, 3v3,and 4v4 • Trust the building blocks • Don’t stray from the building blocks • Reinvent the building blocks in as many different ways as you can
A Few Final Points and Defining Our Terms: Rules of thumb: 1. When someone dodges toward you either… a) Clear or Cut Through (to create space) – START HERE! b) Set an on ball screen BELOW the dodger 2. Don’t fill green grass until you have the ball in your stick 3. Offenses start when one guy “breaks” another guy down 4. We don’t just “cut” to start an offense 5. When in doubt SPREAD OUT!
General Defensive Principles Communication: Team defense starts with communication. Most goals are scored because of a breakdown in this area of the game. Most offenses do not stand still in one formation. Rather, they create movement to confuse the defense. Teams must therefore, communicate vital information about “slides” and “defensive packages” their team is in. Communication cuts down on mental errors. Protect the middle of the field: Defenses must prevent their opponents from getting to the middle of the field when their above the cage, and they must prevent them from getting “top-side” when they’re below the cage. PROTECT THE HEART! STAY TIGHT!!!!!!: A good defense stays compact (inside of 12 yards). Get your players in the habit of getting to the heart. On Ball Defense: On ball defense should always start with good body position and stick out in front. The defenders stick should be up-field at all times. Off-Ball Defense: Defenders who are “off-ball” should always stay between their man and the goal, unless that defender is in a “hot” or sliding position, in which case they should be between the man and the ball about one stick length away and ready to help. When in doubt slide: It’s better to have six guys go then none! Slide with the body, to the body: Sticks are easy to move, bodies aren’t.
The Most Dangerous Place on the field: “Stay Top Side, my friend!” Preventing Topside Dodges
Offensive Roles in the 2 Man Game • On ball: I’m either dodging or feeding • Off Ball: I’m either setting an “on-ball” screen or going to the crease and “mirroring” the dodger in hopes that he will draw a slide and I can get open. • That’s it… • On Ball options: • Pick & Roll • Pick and Pop • Slip Pick
Defensive Roles in the 2 Man Game • On ball: I’m forcing my man away from the heart • Off Ball: I’m keeping a “big eye” on my man, a “little eye” on the ball. • COMMUNICATING (It is the job of the off-ball defender to do the communicating). • 2-man Game options: • Stay • Switch • Jump
The Attack 2v2 Set up for “mirror” option. Key to remember: Crease player stays high and waits for dodger to draw slide, then finds a seam to get open. Set up for Attack 2-man game. Key to remember: Verticality on the pick (set picks on a north/south line).
Another Vertical Pick Option is the “Canadian” 2-Man Game. Remember: When a player is “off ball” he is generally cutting through to create space. When setting a pick we want to create the illusion that we’re doing exactly this. The Midfield 2v2
Roles in the 3v3 The 3v3 rotation is the basic component of almost any lacrosse offense around. The basic rules are: 1) On ball: I’m either dodging or feeding Off Ball: I’m either setting an “on-ball” screen, setting an “off-ball” screen or cutting through (clearing space for the dodger). Key Things to Remember: 1) Balance, Spacing, Balance, Spacing, Balance, Spacing 2) STAY SPREAD! FIGHT THE “VORTEX” 3) Where are our “Dodging Spots”?
The 3v3 There are any number of ways to set up a 3v3. Here are four different options. Name them so your players know which one you want. And always use cones!
The 3v3: Option #1 Notice: The player at X has remained “spread” but he is also “beneath” or “ahead” of the ball carrier. If he is “outside” or “behind” the ball carrier this forward pass becomes extremely difficult.
