A Lacrosse Weekend 3.25.23

Welcome to "A Lacrosse Weekend" my weekly compilation of thoughts, ideas, stories, myths, truths, about the great game of lacrosse. I hope you enjoy it!   

If you are a men's or women's lacrosse player, coach, or parent, I think you will love the weekly content, videos, and analysis.

 Extra Man Offense

 Now that we're in full swing lacrosse season, I decided I'd like to share some content on how to prepare your EMO for the season. This 20-minute instructional video uses practice and game clips, to break down the critical parts of EMO and the drills that teach it.

• The Passes, drags, carries, skip passes, no look passes, lever passes, wind up passes, BTB passes, one time passes
• The Shots: finishes, time and room shot, low high wind ups, screen shots, one time finishes
• -The Positioning: The key spots in a 33
• The Movements: 2man, 3man, 4man, and 5man rotations and movements
• The Drills: the key drills to build your EMO! 

 I highly encourage you to share this video with your coaches and offensive players to get everyone on the same page as you build your EMO unit.  This video is appropriate for high school and youth lacrosse as well as women's coaches looking for ideas on man up and zone offense concepts!

 New EMO Content Alert!

I'm excited to announce that we've added a great new webinar to the Men's Lacrosse Coaches Training Program titled, "The Ultimate Extra Man Offense Concepts, Set, and Drills"!  This 52 minute instructional video using game clips and practice clips contains EMO secrets and hacks that will literally be a cheat code for your team!

• Skills: Skipping the ball through the defense using screen passes, skipping through cutters, and why Wall Passes are critical!
• Set: why the Drop Down 33 has big advantages over a straight 33
• Concepts: what to look for in your Drop Down vs.4man rotation, String, and 5man rotations
• Movements: an insanely simple way to open up skip passes and Wall Passes in your Drop Down
• Drills: some amazing new drills you and your players will love!

 Syracuse has an awesome EMO unit this year and if you look closely at the video below, you will see a few of the skills and concepts from the bullets above.  See if you can find them! 

Teaching 3man Game

I had the great pleasure to host my son Colin, the volunteer assistant coach at Providence College, in an encore presentation of his webinar titled "3man Game."  Colin spent 11 summers playing box lacrosse in Canada, five in St. Catharines playing minor lacrosse, five summers in Coquitlam, BC where he won two Minto Cup Championships with the Adanacs, and last summer playing for the Sr. A Langley Thunder where his team made it to the Mann Cup in Peterborough, ON and lost in seven games.

Colin's presentation begins with box lacrosse concepts and video examples of 3man actions and then moves into college lacrosse video examples where he details why 3man game is advantageous, how to get into it, and how to run 3man game in different quadrants of the field including wings, top, and behind.

You will learn:

• 2man and 3man "Entries"
• Nations Variations
• Double Downs
• Rattles
• Spain
• Ram Screens
• Flip plays
• How to use scripted and unscripted 3man looks!

The Rattle

Below are videos illustrating a really cool 3man look called a "Rattle" from the Johns Hopkins men's and women's lacrosse teams!.  If you're wondering what a Rattle is, see if you can figure it out from this analogy:

Nations is to switch as Rattle is to stay

The "Rattle" look is situation where the dodger in a 2man game executes give and go with a feeder.  This is a common action in box lacrosse and is making it's way to both men's and women's lacrosse!  I think you'll love it!

Here the feeder was a little late, but the cut was a thing of beauty!

 If you want more information on how to teach 2man and 3man games, the Principles Based Offense content in the men's and women's Coaches Training Program is the ultimate source for simple, practical yet cutting edge info for your team!

Teaching Double Teams

"Nowadays with the hold capabilities of sticks, we can only yearn for the era of the Takeaway Artist.  So how do we as a defense create turnovers??  The Double!  If the offense brings an additional man to the ball, the opportunity arises (yes, I am suggesting jump the pick ).  But even better is when we can create the “stay-on-the-double-slide” to a solo ball carrier."

- Lars Tiffany, Head Coach Virginia

This past week I produced a brand new webinar for the coaches Training Program Titled, "Teaching Double Teams."  The idea came from a podcast conversation I had with Coach Tiffany where he stated that UVA tries not to slide a lot, but are looking for double teams! 

• The concept of "Capturing" the dodger with V Holds & Reverse V Holds as well as important nuances of these techniques
• Short Sticks can V Hold and Reverse V Hold!
• The Hammer Slide
• The Wheel Slide
• Jumping Picks
• The Rip Slide

The Sucker Double

I got this term from Andy Shay, Head Coach at Yale who teaches his players a great move to take advantage of teams that hunt double teams!  The idea is for the dodger to show the back of his helmet with an exaggerated "Rocker" move, which will often times induce an aggressive double team.  Executing a "sucker double" move will afford the dodger the time and space to move the ball and take advantage of the double team!

In the video below the  Duke dodger clearly baited the double team and definitely would have been able to escape and move the ball had the crease not been wide open.  It may seem obvious that a rocker will draw a double, but if you're not thinking about baiting the double AND getting out of there, you just might get trapped!  Sucker them to double, carry the slide, and move the ball!

 Have a great weekend!