A Lacrosse Weekend 4.23.22

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. 

Inside The 8 Podcasts with Colleen Magarity

This week Colleen got back at it with two new women's lacrosse podcasts that I think you will love.  First with Jacksonville Assistant Coach, Mike Bedford and then with Pitt Head Coach Emily Boissonaeult.  Colleen and her guests discussed their respective lacrosse journeys, philosophies on building culture, team offense, team defense, favorite drills and of course, college lacrosse recruiting.  Colleen will be doing podcasts regularly and get an insider's view from many of the top coaches in the game!  Thanks to Colleen for creating this amazing women's lacrosse content.

In Season Podcast with PLL Chaos Head Coach Andy Towers

AT and I put together episode 4 last Monday and as the season winds down, the conversations become more and more interesting!  Since both of us are coaches, this podcast is truly the most analytical of any college lacrosse weekly podcast out there.  Hear not just what happened, but why and how.  Plus, there's no better person to be around than AT.  He's hysterical and so smart!  Click here to listen to the "In Season" Podcast!

Extra Man Offense Hack

Is your EMO feeling stale?  Does it seem like your 33 isn't getting you many great looks?  We've all been there where it seems like we're just not moving the ball that well, not getting great skip pass opportunities, settling for up the hashes jump shots and when we get the ball inside we're too far from the net to have a great opportunity.  In this article, i will present an incredibly easy solution: Turn your regular 33 into a "Drop down 33" or a 231 and watch your EMO improve immediately.

In many ways your 231 is exactly the same as the 33, but it is much more difficult for the defense when your two low finishers are a little lower, can step behind, throw the ball through X and your shooters drop down to the wings creating more spacing between the wings and the top center guy.

When the ball goes though X it causes a full rotation of the defense if their in a 5man or 4man rotation.  Meaning, if you keep the ball in front of the net touching each corner and looking for your skips and wall passes without throwing it through X, the defense can play their 4man or 5man rotations without having to rotate to new spots.  In both a 4man and 5man, the Diamond / Box concept will be used and the D will feel comfortable the whole time.

When the ball goes through X, the top point of the diamond in the 4man or the 5man has to get all the way to the wing shooter, which is a tough rotation.  Meanwhile, everyone else has to cover a new guy.  Skip passes and wing shots will abound.

Another advantage to the drop down is the improved feeding angles from your low finishers.  One of the problems most 33 set ups have is the low guys come a little high (above GLE) therefore losing angle to feed the crease guy while simultaneously pushing the shooters up and out of shooting range.  Lower feeders not only give you better angles to feed the crease but also to skip the ball to the wing or up to the top center guy.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, the Drop Down 33 causes the defense to have to fully commit a player to the crease.  Versus a 33 in a 5man or a string, more often than not, the crease is able to halfway commit to the crease because the sub optimal feeding angles and crease guy's distance (farther) from the net.  Half way covering the crease is exactly what the man down wants to do so they can get out to shooters and be in skip pass lanes.  In a Drop Down, everything is lower, the feeders, the wing shooters and the crease guy.  With improved feeding angles the defense must fully commit to the crease which then opens up skips and causes more rotations.

Check out the clips from Brown and Penn running a Drop Down 33.  I think you will find immediate success in running this.  If you want more info, sign up for the JM3 Coaches Training Program!

 I like How Penn mixed in a little carry / shallow cut with their wing and low lefty to create a little bit of movement to open up and disguise a skip pass

Check out the video below where I installed the Drop Down 33 with a high school team in Atlanta.  This team has some slick kids, but were struggling a little bit on EMO.  This EMO hack did the trick and the team started moving the ball great! 

 Have a great weekend!