A Lacrosse Weekend 6.25.22
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.
Principles Based Offense In Youth Boy's Lacrosse
Earlier this week I had the amazing opportunity to coach a 2028 JM3 National Team at the Vail tournament and not only was it a lot of fun being up in Vail with a great group of people, but a great coaching and learning experience as well! I applied the concepts of the Principles Based Offense to a talented group of 12 year old boys, and by the end they were running a great offense!
Learn More about the JM3 Principles Based Lacrosse System by going to PrinciplesBasedLacrosse.com
Here were the five principles we focused on:
- Take great shots: at this age, kids take a lot of bad shots goalies can catch
- Make passes: Youth players tend to hang on to the ball too much and we focused on passing, passing, passing!
- Set picks (on and off ball): these create a stimulus for the offense as well as better advantages than pure 1v1 and clearing space
- Communicate: getting kids to remind each other of "triggers" and reads within the triggers is critical!
- Don't cut into the dodger (Spacing): our offense designed around picking, passing, and cutting as opposed to clearing space and dodging; keeping the middle open for cuts but not jamming up the ball carrier was key!
Since players (especially at this age) don't naturally work together in 2man and 3man picking actions, I designed two "Triggers" or motions involving picks on and off ball that provided a stimulus for the offense to create advantages depending upon how the defense reacted.
"Double Ram" is the first Trigger I taught the boys which was really cool! The set up is a circle with 3 middies out top and the attack wing/X/wing. The top center midfielder starts with the ball and the wing mids on both sides pick down off ball for the attack on their side. The dodger looks dodge and dump, feed the pick actions, or pass down pick down, which would often times result in a swing pass to an open backside wing player. The natural variability in this look is awesome as we scored goals in many different ways. What I love about this look, which is similar to a Double Mumbo, is the defense has to worry about sliding to a dodger while covering two off ball down pick actions, which creates not only a difficult approach to the subsequent on ball 2man action, but sets up a the pick action in or close to shooting range!
The second Trigger we installed is called "33" which stands for three players behind and three players in front. The concept is simple "Addition by Subtraction": a 1v1 leaves 5 players in the slide package, a 2man game leaves four players in the slide package, and a 3man game leaves three players in the slide package. We ran a Big / Little "Goal line Pick" on one side of the net while we rolled a third player behind backside. If we didn't have any advantages from the first pick, we could throw back back, swing it through X and dodge the other side with another short stick. The three players in front of the goal looked to seal, slip, pick, and cut back door while not cutting to the "Island."
Watch the video below from the semi final and the final and you will see bunch of 12 year olds running a Principles Based Offense.
There are many details that make this offense work beyond the simplicity of the two triggers we employed and the principles we stick to. If you want to learn more, stay tuned! I will be creating awesome content and webinars using the Vail footage for the JM3 Youth Coaches Training Program to help youth coaches learn how to install and build on team concepts and strategy.
- Transition Defense
- Wing play
- Deep Zone Ride (which was building towards a 10man ride)
- Team Defense: packing it in, Invert Defense, and covering picks on the wing
- Man Down (a trick to cover the most popular youth EMO!)
- Man up: teaching the coverage solutions vs a Drop Down 33
- Team Offense: Double Ram and "33"
If you have questions on youth coaching feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] or subscribe to the JM3 Coaches Training Program (CTP) check out the CTP here
JM3 National Teams come together a couple times per year at destination events which don't compete with a player's home club. The goal is to create great lacrosse experiences through small rosters, good coaching, and an emphasis on team play. Utilizing a combination of a consistent approach, Training Sessions throughout the year, and video we can amplify development skill and IQ for the players!
Off Ball Action in Women's Lacrosse
I was having breakfast with Matt Brown, Offensive Coordinator at The University of Denver a few weeks ago and we had a really fun lacrosse conversation. Brownie, who played for me and coached for me at DU years back, is one of the smartest coaches in the game and is an all around great guy.
One really cool thing Brownie shared with me is a box lacrosse 3man side action called, "The Middle Entry" and is phenomenal for for women's lacrosse! It's simple: have the middle player of a 3man off ball side cut the middle, opening up space for the two perimeter players to do off ball up picks or down picks. The player who cut can then replace back out or pick.
In the video from our Colorado Girls Training Camp for JM3 Athletes last week, we introduced this concept in our team play and it worked great! Notice how these girls are create off ball advantages, occupying defenders, and facilitating outlets for ball swings while employing the Middle Entry concept. You will see Double Staggered Picks, Spain Picks and more in this video!
If you want to learn more about how to install a Principles Based Offense in women's lacrosse, check out the JM3 Women's Coaches Training Program. it is full of every concept, drill, and terminology to install a picking offense!
Coach Damon over at Lax Goalie Rat is running another virtual summit for all the goalies out there looking to level up their goalie play. It's free to sign up for the summit and free stream it live! If you are interested in leveling up and learning even more be sure to get your hands on the VIP pass which is a small investment but makes a big difference.
When we run our Virtual Summits we get the best minds in the game, Coach Damon has done all the hard work and brought you the best in the business for the goalie position.
You can sign up for free at VirtualGoalieSummit.com
This is FIRE and it is FREE Get your free stream pass at VirtualGoalieSummit.com
JM3 SPORTS uses the FreeLap speed timing system with our Athletes along with Tony Hollers Atomic Speed Workout and the results are phenomenal!
Start seeing speed gains in weeks! Get your FreeLap speed timer >>>CLICK HERE <<<
If you want to get Tony Holler's Speed Training for Lacrosse go to this link >>> CLICK HERE <<<
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If you want to learn a more in-depth approach to all of the drills in this blog check out our premium content. Thousands of athletes, parents, coaches, and programs are subscribed to one of our memberships and have joined the JM3 community to take their lacrosse skills and IQ to an entirely new level.
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These amazing programs below develop players and teams faster than any other systems out there.
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JM3 Interns Needed
Here at JM3 Sports we are opening up a hiring process for interns for social media, editing, content creation, and videography. We are extremely excited about the JM3 team and mission and are expanding to serve even more athletes and programs. We need your help!
Email me at jmunro@jm3sports if you have the skills and would like to become a part of our team.
Social Media Interns:
JM3 Sports is looking for a social media team that will help run the day to day operations of all of JM3 social media - Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, Facebook
Editing Intern:
JM3 Sports is looking for editors that:
-Can recognize relevant lacrosse plays on offense and defense in both boys and girls lacrosse
-Can identify and keep track of a player or players throughout a game
-Are able to screen record on their computer and have general knowledge of how to use Imovie
-Are able to communicate through text/phone effectively
-Can watch multiple lacrosse games in a day on same day/1 day notice
Highlight Video Editing Intern:
JM3 Sports is looking for editors that:
-Have a computer that can screen record/download games
-Have Imovie or another video editing software
-Have general knowledge about Imovie or other video editing software
-Can format title slides
-Can identify which clips are better than others and organize them from best to worst
-Can use freeze frames and arrows/circles to identify players
-Can communicate effectively through email and text message
Get your Highlight Video Produced by JM3 Sports!
Go to www.laxhighlightvideo.com
Check out this Awesome Video we produced!
Have a great weekend!