Situational Coaching - The overall key to excellent lacrosse teams is that they perform in all situations with all the key players contributing (10 in the case of a ride or clear, 6 in settled offense, 7 in settled defense, etc.)  If one of the defenders is slacking or on a different page, the offense will probably find him for a score.  This is easy to say but hard to execute unless coaches provide the players a structure for all of the situations.  For goalies on the D end, they are expected to guide the team on the field and so not only do they need to know their position but all the situation setups that should happen on that end of the field. 

For our teams, we have a strong commitment to putting our players in a position to succeed at defense, riding, clearing, etc.  The table below gives you some idea about situations and what to do.  Once you are comfortable with these, insert them into full field practices along with teaching your 6-6 options, man-up O options and man-down options.  Your choices might be different but, make sure the whole team knows what you want on every situation and you'll get a couple of goals a game (denied or obtained) from their consistency and teamwork.

This table is our Defensive situations - we work on a couple of these each practice.  These are predicated on a few rules;

• When the ball is up top we dictate where the ball carrier goes, almost always down the side (lowering the shot angle on the goalie.

• When the ball is at goal line or below then take away the drive to the top side by taking away the outside drive - dictate where the ball carrier goes, either back through X or between you and the crease (then push 'em in)

• Goalie protects the pipe and is responsible to save the low angle shot consistently

• Use slides reluctantly, but when sliding dictate where the ball carrier can go - beaten defender stays on his back for the double

• Pressure produces turnovers much more than checks so the defender dictates direction with his body position and pressures the ball carrier's bottom hand with his stick (lift, C check or poke & lift)

Thus, defenders are never alone, they have the keeper, the crease and their on-ball situation (above) as the foundation for all of your team situation defenses.  Teach these concepts to the keeper and he/she will guide the defense better also.

1-3-1 Bump and Sag

1-4 and don’t cover behind

Five on Dice, center takes 1^st cutter

COMA

Box – Weak side low covers crease

Triangle and One (shut)

Middie down

Tiger with dbl slide on every pass

Break 5 and chase with 1

A, LSM, D mid at midline, Stack 2 A - force long pass

Drop LSM Dmid to D side

On-ride tight use sidelines

Dbl ball, leave long low open

LSM on Wing, D mid on Wing, FO mid

FO mid,

Attack on wing, LSM on wing

D Middie in for Attack, FO off

FO mid, EMO mid, EMO mid

FO mid, LSM, FO mid

3 across, Two mids at restraining (3-2-2) , swing and run w/D

Drive Box middie to the ball

Over the top breakout at midline

Spread our A, use crease to break up pressure

Middie for Goalie, G to corner, D up and over for breaking A

Middie Down either starting w/ball or breaks to get ball

Middie for Goalie, Ball to Middie in Goal w/breakout rules

Long ball to distant corner A

Draw and dump fast (consider 3-1-3 set)

Middie down and run it out

Drive to behind, dbl behind, G takes crease (shutoff)

G dbls behind

Soft with best player shutoff, COMA slide

Break 4 zone with their best player shutoff

Break 4 zone (box)

Break 5 w/backer slide

Play with who you have – emphasize cutter cover

Play with who you have – Break 5 – don’t play behind

Drop in play ball at box line

Double ball into sideline Break 4 box inside

Dbl ball into sideline – leave far side low&hi alone

Double ball into sideline – shut off swing man and hi man