Ohio State, Quick Dodge – Quick Strike…with a twist…Coach Nick Myers

This is a really interesting lacrosse coach, with a truly interesting and analytical perspective. I love talking to him. In our third podcast with Coach Nick Myers from Ohio State, he offers up a unique lacrosse drill. Thinking about this lacrosse drill is kind of like thinking about an iceberg. On the surface it looks like a cool drill… but there is so much much more to it…

When I interviewed Coach Myers back in 2013, he had begun to integrate more and more tennis balls into his lacrosse drills. Since we have heard this from a number of great lacrosse coaches. It forces players to play with “soft hands,” encourages sharper passes and better throwing technique as well as protecting the stick.

It also allows us to shoot in close, many shots, in a semi-transition setting, without killing our goalies.

Twist #1 – All Tennis Balls

OK, let’s start with the tip of the “iceberg,” this is a quick paced 1V1 lacrosse drill. We have four individual lines of offensive players in a ‘diamond’ look on the field. (See drawing below), and four corresponding lines of defenders in kind of an inner diamond look. [private]

Twist #2, There is an offensive player at ‘X’, however his defender begins that specific rep in the crease. Nice twist eh? So the defender needs to either anticipate, or meet the offensive player at GLE. In this drill we do not want the offensive player from ’X’ dancing with the defender caught or “hung up.” Just driving hard.

We have two coaches throwing passes to the offensive lines in order to keep the lacrosse drill moving really fast. In this drill, the key word is “Quick.” Coach Myers only runs this drill for eight minutes, so to get reps it needs to be quick in terms of reps and the next men up. Coach pass to 3-4 second move and shot, next coach pass to quick move and shot, coach 1 quick pass and shot etc.

So it is a quick pass, offensive player drives hard and fast, perhaps a jab step, a move, and a shot. Coach Myers suggests each rep is only 3-4 seconds.

Twist #3 – Defenders have “Nubs” not sticks

This is a really critical element to the success of this drill. A “nub” is simply a short 18-24” cut off shaft, covered at both ends. Every team can easily manufacture 4-8 of these nubs, and just rotate the same nubs in and out of drills.

The reason the nubs are so critical to the drill is it takes the focus away from checks, or even stick position in the element of coaching defenders. It forces the defenders to fundamentally play:

1. Focusing on body position
2. Focusing on footwork
3. Patience, Patience,
4. Increased attention and an element of intention – to the “Approach”
5. Keeping the attacker in between the 18”’s of the Nub

We just tried this lacrosse drill in practice, and it was ‘eye-opening’ for our defenders. In the initial phases they looked lost due to the speed of the drill and not having their sticks to check with. Then as we continued, we could see their fundamentals, (position, footwork, patience) improve in minutes.

Twist #4 Offensive Players

Coach Myers offered another unique twist to the drill in terms of which offensive players began the drill. Now, I have always had all of my offensive lines rotating line to line. Clearly this puts them in different positions utilizing/learning/practicing different ‘hands’ from different positions on the field. This is important, especially for developing teams.

However, as the season progresses at Ohio State… players who play predominately from behind, or predominately right or left wing locations, stay in those positions, rather than rotate always to the lines where they rarely are located in the actual games… also interesting eh?

Coach Myers explains all this this better than I do… for all Free Members, just click here to listen to Coach Myers in his own words, well worth eight or nine minutes of your time, go to the page and click Preview…

Special thanks to Krossover!! Check out this product!! Click here…

Love to get your comments below! Or email me, mike@laxcoachmike.com.

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