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Screen Shot 2017-03-15 at 9.45.32 AMQuick Start Lacrosse Drill, Scott Marr – Albany

Many coaches talk about Transition Lacrosse, or “getting it up and down,” but at Albany their success is no accident. Although it appears unstructured, and there are not a lot of “formal” plays, it is a culture that is reinforced in practice every day.

In the recent podcast with this great coach he shared an awesome transition drill – The Quick Start Lacrosse Drill. It is a transition drill, a reaction drill, an “Even” drill and a quick start drill, all in one.

The lacrosse drill begins with four offensive players at the far Restraining Line, 70 yards from the goal. [private]We also have three defensive players who enter the lacrosse drill from about ten yards behind the midfield line, thus about 55-60 yards away. The intent of the “head start” for the defensive players is to give them an opportunity to get back into the hole or hub, and play defense against the four offensive players sprinting down the field.

In addition we also have a lot of balls spread out along the end line for the second phase of the drill.

Finally we also have a line of poles, LSM’s, or defensive middies stationed in the Box, they will enter the drill in the second phase, which comes very quickly. In today’s game, this is also a good place to play our offensive middies as well.

At Albany they generally run this drill for ten minutes and it is a great conditioning drill as well. After the first five minutes, Coach Marr has all of the middies switch colors on their pennies, thus all middies, offensive and defensive middies are involved in the offense as well as the defense. I love this!

Phase One – 4V3

The offensive players (attack, middies, LSM’s and in the case of Albany, often poles in the offensive mix) are sprinting down the field and playing to a shot or goal in a 4V3 format. Very quickly, after a shot, a goal, a save, or a shot missing the cage going past the end line, the second phase begins.

Phase Two – 4V4

One of the original four offensive players now sprints to end line and picks up an additional ball. We emulate a “Quick Start” from the end line, as that offensive player picks up the ball and we play a second rep of the drill.

As soon as the ball goes past the end line (or goal or save) an additional defender enters the drill, sprinting down from the lower offensive end of the substitution box. Once he arrives we are “even” now 4V4 and we play to a quick shot. This assumes that the defense held until the new additional defender arrives…

The 4V4 phase is also very quickly played to a shot and then the next groups come sprinting down the field from the far end.

Coaching Tips

1. At Albany, they stress that as the second phase begins, the defenders stay in front of the cage, even though the ball is coming in quickly from the end line. If it is still 4V3 until the next defender arrives we want all of our defenders behind the cage.

2. Once we enter the 4V4 play, we have options. We might focus on a 2-Man game behind, or off ball screens, or pass and pick, or simply just let them play! But play quickly as we want to keep the pace and the conditioning element of the drill as a high priority.

actually Coach Marr explains all this better than I can, all Free Members can listen to coach describe this in his own words in the “Preview” sample, just click here

Hope to get your thoughts below!

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