LACROSSE BEGINNER DRILLS
THE FIRST STEP TO BECOMING A STAR!
DRILLS AND GAMES
Since stick skills are the most important thing for beginners to learn, most of the drills and games that follow focus on stickwork. Obviously, another important aspect of teaching young players is allowing them to have fun. So, coaches have to find a balance of working on their players’ stick-skills, letting them play lacrosse and having fun. Most young players simply want to scrimmage the whole time and it is important to remind them that scrimmaging will become a whole lot more fun when everyone can catch and throw. It is also beneficial to use games that incorporate fundamentals so young players do not get bored doing line drills all day.
CRADLING DRILLS
The first thing that a beginner should learn to do is cradle the ball in his stick. This is one of the reasons why beginning girls players often advance much faster than boys players. The first thing girl coaches teach is to cradle and be able to carry the ball. The easiest way to do this is to have them line up along the sideline, side by side. Have everyone jog together about 20 yards using different cradling techniques. The first cradle that they should learn is the two-hand upright cradle. Emphasize to them that the top-hand does all the work cradling the head of the stick in and out, and the bottom hand is loose on the butt-end of the stick.
It is important for them to learn that cradling is necessary for them to get the ball in the “sweet spot” for a shot or pass. The upright cradle is the most important and fundamental cradle to learn as you can always be ready to throw or shoot when your stick is by your head. The second cradle they should learn is the two-hand underhand cradle, where both hands carry their stick at their hips. This is the most effective cradle for midfielders when running with the ball up and down the field but makes an inexperienced or less aware player vulnerable to stick-checks.
The third cradle that they should learn is the one-hand upright cradle. This cradle is important for learning to protect the ball when being covered by a defenseman. When using the one-hand upright cradle, the player holds his stick right under the plastic on the head of the stick. To protect the ball, the player must hold the stick up by his head and hold his opposite arm out to guard against stick-checks. For each of these cradles, have all the players jog across the field in unison working on one cradle at a time. If they are having trouble with a particular cradle, have them try it standing still until they get the hang of it. Another good exercise to have them do while they are standing still is to have them start with one-hand on their stick, right at the top of the shaft, with the stick at their hips, parallel to the ground. They then lift the stick up to their chest (with the ball in the pocket) and turn it upside down so the head is facing the ground. They then cradle the ball back down to their hips. This little exercise shows them how cradling keeps the ball in the pocket, even if the stick is upside down for a short period of time. It also gives them a good feel for cradling.
One thing that beginner players do all the time is that they have their stick-head face out from their body when they are trying to cradle the ball. Obviously, with the stick facing out, the ball is much more prone to fall out of the pocket. Beginner players should learn that it is important to keep the head of their stick facing their own head when they are cradling. This will keep the ball in their pocket much more effectively. The other mistake that beginners make is that they try to cradle the ball too hard. Teach them that a cradle needs to be a subtle, short movement in the stick. The stick head only needs to move a few inches back and forth. A final problem that a lot of beginners have is that they have no pockets in their sticks. Many sticks that kids buy in stores are strung up too tightly. Simply loosening the sidewall strings (the strings that attach the mesh to the sides of the stick) and the end string (the string that attaches the mesh to the bottom of the stick) can greatly help a novice player when learning to cradle.
PASSING DRILLS
The single most important drill for a lacrosse player at any level is throwing against the wall. This is an extremely important drill for a beginner lacrosse player to utilize on his own time. At the lower levels, the player who gets against a wall for ten to fifteen minutes about 3 or 4 times per week will be the best player on his team. As a coach, scout out a local wall that you can take your team to and show them the following drills. There may even be one close to your practice facility.
First, just have them throw with their strong hand and have them bounce the ball in front of the wall so the ball lobs back and they can catch it. They should stand about ten yards away from the wall. Challenge them to try and catch 50 in a row with their strong hand. Then make them move on to their week hand. After they get comfortable with that, make them start to pick points on the wall and hit those points with passes. Don’t worry so much about how many passes they catch – make sure they are using good technique and a smooth throwing motion.
Young beginners will not be able to throw hard enough to make the ball return to their stick in the air, so they can throw it at their point on the wall and let it bounce as it comes back to them. Same as the first drill, make them try and get 50 in a row with each hand. Next, they can move on to keeping the ball in the air the whole time. Make them pick a point higher up on the wall and throw it hard enough so the ball comes back to their stick. Only let them do this after they have mastered the first two wall drills or it will just become frustrating for them. Again, have them do 50 in a row with their strong hand and make them move on to their weak hand. Finally, if they are able to do all of this, then they can try and practice one-handed against the wall. Have them use the same progression in drills as they did with two hands. Do not be too worried if they are unable to do this drill with one hand effectively. Although it is more advanced to use the off hand it is a good drill for beginners to aspire to, while building up their throwing power and accuracy in the process.
These wall drills are extremely effective and efficient in allowing beginners to progress rapidly. Many coaches spend too much time with beginners doing line drills. While line drills are a really great way to warm-up players’ sticks and legs at the same time, they are not the most effective way to build up the stick-skills of beginners. Beginners need as many repetitions as possible and standing in line and throwing the ball every couple minutes is not the most efficient way to learn. If your team cannot get to a wall during practice, the first thing they should do every day is partner up with a teammate to have a catch. Have them try and get 50 in a row righty and 50 in a row lefty. Once they can do that, have them throw one-handed to each other and try to get 50 and 50 again. Beginner coaches have to remember that there is not much you can teach a lacrosse team until everyone is able to catch and throw adequately. Also, the game is going to be a whole lot more fun for everyone when they are actually able to move the ball to one another.
Another good passing drill for beginners, after they can throw against the wall or have catch with friends, is a three-man triangle. Each player stands about 10 yards apart in a triangle. Each player throws with his right hand and catches with his left. This means that after he catches the ball with the stick in his left hand, the player turns to the outside and changes hands and throws with the stick in his right hand. This is a very important concept for lacrosse players to learn because it teaches them to always keep their stick on the outside and away from defenders. It also promotes the use of both hands for beginning players. After they are able to get it around the triangle 10 times in a row, then tell them to go the other way, catching with the stick in their right hand and throwing with their left.
Yet another helpful passing drill is the diamond drill. Players get in four lines that are set up in a diamond formation. Each line should be about 20 yards apart. To start out, everyone throws with their right hand to the line to their right. So, the ball is working around the diamond in a counter-clockwise direction. This is not a standstill drill. The player who is about to receive the ball starts jogging towards the next line, so the player throwing him the ball has to “lead” him. “Leading” another player means you have to throw the ball to where he is going, not to where he is. It is like a quarterback leading a receiver, so the receiver can catch the ball without breaking stride. So, in the diamond drill, the player with the ball starts jogging towards the next line and leads the player who is receiving the pass from the next line. The player who threw the ball then gets in back of the line that he just threw to. It is very important to stress to your players that they do not have to fire these passes at first. Teach them to first throw the ball softly and put some air under it so they can accurately lead the receiving player. It may also help to teach players to start another ball when one is dropped.
Finally, the most popular passing drills are line drills. Nearly every team in lacrosse, no matter what level, starts their practices out with line drills. As discussed before, line drills may not be as effective for beginners because they can take too long and be counterproductive unless the players have sufficient stick skills. Line drills are fairly simple to set up. There are two lines facing each other about 20 yards apart. There should be about 5 or 6 players in each line. There are a bunch of different throwing skills that you can work on in line drills. Line drills are meant to sharpen stick skills at the beginning of practice, so do not let your players goof off and develop bad habits.
There are some key points to emphasize when running line drills. The first one is to make sure that everyone gets their hands away from their body when throwing. Many beginners try to throw with their hands close to their body or with “alligator arms”. It is important to stress to your players that getting their hands out is necessary for accurate passing and powerful shots. The other important point to make is that the player who is catching the ball must come to meet the ball. This is an important skill to learn for game situations to prevent from getting picked off by the opposing team. When a ball is thrown (not before!), the player should run to meet the ball. Also, stress the importance of having soft hands and catching the ball like an egg. Many players in line drills tend to attack the ball and knock it down instead of catching it.
There are several different variations of line drills. The first variation that a team can start with is inside passing. This means that everyone’s stick is to the inside. To start the line drills, everyone goes right-handed. So, in “righty-inside passing”, the person catching the ball should be to the right of the player throwing the ball. Both players stick are to the inside and lined up with one another. In the next variation of line drills, it is the opposite. In outside passing, the sticks are to the outside, so when the team is doing righty outside passing, the player catching the ball is to the left of the player throwing the ball. This variation teaches players to throw the ball across their body. The progress through line drills should be inside passing righty, inside passing lefty, outside passing righty, then outside passing lefty. These simple variations in line drills are more than enough for beginners to practice.
GROUND BALL DRILLS
Ground ball drills are easy to vary and are usually pretty fun and simple for beginners. The first ground ball drill that you can run with your players is very basic. Just have them line up about 10 yards away from you. Slowly roll them the ball have them scoop it up, and throw it back to you. The points to emphasize in any ground ball drill are bending down really low, bringing your stick to your face to protect the ball from checks, exploding through the ball (which means to run fast and powerfully as the ball is being scooped), and to call out “ball” and “release”. “Ball” is called out by the player picking up the ground ball as he gets around 5 yards away from the ball. “Release” is called as soon as the ball is scooped into his stick. These calls are important to make in games when two players from the same team are going for the ball, as will be explained later. Eventually, you can roll the balls on multiple angles in around-the-clock groundball drills.
A ball drill that emphasizes the technique and body position necessary to successfully pick up a ground ball is the butt-to-butt ground ball drill. Players group themselves in pairs and stand butt-to-butt with their knees bent and the ball between their legs. On the first whistle, the two players fight for position over the ball without touching it with their feet of stick. On the second whistle, they go for the ball. The player that does the best job of establishing position will have the best chance to pick the ball up. This is a good game to introduce some competition, having a tournament for players and crowning your ground ball king.
Ground balls can also be worked into line drills after the players have gone through the passing drills. In the “ground-ball-to” line drill, each player scoops up the ground ball and then slowly rolls it to the player in the next line. Make sure that players are not firing the ball at each other instead of just gently rolling it towards the other line. After this line drill, players can run the “ground-ball-away” drill in which the player scoops up the groundball, runs toward the opposite line and rolls the ball behind himself and away from the player who is next. Just like passing line drills, groundball line drills are a great way to warm up your players for practice or competition.
Beginners love to do one-on-one groundballs because it is an easy drill to understand and it is fun competition with some physical contact. Another popular way to do one-on-one groundballs simply have two lines of players set up right next to one another, facing the same direction. You can have them line up shoulder to shoulder or get in between the two lines with some balls. Have the first two players look forward and throw a ball out in front of them. As soon as they see the ball, the two players run out and try and get the groundball. Whoever gets the ball runs away from the pressure of the other player and throws it back to the coach. It is also possible to allow the players to the goal for a shot.
One important point to make is to emphasize calling out “ball” and “release”. Also, it is extremely advantageous for a player to get down as low as possible when getting a ground ball. Show your players how a low center of gravity makes it extremely hard to be knocked over. Stress that the player who gets the lowest and explodes through the ball the fastest, will always come up with the “gb”.
There are some good defensive strategies if a player is a step behind the opposition and going for the ground ball. First, of course, players should never push the man from behind. For young players, this is obviously dangerous, and it is also a foul in lacrosse that they should learn immediately. Another tip is if player A is a step behind player B, player A should try and lift or poke the bottom hand of player B. Player A can do this by getting the head of his stick under player B’s bottom hand and lifting upwards or behind it and poking forward. This can make it very difficult for Player B to pick up the groundball and can give player A a chance to catch up.
A final tip to give your players is that if the ball is close to their feet, they should kick it forward a couple yards to make it easier to scoop it up. A lot of times in youth lacrosse games, you will see a huge mass of players hovering around a groundball. Teach your players to lift their opponents stick, kick the ball out of the pile and pick it up. If they can learn to do this, they will be a step ahead of many young players.
After one-on-one groundballs, you can move to two-on-one groundballs. Two-on-ones are run pretty much the same way as one-on-one groundballs. Three lines are facing the same direction. The two players on the outside are partners. The player in the middle is on his own. If the two partners come up with the ball then they must make one pass before throwing the ball back to the coach. If the man in the middle comes up with the ball, then he must avoid checks from the two other players, and throw the ball back to the coach.
In two-on-one groundballs, it is necessary to teach the importance of “man” and “ball” calls. When two players on Team A are going for the ball against one player from Team B, one player from Team A wants to take the player from Team B out of the play. A player can do this either with a legal body-check or simply by blocking him out. If the player from Team A makes contact with the player from Team B, it must be within five yards of the ball or it is called interference and the ball is rewarded to Team B. To recap, one player from Team A calls out “man” and hits or blocks out the player from Team B. Players at the youth level should probably be taught to simply block out the other man as hitting too much can be dangerous at that age. The other player from Team A calls out “ball” and goes after the groundball. Once he scoops the ball up, he calls out “release” so his teammate knows to stop making contact with the player from Team B (if he does not stop making contact when his teammate has already picked up the ball, then it is an interference call and the ball is rewarded to the other team).
A good coaching tip for this drill is to have the closest man to the ball on Team A call out “man” and have the player on Team A who is farthest from the ball call out “ball”. This may seem a bit counter-intuitive, but if the player closest to the ball tries to pick up the ball, then he will have the opposition checking and hounding him. If the player from Team A who is closest to the ball simply stops and blocks out the man from Team B, then the other player from Team A is going to have a clear path to the ball. Of course if a player has a clear path to the ball and no pressure on him you want him to go for the ball. There are going to be a lot of groundballs in youth games, so working these types of groundball drills can be instrumental to a team’s success.
