Lacrosse Drills
There are lacrosse drills for all of the different lacrosse positions. Attack drills focus on dodging, passing and shooting. One-on-one drills can help you practice your one-handed cradle, power cradle and different dodges. Game play can get rough so it’s best to figure out in lacrosse drills some of the ways in which you can beat your opponent. Drills featuring the no-look-pass can help you get a lot of assists you if you carry it out perfectly during the game.
One of the attack lacrosse drills that can really pay off in a game focuses on ground balls. Ten balls are placed on each side of the net. The player sprints to the right side, gets a ball and shoots it into the bottom corner of the net Then the player runs behind the net to the left side, picks up the ball with the left hand and once again shoots it at the bottom corner of the goal. Once you have practiced shooting ground balls from either side of the net, it’ll start to become routine in game situations.
Middle lacrosse drills usually focus on shooting from 10-15 yards out, cutting to the net and endurance. One of the lacrosse drills that focuses on cutting to the net sets up two lines of midfielders at the top of the box and one line of attackmen behind the net. When the attack man has chosen his side, a midfielder cuts in from the top, catches the ball and shoots it into the opposite corner of the net.
Another part of the game that needs a lot of practice is the face-off. During lacrosse drills, the first and second lines can be practicing face-offs. The wing men can practice running in to get ground balls. Everyone lines up exactly as in a real life and fights for control of the ball. At the end of the drill the winning team gets to stay in and face a fresh new group of players.
Defense drills should not be overlooked when planning lacrosse drills. These need to focus on long passes, body positioning and poke checking. Poke checking is poking at the opponent’s stick and while it seems simple, in a game it is of utmost importance to keep the offensive player away from yourself and the goal. Defenders also need to do one-on-one drills where they practice taking away the ball and preventing good shots And, in every practice, a minimum of ten minutes should be spent on long passes and clearing passes. You have to be able to throw and catch long passes in order to clear the ball into the offensive zone.
Last but not least, lacrosse drills have to focus on goalie drills as well, where the goalie practices making saves over and over again and clearing the ball. Getting shot during warm-ups is one of the best goalie lacrosse drills. A player or coach stands about 15 yards out and first shoots high shots at the goalie. Then the shots get lower and lower until they are bounce shots. The goalie must focus on these warm-up shots just as if they are in game situations and not lose concentration.