How do lacrosse goalies become better defensive leaders. What are the key principles of one-on-one lacrosse defense. Why is body positioning crucial in lacrosse defense. Which lacrosse checks are most effective for defenders.
The Goalie’s Role in Lacrosse Defense
In the dynamic world of lacrosse, the goalie stands as the cornerstone of the defense. While their primary duty is to guard the goal, their responsibilities extend far beyond simply blocking shots. A proficient lacrosse goalie must possess a comprehensive understanding of defensive strategies, enabling them to guide and support their teammates effectively.
Goalies occupy a unique vantage point on the field, affording them an unparalleled view of the game’s unfolding action. This positioning allows them to identify potential threats and communicate crucial information to their defenders. By mastering the intricacies of one-on-one defense, goalies can elevate their leadership skills and contribute significantly to their team’s overall defensive performance.
Key Aspects of Goalie Leadership in Defense
- Observing and analyzing defensive positioning
- Providing real-time feedback to defenders
- Identifying and communicating potential threats
- Understanding and relaying offensive patterns
- Coordinating defensive shifts and adjustments
Fundamental Principles of One-on-One Lacrosse Defense
Effective one-on-one defense in lacrosse is built upon a foundation of core principles that every player, including goalies, should understand. These fundamentals not only enhance individual defensive performance but also contribute to the team’s overall defensive strategy.
Force Attackers Down the Alleys
One of the primary objectives in lacrosse defense is to limit the shooter’s options by forcing them towards the sides of the field. Why is this strategy so crucial? When an attacker is positioned in the center of the field, they have a clear shot at the entire 6′ by 6′ goal. However, by compelling them to move down the alleys, defenders significantly reduce the available shooting angle, making the goalie’s job considerably easier.
Defenders must use their body positioning to guide attackers towards the sidelines, effectively shrinking the goal’s exposed area. This technique not only minimizes scoring opportunities but also creates more predictable shooting scenarios for the goalie to anticipate and defend against.
Prevent Topside Beats
Another critical aspect of solid lacrosse defense is preventing attackers from beating defenders “topside” or towards the middle of the field. Allowing an attacker to move inside gives them a more advantageous shooting position and opens up passing lanes to teammates cutting towards the goal.
Defenders must maintain proper body positioning and footwork to consistently direct attackers towards the outside, even when faced with aggressive dodges or change-of-direction moves. This principle works in tandem with forcing players down the alleys to create a cohesive defensive strategy that limits offensive options and protects the goal.
The Importance of Body Positioning in Lacrosse Defense
Body positioning is the cornerstone of effective lacrosse defense. It serves as the foundation upon which all other defensive techniques are built. Proper body positioning allows defenders to control the movement of attackers, dictate the flow of play, and create advantageous situations for their team.
Angled Stance
Defenders should never face attackers straight on. Instead, they must adopt an angled stance that encourages the ball carrier to move in a specific direction – typically towards the sidelines. This angled positioning makes it easier to maintain contact with the attacker while simultaneously guiding them away from dangerous scoring areas.
Hip Engagement
As the attacker approaches, defenders should focus on engaging the opponent’s hips. By placing their stick on the attacker’s hip, defenders can exert control over the player’s movement and maintain close proximity without overcommitting. This technique allows defenders to “ride” the attacker down the alley while remaining in a position to react to any sudden changes in direction.
Footwork and Balance
Effective body positioning relies heavily on proper footwork and balance. Defenders must maintain a low, athletic stance with their feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. This posture allows for quick lateral movements and rapid changes of direction, enabling defenders to stay with even the most agile attackers.
Essential Lacrosse Checks for Defenders
While body positioning forms the foundation of lacrosse defense, well-executed checks can disrupt an attacker’s rhythm and potentially cause turnovers. However, it’s crucial to emphasize that checks should complement solid positioning rather than replace it. Goalies should be familiar with these checks to provide guidance and feedback to their defenders.
The Poke Check
The poke check is widely regarded as the most effective defensive technique in lacrosse. Its effectiveness stems from two key factors:
- It irritates attackers by interfering with their stick handling and passing motions.
- When executed correctly, it doesn’t compromise the defender’s body position.
To perform a poke check, defenders should extend their bottom hand forward, making contact with the attacker’s hands, stick, or chest using the head of their stick. It’s crucial to maintain proper defensive stance and body position while executing this check.
The Slap Check
A slap check involves a quick, chopping motion aimed at the attacker’s stick or hands. This check can be effective in dislodging the ball or disrupting an attacker’s control. However, defenders must be cautious not to overcommit, as a missed slap check can leave them out of position.
The Lift Check
The lift check is designed to elevate an attacker’s stick, potentially causing them to lose control of the ball. This check is particularly useful when an attacker is cradling the ball close to their body. Defenders should aim to get their stick under the attacker’s and lift upwards in a quick, controlled motion.
Goalie Communication: Guiding the Defense
Effective communication is a hallmark of great lacrosse goalies. Their unique perspective allows them to see developing plays and potential threats that defenders might miss. By mastering a set of clear, concise commands, goalies can provide real-time guidance to their teammates, enhancing the overall defensive performance.
Key Defensive Commands
- “Shift Left” or “Shift Right”: Instructs defenders to adjust their positioning
- “You’re Good”: Confirms that a defender’s positioning is correct
- “Poke”: Reminds defenders to utilize the poke check when appropriate
- “Hot”: Alerts defenders to an imminent scoring threat
- “Slide”: Calls for defensive help or a double team
Goalies should practice these commands regularly, ensuring they can deliver them quickly and clearly in high-pressure game situations. Clear communication not only improves defensive coordination but also boosts team confidence and cohesion.
Defensive Drills for Improving One-on-One Skills
To develop and refine defensive skills, coaches and players should incorporate targeted drills into their practice routines. These exercises focus on key aspects of one-on-one defense, helping players internalize proper techniques and decision-making processes.
Stick-less Defense Drill
This drill emphasizes the importance of body positioning and footwork by removing the defensive stick from the equation. Defenders must rely solely on their body to guide attackers and prevent topside beats. This exercise helps players develop a strong foundation in positional defense before incorporating stick skills.
Mirror Drill
In this drill, defenders face off against attackers in a confined space, mirroring their movements to maintain proper positioning. The goal is to stay between the attacker and the goal while forcing them towards the sidelines. This exercise improves footwork, reaction time, and spatial awareness.
Poke Check Progression
This drill series focuses on developing effective poke check technique. Starting with stationary targets, players progress to moving attackers, learning to time their checks without compromising their defensive stance. The drill emphasizes the importance of quick, controlled movements and maintaining proper body position.
Advanced Defensive Strategies for Lacrosse Goalies
As goalies develop their understanding of one-on-one defense, they can begin to implement more advanced strategies to elevate their team’s defensive performance. These tactics involve reading offensive patterns, anticipating plays, and coordinating complex defensive maneuvers.
Recognizing Offensive Sets
Experienced goalies learn to identify common offensive formations and predict likely play developments. This knowledge allows them to alert defenders to potential threats before they materialize, giving the defense a crucial edge in positioning and preparation.
Coordinating Slides and Doubles
Goalies play a vital role in orchestrating defensive slides and double teams. By recognizing when a defender is beat or an attacker is in a dangerous position, goalies can call for timely help defense, potentially preventing high-percentage scoring opportunities.
Managing Defensive Rotations
In situations where the defense is forced to slide or double team, goalies must guide their teammates through the ensuing rotations. This involves quickly assessing which areas of the field are left vulnerable and directing defenders to fill these gaps, maintaining a cohesive defensive unit.
By mastering these advanced concepts, lacrosse goalies can transform from mere shot-stoppers into true defensive coordinators, significantly enhancing their team’s ability to shut down opposing offenses.
The Lacrosse Goalie’s Guide to Playing Solid 1×1 Defense
By Coach Damon
The lacrosse goalie is the leader of the defense.
And while goalies will never engage in one-on-one defense the way a long stick defender does, it’s still important to understand the basics of lacrosse defense.
This way you can offer coaching and spot problems with individual defenders given your unique view of the field.
By learning the basics of playing solid one-on-one lacrosse defense a goalie will become a better leader.
This post is a guide to help goalies understand the techniques involved in playing dominating one-on-one defense in the sport of lacrosse.
As a goalie, you know that when a shooter is in the middle of the field he is much more dangerous compared to when he’s driving down the alley on the side of the field.
The former gives the shooter the entire 6′ by 6′ goal to shoot at, while the latter reduces the size of the goal drastically.
Therefore, the first rule of on-ball lacrosse defense is: Force down the allies and don’t get beat topside.
This means as a defender you want to use your body positioning to force the attackman down the alleys.
The way a defender sets up with his body position should encourage offensive players to drive down the alleys.
Given the goalie’s unique view on the field, you’ll be able to tell if the defenders’ angle and positioning is correct.
Sometimes defenders will not be in the correct position to force players down the alleys. It is then the goalie’s responsibility to be vocal and alert the teammate how to correct his or her positioning.
Part of the lacrosse goalie terminology is alerting your teammates to correct their defensive positioning.
SHIFT LEFT or SHIFT RIGHT – Will let defenseman know he needs to move left or right. lacrosse goalie terms
YOU’RE GOOD – Will let defenseman know his positioning is perfect.
Defenders should never play attackman straight up. Their body positioning should always be forcing the ball carrier down the sides of the fields.
Then they should never get beat over the top, or towards the middle of the field.
Body positioning is the single most important element of on-ball defense and its the reason why many defensive coaches often run drills where the D cannot use their sticks.
Once the defender is in solid positioning the next step is to engage the hips.
As the ball carrier approaches, defenders should place their stick on the hip. The head of the defenseman’s stick remains towards the middle of the field so that we don’t get beat topside.
With the stick on the ball carrier’s hip, the defender can ride the player down the alley.
As he or she drives, the defender’s body positioning should lag behind just slightly.
Then in the event that the ball carrier tries to roll back towards the middle, the defender is already in a position to stop this move and encourage the attacker to continue down the alley.
Again, engaging the hips does not rely on the stick and can be taught to defenders without their stick in hand to focus on solid technique without the distraction of the stick.
While good lacrosse defense is primarily about footwork and body positioning, the defender’s job is also to make the ball carrier as uncomfortable as possible.
This is done by throwing checks.
There are lots of different types of checks that defenders can use but I only teach 3 checks – Poke, Slap, Lift.
Understanding lacrosse defense for goalies means knowing what these checks are and when to use them so you can ensure your team is playing great defense.
The poke check is the single greatest type of check a defenseman can throw.
Why?
Because 1.) Attackman hate when your stick is on their gloves or interrupting their cradling or passing motion 2.) When thrown properly a stick check doesn’t put the defender out of position.
To throw a proper poke check simply lunge your bottom hand at the opponent making the head of your stick contact his hands, stick or numbers.
Don’t lunge with your whole body because you’ll be out of position in the event the check doesn’t dislodge the ball.
Lunge with your hands while your body remains in solid defensive positioning.
Also be sure not to come out of the proper defensive stance when throwing the poke check. The ability to stay in a great stance is what makes the poke check such a powerful technique.
A perfect opportunity for a poke check is when an attacker brings his stick in front of his/her face for a split dodge.
Youth defenders don’t utilize the poke nearly enough. I often see attackmen just standing behind the goal at X in the perfect feeding position and defenders are not harassing them with poke checks.
As a goalie, yell “POKE” at your defenders to remind them to utilize this awesome check. If the ball carrier is close enough to the defender that he can land a poke check, he absolutely should be doing it.
A slap check is a quick chop landing on the opponent’s hands or stick.
Defenders should not do a full windup when executing a slap check because 1) this is a slash and will often be called a penalty and 2) by pulling the stick all the back you create a lane for the attacker.
The slap check should be short, hard slaps with the objective of dislodging the ball and making the ball carrier uncomfortable.
When a defender pushes his opponent’s hips and creates a little bit of separation this is a perfect opportunity to throw a slap check or two on the bottom hand before reengaging the hips to play solid defense.
Remind your defenseman to throw slap checks by yelling “SLAP”.
Finally, the lift is the final type of check I teach where you lift the hands or stick of ball carrier.
This will prevent the attacker from making an accurate pass or shooting with any kind of power.
As a driving opponent raises his hands to shoot you can remind the D to lift by yelling “LIFT”.
In addition to the poke, slap, and lift there are many other types of lacrosse checks: Wrap Check, Ding Dong, Over-The-Head Check, Back Slap, Butt Dig, Kayak, Scissor, Back Side Wrap check, Pencil check, … the list goes on and on.
But the basics of solid lacrosse defense revolve around 3 checks – poke, slap, and lift.
You can forget about all the other types of checks especially as a beginner.
Your primary job as a goalie is to stop shots. But you must also be a leader on the field.
A leader knows how to direct others and spot problems that can be corrected.
By learning the basics of lacrosse on-ball defense a goalie will become a better leader.
Goalies don’t necessarily need to be great on-ball defenders but they must know the techniques and strategies well enough to spot when a teammate is not executing them properly.
Until next time! Coach Damon
Any other tips for lacrosse defense for goalies? Any questions? Let me know in the comments.
The Art of the Stick Drop
PHOTO COURTESY OF BC ATHLETICS
Cara Urbank, who surpassed 200 career points this season, has post-goal celebrations that range from a spirited stick slam to more of a casual “drop flick.”
Fri May 21 2021 | Nelson Rice | College
College Women
Maddie Howe scored her 147th career goal in style.
The Notre Dame senior attacker caught a feed over the middle from Andie Aldave, then turned and unleashed a backhanded shot around her defender and past Virginia’s Charlie Campbell at Arlotta Stadium.
The first comment about the highlight of Howe’s backhand goal on USA Lacrosse Magazine’s Instagram channel, however, focused not on her jaw-dropping feat but instead what she did immediately after it.
“Why do they throw or put their sticks down?”
“I saw that,” said Howe, who finished with three goals and one assist in the Fighting Irish’s 13-8 NCAA tournament second-round win.
It was far from the first query regarding her iconic stick drops, which are probably better described as tosses. Howe has become accustomed to the questions. From professors and classmates. From aunts, uncles and grandparents who support her but might not follow the sport as closely.
“If you’re not familiar with lacrosse, the concept of a legal or illegal stick, it still kind of goes over a lot of people’s heads,” Howe said.
Even her most detailed explanations to friends and family members tend to fall short of full enlightenment.
Watch the NCAA quarterfinals this weekend on ESPN3 and you’re bound to notice this unique element to the college women’s game. Just wait for a goal. The stick drop has spawned Reddit threads, Quora blog posts and a 2019 YouTube tutorial from the Furman women’s lacrosse team. It’s transformed into a punctuation — often an exclamation point — for the game’s biggest moments and bears some semblance to a bat flip after a walk-off homer.
“It’s become somewhat of an art, and the players definitely have fun slamming [their sticks] to the ground,” said ESPN analyst Sheehan Stanwick Burch, who also hosts a podcast for USA Lacrosse Magazine titled “The Stick Drop.” (For the record, her siblings preferred “That’s What Sheehan Said.”)
Some stick drops are subtle. Others are more emphatic. All are required.
Some stick drops are subtle. Others are more emphatic. All are required.
What’s now a staple of any post-goal celebration started as and remains a preventive practice. After years in which players would tighten their strings after scoring to prevent being called for an illegal stick, the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Rules Committee dropped the hammer after the 2013 season.
A memo to head women’s lacrosse coaches and officials about the rule change contained the following paragraph under Rule 4:
“A goal is not scored when the player who scored the goal does not drop her crosse or hand her crosse to the nearest official in a timely fashion. A goal is not scored when the goal scorer or any teammate adjusts the goal-scoring crosse in any way before dropping the crosse or handing it to the official. The crosse will be considered illegal and will be removed from the game.”
Boston College associate head coach and former four-time first-team All-American Kayla Treanor was a sophomore at Syracuse when the rule went into effect.
“It definitely makes the game really fair,” Treanor said.
“We were a little bit more aware [at first] of dropping your stick immediately, but all you have to do is drop your stick in a timely fashion. I don’t think it’s changed too much.”
The biggest adjustment occurs for players transitioning from high school to college.
“Whenever we have a freshman score their first career goal, they always, always, always forget to drop their stick,” Howe said.
Such a fate befell Tewaaraton Award finalist and Boston College star attacker Charlotte North during her first collegiate scrimmage against High Point in the fall of her freshman year at Duke.
“I’ll never forget it,” North said. “Since then it’s become a bit more of a habit.”
Still, old habits die hard. This past weekend after North scored her eighth goal against Temple off a fake toss followed by an underhanded shot, she started to join her teammates in a customary post-goal huddle. But she still had her stick in hand. On a day when North broke Boston College’s program record for goals in a NCAA tournament game and seemed like she couldn’t make a mistake, she quickly realized the momentary error and placed her stick on the turf outside the huddle.
“You’d think by now four years later I’d get used to it,” she joked.
It’s been well chronicled that during her high school years in Dallas, North often studied Treanor’s next-level stick skills. She also remembers Halle Majorana’s post-goal stick flips from those Syracuse games in the Carrier Dome. Asked for a favorite on her current squad, North cited fellow captain Cara Urbank, who surpassed 200 career points this season and whose celebrations range from a spirited stick slam to more of a casual “drop flick.”
“It’s so fun because everyone’s are different,” North said. “My teammates’ stick drops are one of the things I love the most to watch and celebrate with because they’re so fired up that you can tell behind their stick throw is that passion and that energy.”
North’s own technique stands out like her sidearm howitzers on 8-meter free position shots. She tends to lightly place her stick on the turf after another one of her classic fist pumps. She’s had a lot of opportunities to do so with 86 goals this season.
“It’s cool because her goals are all highlight reels and her celebrations are big, but then she has the most subdued stick drop,” Stanwick Burch said.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS
Maddie Howe, like most players, said she doesn’t premeditate her stick drops, it’s those moments after she scores that crystallize all she’s endured to get to this point.
Unlike the Fighting Irish’s elaborate sideline celebrations, Howe’s reactions are more spontaneous. She called them instinctive. “I just get really excited and something takes over,” she said.
After Howe scored a first-half goal in a late-March home win against Syracuse during her sophomore season, a referee asked her where her stick was.
“I honestly have no idea,” Howe replied. “I think I threw it down somewhere over here?”
Soon, Howe discovered it had caromed off the Arlotta turf at just the right angle and bounced 20 yards into the netting behind the backline. “Try not to do that again,” the official told her after picking it up.
Howe said she’s received a couple warnings this spring after some of her more aggressive throws, but nothing more.
In many ways, the tosses embody the exuberance for the player whose path has been anything but a continuous celebration. Howe suffered ACL tears in both knees in high school. She broke her wrist in April of her freshman year at Notre Dame then her thumb in September of her junior year. Both injuries required surgery.
While Howe, like most players, said she doesn’t premeditate her stick drops, it’s those moments after she scores that crystallize all she’s endured to get to this point.
“Even though I have had more injuries than I ever thought possible, I am here today because of those injuries,” she wrote in a first person essay for “Untold Athletes” back in January.
So expect the stick tosses to stick around this weekend when Notre Dame takes on Boston College and beyond.
“It’s really become our way of celebrating all the effort that went into scoring and expressing that passion and excitement,” Howe said.
