2-3-1 Man-Up Basic Rotation Overload
This is a "Lax Classic" Man-Up play that coaches have been using for years with high school and college teams against the typical "Box and One" Man-Down Defense to get easy shots right in front of the goal!
Maybe you've heard of "Rotation Overload" or "Wheel" Plays before. Well this is one of the originals. It's fairly simple, you can even run it with youth teams if you spend a little time working on it in practice.
We see teams miss easy Man-Up goals in games every day because they don't recognize or understand the 2-on-1 in front of them: With six (6) men on Offense and only five (5) on Defense, there is a 2-on-1 and an open man somewhere on the field.
Most youth and high school lacrosse teams will set up in a 2-3-1 formation to start their Man-Up possession. At the same time, most teams will run a “Box-and-One [in the Middle]" for their Man-Down Defense.
If the other team doesn't know how to rotate to cover the man with the ball, your team should be able to score every time you are given a man-up opportunity. Just "Rotate" your players and "Overload" with more of your players on one side of the field than the other guys!
HERE'S THE PLAY:
Figure 1.) Start this play any time the ball gets to Blue 5 on the Left Wing. We usually start this play on the Goalie's left side so we can work the ball back to the right side of the field, where most of our passes and shot opportunities are right-handed, since most of our players are right-handed.
Blue 5 should draw Defender Red 5 as far out of the box as possible. You'll see why later.
RELATED PLAYS & DRILLS:
- 2-3-1 Man-Up Basic Wheel: This is a more simple version of this play you can use with beginning youth and high school lacrosse teams. Score with as few as two passes!
- Simple Box/Field Man-Up 3-on-2 Up Top: Simply rotate your basic Man-Up formation to find quality shots from up top in between the zones of the Defense!
- 3-1-2 Man-Up Pick & Roll Up Top: Use this simple Man-Up Pick & Roll Play with your Box or Field team to get shot from good shooting positions up top, right in front of the goal!
- 2-2-2 Man-Up Pick & Roll Play: We saw a youth team from Texas at a tournament in California use this same Man-Up play to score four or five goals in the same game!4
Make sure you let us know if you start using this Lax Classic with your team!
