Square Dodging and Passing Drill
We saw a few NCAA teams using this great dodging drill during pregame warm-ups last season. Your players get plenty of touches catching and throwing, plus they can practice their "moves" before game time!
Basketball players work on cross-over dribbles and roll backs all the time. If you played youth lacrosse in a developing area like we did, you might practice a few Split Dodges or Roll Dodges before spending most of practice playing 6-on-6. That's not very helpful.
This drill gives your players lots of chances to practice any Dodge you want to work on with both hands. If you want your players to throw good Split Dodges or Roll Dodges in games, they should probably do 10 or 20 or 100 of those moves before the game, either in practice or in your pregame warm-ups.
Related: This great Paul Rabil video shows you good Split Dodge Mechanics.
You can do this drill any day at practice, with as few as 6 players. You can do it around the goal, at the middle of the field, or off to the side. The College teams we saw had several different groups doing this drill while the Defenders did ground balls and the coaches warmed up the goalies.
The best part about this drill is that you can have multiple balls going with multiple Dodgers. Because the lines are inside the drill, your players have to pop out to get open, and they can dodge against the "Defenders" from the line they were just in! So many dodges.
Here's THE DRILL:
Figure 1.) Put all your players in lines behind 4 cones 20-30 yards apart. Put all your players inside the cones so that they are in the middle of the field. This is more realistic for game situations.
Start one player (Blue 1) with a ball as your first Dodger.
PRACTICE TIPS:
- Use this time to warm up your goalie.
- Reverse the ball and move it clockwise around the square. Make sure your players are getting plenty of practice catching, throwing and dodging with both sides.
- Maximize the number of times your players are getting to touch the ball. Have two or even three balls going at a time to force your players to pay attention, look and think ahead, and communicate.
- Remember to Time Your Drills for your players' age and attention span. Line drills shouldn't take more than 20 minutes of practice, no matter what level you coach.
RELATED PRACTICE DRILLS:
- Hamster Passing and Catching Drills: A great way to maximize repetition and muscle memory in line drills.
- Inside Out Warm-up Line Drills: We've seen lots of college teams and some very good high school teams use these passing and catching drills to imitate game situations in their warm ups and work on multiple skills!
- Extra Pass Over the Shoulder Drill: Give your players more than one touch on the ball every time they are in a drill with these great college lacrosse warm-ups.
Try it out at your next practice and tell us if you get some kids with some really good moves after using this drill with your team!
