Practice! Drills to Do on Your Own or With a Parent or Friend

More from Coach B

To improve, it's essential that players practice their game on their own.  High school lacrosse players may only practice 6-8 hours per week.  On non practice days, players should work cradling, scooping and throwing/catching/shooting on their own.

Whether a player teams up with some other teammates, practices with a parent or just works on his own, the benefits of working fundamentals outside practice will pay dividends as the season progresses.  Self practice can be nothing more than standing and cradling a ball in the stick (on both sides) for a few minutes.  It can be nothing more than tossing a ball on the grass, running and scooping it up over and over.  Any little thing helps.  Below are a bunch of different drills that a player can do on his/her own and with the participation of a parent, sibling, or friend.


Drills For Player To Do On His/Her Own
  
1. Wall Ball Drill
             
Stage 1 – Quick Stick/Rapid Fire: Line up 3-5 yds from a concrete wall or LAX WALL.  First, throw 50 right side throws and catches without cradling.  After completing 50 right side throws and catches, do the same with the left side.  Notice that I didn’t say start with your strong or dominant hand.  With “wall ball” anything you do right side, you follow up with left side.  This Stage allows the player to work on quick sticks, hand-eye coordination and timing.  The player will become better about getting rid of the ball in a timely fashion without even noticing it by practicing this Stage.
              
Stage 2 – 10-12 Yard Passing: Line up 10-12 yds from the wall.  Start with 30 right hand throws, which will come back to you on one bounce.  When player retrieves ball from the one bounce, cradle one, then follow up with the next throw to the wall.  After completing 30 right hand throws, do 30 on the left.  (Depending on the player’s age, you should adjust the distance from the wall accordingly)
             
Stage 3 – Throwing and Catching On The Run: This drill can’t be performed on the LAX WALL you buy at the store.  This drill requires a long concrete wall, such as the side of a school building.  First, line up 5-7 yds from the wall on the far left side of the wall.  Typically I begin this drill with the stick in my right hand and while I run along side the wall (towards the other end), I throw the ball and catch it on the run.  The important aspect is to throw the ball on the run and not always catch it on the stick side.  During practices and games, the player does not always receive a pass on the stick side so when training with this drill, the player should throw the ball against the wall and catch it cross hand (or across the face).  After running one length of the wall, run back to the other end throwing left handed (doing the same thing as you did with the right hand).  Keep going back and forth for about 5 minutes.  (see last page for a typical Wall Ball workout)
              
Stage 4 – Shooting:  line up approximately 12-15 yds from the wall.  Get into proper shooting formation (hands loose and high, three quarter/overhand motion, snapping hips, and following through) mark a few places on the wall with tape or chalk to aim at.  Shoot at about 80% effort, having the ball come back to you on one bounce.  Depending on where the player aims, the ball may take bounces that aren’t the same so the player will have to work a little bit to retrieve the balls.  Start with 25 right, and follow up with 25 left.
  
2. Throwing

            Proper form is to throw over the top.  Drills to help reinforce this:

• Throw against a wall on one knee (if right-handed, kneel on right knee).  When throwing side-arm, the ball will automatically spin, making it difficult to catch on the return.  The player will also hit himself on the left thigh with the butt of the stick.  This is how to reinforce proper over the top throwing.
• Kneel 2 feet from a wall and practice throwing motion.  This will force the overhand throw.

 3. Scooping (ground balls) [Ground Balls Win Games!]

• Scatter some balls on the grass and run and scoop.  Emphasis should be on stick position being almost parallel to ground and head should scoop through the ball. 
• Roll balls out against wall and scoop them up on the return (bring stick up to protected position)
• Practice both right and left handed scoops

 4.  Dodging

• Player uses natural surroundings such as a tree to practice various dodges.

 5.  Cradling

• Player very simply practices cradling on both right and left, switching hands every 2-3 minutes
• Set up cones or markers on a field or in back yard and practice running around each cone with cradling ball in stick.  Player should try and switch hands as player rounds each cone.  After getting comfortable with this, players should do this at full speed (game-like situation)

 Drills That You (Parent) Participate In With Your Player

 1.  Basic Catching and Throwing

• Stand 15 feet apart and have a catch.  If parent is not skilled with a lacrosse stick, he/she can use a baseball mitt.  Player should practice catching and throwing on both right and left sides.  Be sure throwing is over the shoulder and not side arm.

 2.  Scooping (ground balls)

• Parent rolls balls out to player, player scoops with proper technique and tosses ball back to parent.  This drill can be performed with parent standing at different angles to player (such as the 3:00 and 9:00 positions (left and right sides)).
• Parent places ball on ground, stands with a stick over the ball and has player scoop through.  This allows player to develop skill of scooping throw crowded or tight situations.

 3.  Shooting Drills

• If you have a goal or net in your back yard, or you go to a school that leaves a goal out on the field, have the player catch a pass from various spots (thrown by the parent) and shoot on the goal. 
• Stand about 5 yds from the side of the goal, have player cut around a cone placed at different points near the goal crease, player should catch and shoot on the turn.
• Have player start behind goal.  Parent in front.  Yell “go” or “break” and have player come around from the back.  Feed player a pass as player is parallel with goal line and then shoot.  Do this with player coming both from right and left sides of goal.
• Have player stand about 5-7 yds in front of goal with back turned to goal.  Parent should be positioned on side of goal.  Parent yells “turn” and immediately feeds a pass to the player who turns catches and shoots.  This allows the young player to develop skills for finding the ball in flight, catching and shooting.  (be sure player wears a helmet for this drill).

A note on conditioning:  Lacrosse is a game requiring frequent quick bursts of speed.  Thus, distance running/jogging, while good for conditioning and stamina, does not really help the lacrosse player to build his “game” skills.  Better yet is to run full sprints of 30-40 yards at a time up and down a field.

Wall Ball Routine
25-30 minutes (the immediately below drills can be done on a Lax Wall or actual wall such as at a school)
50 quick stick R hand
50 quick stick L hand
50 quick stick alt. hands
50 1 handed R
50 1 handed L
50 catch, cradle R hand
50 catch, cradle L hand
50 forehands to cross hand R to L
50 forehands to cross hand L to R
50 throw R catch L, throw L catch R
2 xs (this drill is typically done on an actual wall such as at a school)
Run along wall throw R catch R
Run back throw L catch L
2 xs (this drill is typically done on an actual wall such as at a school)
Run along wall throw L catch cross hand
Run back throw R catch cross hand
All drills to be done with gloves and helmet