Coaches Corner: Practice Planning

EventsTraining

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With the spring season just a few weeks away now is the time to start the framework for your season.  Most teams start games a week or two into the season which means there is a ton of stuff to cover in a short amount of time. Having a plan for practices is a great way to make sure that everything gets covered and you’re not scrambling the day before your first game. Typically, I will break the season plan into four parts – before first game (2/21-3/9, before spring break (3/11-4/3), after spring break (4/13-5/8), and playoffs (5/11-5/29).  What I have provided below is my 2014 season blueprint from tryouts to our first game. Every team’s priorities and dates will be different but hopefully this helps coaches begin with a solid plan of action. From this blueprint, I would schedule an in-detail practice plan for each day and post it the night before practice so player’s can be prepared for each drill and skill that will be taught the next day. Let me know if you have any questions and if you have any suggestions for future “Coaches Corner” blogs please send them to me.
Date  Type Times Description
22-Feb Try Out 3 hours The goal of try outs is to evaluate player’s conditioning levels, stick skills, and lacrosse understanding.  We test conditioning by a timed mile, the 17 touch test, and strength testing in bench press, pull ups, and broad jump.  We test stick skills in various positional sitiuational drills such as GB’s, passing & catching, shooting, and athletic movement.  We test lacrosse IQ by putting them in unsettled situations (3 vs 2’s, 4 vs 3’s, 6 vs 5’s) and small numbers settled situations (1 vs 1’s, 3 vs 3’s, 4 vs 4’s).  We will finsh with 30-minute scrimmage to end the try out but this is probably the least valuable part of the evaluation.  At the end of the try out we will announce a depth chart as to where everyonethat made the team is situated.
23-Feb Off
24-Feb Practice 3 hours Primary focus is GB’s, positional skills and individual offense/defense (1 vs 1’s) from our slide recovery.  Secondary focus of the practice is teaching transition offense/defense (4 vs 3’s).  Third focus is teaching settled/unsettled rides & clears.   We will also do heavy conditioning on this day.
25-Feb Practice 3 hours Primary focus is GB’s, position skills, small group offense/defense (2 vs 2’s) for two man game.  Secondary focus is building on transition offense/defense (5 vs 4’s).  Third focus of the practice is teaching half field offense/defense.  We will also be doing our team strength training on this day.
26-Feb Practice 3 hours Primary focus is GB’s, position skills, small group offense/defense (3 vs 3’s) from a clear or turnover.   Secondary focus is building on transition offense/defense (6 vs 5’s). Third focus is to go over offensive options against various slide packages (adjacent, near man, coma, etc.) and defensive rotations against various sets (2-3-1, 2-2-2, 1-4-1, etc).  We will also be doing heavy conditioning on this day.
27-Feb Practice 3 hours Primary focus is GB’s, position skills, small group offense/defense (4 vs 4’s).   Secondary focus is building on settled offense/defense from a full field ride & clear.  Third focus is to go over wing play on face offs and offensive/defensive substitutions.  At the end of try outs we will release a new depth chart with any changes from the past 4 days of practice.  We will also be doing our team strength training on this day.
28-Feb Practice 3 hours After 4 days of practice we should have a good idea of who the man up/man players will be and will select those players with a couple of alternates.   We will practice our basic man up/man down as well as rides and clears from these situations.  The majority of the day we will play an inter-squad scrimmage using the depth chart that we release the day before and what was taught on day #1-4.  We will also be doing heavy conditioning on this day.
1-Mar Practice 2 hours Team breakfast and film review of Friday’s scrimmage.
2-Mar Off
3-Mar Practice 3 hours Primary focus is GB’s, positional work, and half field unsettled/settled build ups (2 vs 1’s > 4 vs 4’s).  Secondary focus is discussing and demonstrating how to play an single and double invert.  Third focus will be to teach offensive play calls from a time out, dead ball, or endline. This will be a heavy conditioning day.
4-Mar Practice 3 hours Primary focus is GB’s, positional work, and full field build up transition work (syracuse drill).  Secondary focus is how to defend against the invert and put in a “zone buster” offense so we are ready for the different situations.  Third focus will be to teach defensive plays and the different situations they would be used for. This will be a team strength training day.
5-Mar Scrimmage (Home) 3 hours This scrimmage will be more of a mixed practice against another team.  We try to find an opponent that we are friendly with or or will not be in the same division as.  We will start by walking through our team’s pre-game warmup for home games so the players are comfortable with it.  During the scrimmage we will do 1 vs 1’s (20 minutes), Transition Offense/Defense (20 minutes), Half-field Offense/Defense (20 minutes), Full Field Scrimmage (40 minutes), and Man Up, Man Down (20 minutes).
6-Mar Practice 3 hours Film Review and Team Dinner
7-Mar Practice 3 hours Primary focus will be GB’s, positional work, and full field unsettled offense/defense.  Secondary focus will be 3-minute, full field situational games.  Third focus is to walk through and practice our offensive/defensive 2-minute drill.  We willl also go walk through our pre-game warm up.
8-Mar Scrimmage (Away) 3 hours This scrimmage will be treated like a game with referrees and stopped time.  We try to find the best opponent we can that we won’t face until late in the regular season.  We will use this scirmmage to practice our pre-game warmup for away games.  We usually have starters play the 1st, 3rd, and 4th and we will sub very loosely using 4-5 attack, 3 lines of midfield, and 5-6 defenseman.  The 2nd and possible 5th quarter will be for back ups.  This is a good chance to have your parents practice taking stats.
9-Mar Off
10-Mar Practice 2 hours This practice will be split into our opponent scout and our team’s prep practice.  Because this is early season we would focus very little on the opponent other than offensive sets, defensive rotations, and hand preference & player tendencies.  We would go quickly go through our settled offense/defense, man up/man down, and full fiewld ride/clear from set and transition.
11-Mar Game 7pm GAME TIME!!!!