Defense Mirror Drill in Girls Lacrosse

OK. I know that now sports and especially Lacrosse the youth across defense is a huge component of the game and for the youth kids, I am sure that it's really difficult for them to understand the team concept. You really have to build off the individual defense. So how do you teach individual defense first?

Diane: Okay. Well, in the taker division, they can only play one-on-one defense. So we really start with a one-on-one. And the most important thing that I try to teach my youth is body position. They can't check yet and that's okay if they can really learn the good body position and the checking will come into place they get older.

So what I do is I use a line, a line on the field or I make my own line with cones, and I set them up with partners. I am going to make Emma and Sorana partners. They are going to face each other on the line. And I have Laura and Kally face each other on the line. We start with one side. So this time these two are going to be attack players and these two are my defenders. And then they will switch so that each get a chance to practice defense. And there are two things that I am looking for when I am teaching youth to play defense. The first is to mere the stick of the attack player with the ball. We are going to assume Sorana has the ball here. Whenever she moves her stick, Emma is going to follow her. Good job Emma! Always watching your stick.

The second thing is body position. What we don't want them to do is turn their bodies at line. That's why we use a line. We want them sliding their legs down the line. So if Sorana is moving, Emma is going to move with her by sliding her feet and keeping her body squared to her. Perfect! So go ahead, just like they are doing. Kally keep -- you start with the attack player moving and they try to mere and keep straight right in front of them with your bodies squared. Move over here girls. Good! Okay stop, then we switch.

Now this side Kally -- stay on that side. Come back here Kally. You are going to be now defense. The other thing with the sticks on defense we try to teach them is to make themselves look big. They are really small players sometimes, so get their sticks up a little bit higher when they are playing defense.

So now, Emma and Laura are the attack players and Kally and Sorana back here, are going to practice their defense. So go ahead. Re attack players are going to move, moving their sticks. Try to keep up with them. Don't cross your feet. Good job girls!


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