I'm interested in hearing what the preference would be among some of the lax coaches/players here regarding defensive scheme. The boys are 11-12 years old. I see merits in both zone D and man. If you were fielding a team which would you choose and why?
Youth LAX question
- Thread starter jreinsdorf
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IMHO opinion the more athletic they are the more I'd favor man.
Thats where i get caught up too. Its a real mixed bag of talent from a couple club kids to kids with a year or two of experience to a couple of first timers. On one hand its so easy to tell a kid, thats your man, stay on his hip but with all the motion in lax it is of course easier said then done. On the other hand, kids seem to have difficulty grasping their area and more importantly when to slide for help in zone.
Never teacher kids a zone, ever. If you want to teach them how to play you have to teach them the fundamentals of playing man to man defense. Zone defense does not afford the coach or the player the opportunity to develop an understanding of fundamental man to man defense. This is especially important if your HS does not employ a zone defense. What your youth program should be doing is developing a criteria for teaching defense. From Play your guy to a single slide to an entire slide package to multiple slide packages. Man to man is harder to teach in the beginning but will put your individual players far ahead of the game once they enter HS. one of the defenseman that I coached as a youth was able to start as a freshman on a very good HS lacrosse program last year and he will likely be joined by two more kids from that same group. Our goal was to prepare them to play for a high level varsity program. As a HS coach, I certainly prefer kids who are prepared to play man to man.
The coach at the HS does in fact play man so you bring up a great point. Do you go to zone when you are a man down then immediately revert back to man? And do you incorporate any zone concepts in your man D? For instance, do you have your middle defender pay particular attention to the area above the center of the crease where most of the scoring happens?
Yes to the man down question we generally play a five man rotation which allows the returning defender to play a guy and match up.
I have taught for twenty years the Princeton slide and recover defense, which emphasizes not allowing people to get to the middle of the field. If it is done correctly the slides go to almost the same place and if you do not slide the offensive players dodges and loses angle as he runs downfield. This defense is man with some good zone concepts to it.
Always man...if a HS coach wants to play zone based on a matchup issues or strategy at that level, that's fine (same in college)...but for youth and summer club...you always teach and play man...it's about getting kids better and as a RUFamily points out, it's about teaching and education...and the kids...
I'm not saying this is your intention or situation at all, so please don't take it that way, but at the youth level, winning doesn't matter (IMO)...it's about getting kids ready for HS, and then if they're capable...college at some level...summer clubs should always play man...and as a by product, if your teaching leads to wins...well then that's great too...
My two cents...which isn't worth much...
I'm not saying this is your intention or situation at all, so please don't take it that way, but at the youth level, winning doesn't matter (IMO)...it's about getting kids ready for HS, and then if they're capable...college at some level...summer clubs should always play man...and as a by product, if your teaching leads to wins...well then that's great too...
My two cents...which isn't worth much...
What town do you live in? You may want to go to the head coach and see if he might either give a clinic for the kids or the coaches or both.
Howell. And the HS coach has been great about camps and clinics which seem to have done an admirable job getting sticks into the newcomers hands and teaching the basics. My son is entering his second season and my daughter her 5th. I have a comfort level coaching my sons Pop Warner team because i played the sport. Unfortunately, i don`t remember even hearing about lacrosse growing up in Middletown and graduating in 92. But when i see lax i see some of the sports i played like hockey so i agreed to help out the 5th/6th grade coach and i dont like to do anything halfway so i appreciate the tips in this thread guys. Can i just google the Princeton slide and recover defense you mentioned?
Yes, and youtube has some good videos including Coach Tierney himself talking about it.
Man defense with getting the kids to understand how to slide and recover. I find many youth coaches do not teach recovering properly.
Playing basketball was really helpful in understanding defensive concepts in lacrosse. Kids that do should be able to pick them up easier.
Agree with man to man. There is no real reason kids should be playing zone defense at the youth level.
Couldn't agree more. To add to families point, you are doing kids a disservice if you never teach them how to play man to man defense (from the perspective of building a complete player).
One last point, at ages 10-11 crease slides can be bit tough for the boys to comprehend. This depends on how advanced the boys are. If you are starting from scratch with beginner/intermediate players, you might want to start out with a real aggressive adjacent slide concept so they can get the concept of sliding down. The risk of putting in a crease slide in is that the back side guy doesn't properly fill and the opposing crease attackmen scores a billion goals on you. Adjacent slides are not without their own issues, particularly if you have ball watchers.
If you have confidence that the kids are gonna buy in and communicate (particularly if a few of them play basketball together) go for the crease slide.
If you have confidence that the kids are gonna buy in and communicate (particularly if a few of them play basketball together) go for the crease slide.
No,but i am currently trying to get some kids to come up and watch RU v MD. I think its important that the kids SEE what lacrosse will look like at the HS and college level in that it is about space, passing and working the perimeter with patience. The youth level kids just want to run and gun right to goal and have trouble taking their time with each possession. On a related note, i was recently made aware that the football program has reached out to our Pop Warner organization about the possibility of coming up for the UMass game. Im currently waiting on details from our Pres.
My nephews played POP Warner & AYF football in Howell for years. My brother-in-law was really involved in coaching and running the leagues for a long time.
They did for us for every year that my son was a youth. They even played at halftime of one of the games and he was a ball boy on several occaisons
My younger son played high school hoops (PG)...I think it helps tremendously with lacrosse concepts both offensively and defensively...not to mention footwork and ability to stop and change direction on a dime
Most wouldn't connect the dots on hoops and lacrosse, but it translates in a lot of ways
I never played basketball except for pick up games but i did play some hockey and i totally see the overlap with both basketball/hockey and lax. The way the players cycle off ball, cutters etc
I played hoops growing up through high school. It helped my lacrosse more than anything.
Conceptually, the sports are very similar.
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