RI Bulldogs Boys DEFENSE At-Home Work Packet
We are introducing our at-home training for all Bulldogs players over the year with the interest of giving each and every player tools, tips and drills devised by our high-level coaching staff to help everyone work to improve their games outside of practice time.
This routine is to give our defensive players the opportunity to work on a couple of drills weekly to help improve their games. These sets of drills are to be completed 3-4 times per week in conjunction with our Wall-Ball Routine, but is certainly not limited to only that!
*Important! Where your helmet and gloves when doing these drills – always practice how you play!
Reference our demo video below to make sure you are completing these drills with the proper form and fundamentals!
Defensive Drill #1 – Pipe Chops Stick-Check Drill
The first drill is called, “Pipe Chops” – a drill aimed at enhancing our wrist strength and control when throwing checks.
Routine:
- 4 Sets of 20 Chops (Over the pipe and back = 1 chop)
Points of Emphasis!
- Set-up: Make sure we are in our proper defensive posture to do this drill. Bottom hand near your pocket, knees bent, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, chest down, head up.
- Stay tight to the pipe! We are working on building wrist strength and control when throwing checks, the closer your stick stays to the pipe, the more control you have!
- Chop your feet while throwing checks. We rarely ever throw checks with our feet still, so we should not practice that! Chop the feet but stay on balance while doing so.
- We eventually want to build speed with our chops on this drill, but it is more important to control the stick and stay tight to the pipe first, then build speed once you get more comfortable doing so.
- This drill doesn’t have to be done with a lacrosse goal, anything with similar height and dimensions will do!
Defensive Drill #2 – Box Footwork Drill
The next drill is called, “Box Footwork” – a drill aimed at really honing on on four specific movements in a box pattern that will help our foot speed, agility, and change of direction while maintaining proper defensive posture.
Routine:
- 10 Revolutions (Start-to-finish around all cones) Clockwise
- Approach on an angle to the first cone, chop your feet at cone
- Side-shuffle to the next cone, chop your feet at cone
- Drop-step into a backpedal to the next cone
- Open up into a side-shuffle back to the first cone
- 10 Revolutions (Start-to-finish around all cones) Counter-Clockwise
- Approach on an angle to the first cone, chop your feet at cone
- Side-shuffle to the next cone, chop your feet at cone
- Drop-step into a backpedal to the next cone
- Open up into a side-shuffle back to the first cone
Points of Emphasis!
- Set-up: Set up four cones, or anything that can mark a box, in a 5-yard box shape. Start at the bottom corner of the box. Each cone should be 5 yards away from the next cone.
- Maintain proper defensive posture throughout this drill! Chest down, head-up, knees bent, feet shoulder-width apart, bottom hand at our pocket, stick pointing out.
- Make sure your approach to the first cone is on an angle! Closing out and approaching a player straight at them allows them to dodge either way. We want to shade the dodgers to only go one way. Having good approaches are the biggest points of emphasis to any elite defenseman!
- When we shuffle, our heels shouldn’t “click” (touch together) or cross over one another. We want to use our outside foot to push our body to our inside foot, pick up our inside foot and reach in the direction we are going.
Defensive Drill #3 – Slide/Hedge/Recover Drill
The next drill is called, “Slide/Hedge/Recover” – a drill focused on simulating three key concepts of off-ball defense to train our brains and bodies to do it correctly every single time. On defense, you are off-ball 5 out of 6 times, making our off-ball defense an extremely vital part of our defensive toolbox.
Routine:
- 10 Reps – Hedge/Slide/Recover RIGHT
- 1 Rep = Hedge up 3 yards and recover, Hedge up 3 yards and recover, Full slide and approach on an angle about 10 yards from starting point, sprint back with stick to the middle back to starting point
- 10 Reps – Hedge/Slide/Recover LEFT
- 1 Rep = Hedge up 3 yards and recover, Hedge up 3 yards and recover, Full slide and approach on an angle about 10 yards from starting point, sprint back with stick to the middle back to starting point
Points of Emphasis!
- Set up: Have two cones or markers. If you are on a lined field, place one on the crease – about 5-7 yards up from the net. Place the other cone about ten yards up from first cone and 5 yards to the right (switch this cone to the left once you have completed the right side). If you do not have a lacrosse field, try to set up the cones with the same dimensions as mentioned above!
- Our off-ball posture is extremely important here! Knees bent, chest down, head up, feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, stick to the inside, and most importantly; our chest must be facing the ball/dodger! If our backs are turned to a dodger, we can’t keep our head on a swivel as easily (to see both our man and the ball) and our approach/recovery will be far less efficient.
- WHEN HEDGING: When we hedge, we want to “scare the dodger away” meaning we take 2-3 hard shuffle steps towards the dodger. then quickly shuffle back to the cone maintaining our proper defensive posture, with our stick to the middle!
- WHEN SLIDING: Always approach on an angle! We want to shade the dodger down the alley, taking away their top side. Treat the second cone as the player you are sliding to, make sure you are shading them down the alley.
- WHEN RECOVERING: Sprint back to the starting cone with your stick towards the starting cone in the middle! Getting your stick to the middle when recovering will help your ability to cut off passing lanes or land a check on the player with the ball if they throw it to the middle.
Want to share yourself putting in the work at home? Post a video on your social media page and tag @RIBulldogs!