Lacrosse Drills inspired by other sports

Playing lacrosse is great fun but practice can often become monotonous with the same old lacrosse drills each week. If you get a chance, go and watch games and training sessions for other sports. The plays and drills they run might just translate to lacrosse. Perhaps you can vary them to fit into your lacrosse training sessions.

As an Australian lacrosse player and coach, I love spending time at the beach. I saw an event at a surf life saving competition called the "flag race". The "flags" are lengths of plastic garden hose, poked into the sand. The participants lie on the sand, face down and heads away from the flags. At a given signal, the children leap up and run to grab a flag. There are always one or two fewer flags than there are participants, so the slowest are eliminated, just as in musical chairs. And like that party game, the flag race goes on until only one child remains.


Flag Race at Scarborough Beach

I saw this event and thought we could use this as one of our lacrosse drills. Instead of the flags, have lacrosse balls (with 1 fewer ball than participant. The balls are placed on the restraing line and the players lie face down on the end line. On the coaches signal, players jump up and run to get a ball. The player who does not get a ball is out. take another ball out of the game for the next round and repeat until there is only one player left.



This lacrosse drill is great for fitness as the players are jumping up and running many times. The drill can be used at any age group. For more advanced groups, you can vary it by taking out 2 or 3 balls rather than just one and make the players pick up the ball but also run the ball back to the end line. The players who do not get a ball may defend any of the other players with the ball to cause a turnover. Players are only "safe" once they cross the end line.

Have a go at this one and share any other lacrosse drills that you have pinched from other sports.