Face-Offs Drills & Strategies

and Ron Caputo, Duke University Assistant Coach

Successful face-offs lead to ball control and extra possessions, which is the key to winning at any level.

Multi-time National Championship coach John Danowski has had tremendous success with his face-off system, fueling one of the leading scoring offenses in the NCAA. The Blue Devil focus on face-offs helped lead the way to back-to-back championships in 2013 and 2014.

This presentation includes three parts:

• an in-depth marker board explanation of the fundamentals of team face-off play
• a series of face-off drills with on-field demonstrations
• grip workouts for face-off players demonstrated by Carl Christensen, Duke Sports Performance Coach

Team Face-offs
Coach Danowski opens with a thorough PowerPoint presentation of Duke's team approach to face-offs. He discusses in detail various ways to possess the ball, covering technical skills as well as correct positioning, forward thinking and preparation for the face-off team. The expectations and actions of every man on the face-off team are discussed.

Coach Danowski takes you through a detailed evaluation of face-offs, gaining possession, goals, outcomes of the draw, wing play, boxing out, attack, close defense and goalie play on the face-off. He concludes the section by addressing game management, special situations and unusual face-off situations.

The position of every player on the field is considered and evaluated to help them deliver their most concentrated effort in support of winning the face off.

Individual & Partner Face-Off Drills
Coach Caputo explains the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" philosophy of face-offs, developed by former Dartmouth Head Coach Andy Towers. The analogy is used by players to remember to clamp, jam, and rake/laser, which trains them to develop secondary moves and thus win more draws.

Using on-field demonstrations, Coach Caputo shares individual and partner drills designed to increase face-off success and then manage the loose ball situations with box-out and team calls to open areas. These drills, which are easy to teach, execute and implement, will develop hand speed and reinforce the importance of low positioning so that you can gain advantage over your opponent. Your individual face-offs will become faster and stronger, and defensively you will be able to quickly identify your opponent's first move and counter with the appropriate defensive move.

Grip Workouts for Face-Offs
The presentation ends with Coach Christensen's demonstration of weight room exercises. The series includes Towel Grip Pull-ups, Baseball Grip Pull-ups, Fat Grips with Dumbbells, Rice Bucket Drill, Wrist Rollers-all of which are designed to build hand and shoulder strength.

Duke's face-off system can be easily modified to any level of the play. This philosophy will have your team approaching the face-off as a strong, single-minded and well focused team.

76 minutes. 2014.