Fixing Common Defensive Mistakes

and Stephen Brundage, Marquette University Associate Head Coach

Joe Amplo was named the first head coach in Marquette men's lacrosse history in 2011.Since then, Ampolo has led Marquette to semifinal appearances in the Big East Tournament annually, back-to-back Big East Tournament Championships ('16, '17) and ranked as high as 9th in the nation and couple of NCAA berths. For his accomplishments he was named the 2014 Big East Coach of the Year, and, in 2016, was given the prestigious Howdy Myers 'Man of the Year' Award. Prior to Marquette, Ampolo served on the staff at Hofstra University, starting out working under then head coach John Danowski.

Marquette's Joe Amplo introduces his defensive philosophy, which focuses on the fundamentals of defensemen. Coach Amplo provides insight into what makes his defensemen so successful, and teaches drills and techniques that will shape and mold your defensemen's ability to stop the opposition.

Individual Skill Work

Coach Amplo gets on the field with his defensive unit and uses them to demonstrate a variety of drills. He focuses on skill work first, such as approaching the ball and individual technique through his Corner Series. The series of drills works on approaches, backpedaling and shuffling. Next, he moves on to the Footrace Series, working on defensive postures from all angles and protecting the topside of the field.

You will learn all aspects of defensive play, including how to hold the stick while engaging the ball carrier, where to position your head on slides and how to cover the roll back.

With each drill, Coach Amplo provides a clear explanation not only of the drill itself, but also the mistakes and defensive issues each drill addresses. This gives you a range of drills that can be used to make improvements with your own defense.

Team Defense

The second section of the video moves onto live drills against an offense, starting with 1v1. Coach Amplo builds on more team-oriented defense, such as change of possession, awareness, off-ball positioning, reacting to specific situations and unsettled situations. Having previously worked on the elements of an effective slide, Coach Amplo moves onto the recovery phase. This progresses to 4v4, which show how the individual drills all combine to enable effective team defense.

Coach Amplo addresses the issue of communication in the defensive cycle, a common problem at all levels of the game. The I-Talk Drill has only one player talking at a time, emphasizing defensive communication and forcing each player to understand the importance of personal communication.

Coach Amplo's thoughtful approach to defensive concepts and situations has allowed him to build up a brand new program and make it competitive in just three short years.

56 minutes. 2016.