Innovative Drills to Play Fast: Bill Pilat's 'CHAOS System' for Mastering Up-Tempo Lacrosse

with Bill Pilat,
Roanoke College Head Coach;
10x ODAC Champions;
10x ODAC Coach of the Year;
5x VaSID College State Coach of the Year;
Ranks fourth all-time in career wins for active men's lacrosse coaches (all levels):
Played college lacrosse for Roanoke (Goalie);
1985 C. Markland Kelly 'Goalie of the Year' Award;
3x All-American and 2x ODAC Player of the Year

There are few things more exciting in lacrosse than watching your team execute a fast-paced transition game leading to a goal scoring fast break. With more than 400 wins at Roanoke and plenty of post-season and conference successes, Coach Bill Pilat validates his approach on how to build a fast pace transition game to an effective fast break.

This is accomplished by working small skill stick work ensuring players can catch and throw the ball on the run in game-like situations. From there he builds the basic skills into game-like situations, while putting the players into game pace drills that allow them to practice making quick decisions on the move. During this video, Coach Pilat breaks down how to run drills with half field and full field demonstrations.

Passing Drills
Passing and catching on the move is a critical lacrosse skill all players must master. Most teams use the typical line drills where players run to each other throwing and catching the ball. However, the downside of these drills is that this is not how most balls are thrown or caught in the game.

Being able to catch and throw left and right - either running in a line, weave, V-cutting to the ball, catching then turning up field to feed the ball to the next player in the transition - are key elements to a well-executed clear and fast break. The “Realistic” throwing, catching, and transition drills you’ll learn in this video - to force players to catch/throw in more game-like situations - provides the building block to your transition/fast break game.

Full Field Scramble Drills
Full-field drills put players in situations to quickly find the open player to develop the 4v3 advantage below the restraining line for a quick scoring opportunity. Fast breaks are setup all over the field. Coach Pilat demonstrates multiple variations from the face-off, clearing the ball out of the defensive zone, ground balls, or just 50-50 ball opportunities in the midfield. Every drill demonstrated is very well laid out with lots of touches and great practice tempo. In total, Coach Pilat lays out 11-different drills from stick skill drills to full-field drills going both ways at the same time.

Customer review: 5 Out of 5 Stars!
“You definitely want this in your coaching library! This is the video for you to lay out a great practice plan to develop individual and team skills. He keeps things simple, good tempo, and lots of touches to build solid fundamentals. I plan to use these drills with my high school team.”

79 minutes. 2025.