Leveraging the Faceguard in a Motion Offense

with Acacia Walker-Weinstein,
Boston College Head Women's Lacrosse Coach;
U.S. Women's Senior National Team Head Coach;
2021 & 2024 NCAA Division I National Champions;
2017 & 2021 Division I Intercollegiate Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) National Coach of the Year;
2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 & 2023 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship Runner-up;
2018 & 2019 ACC Regular Season Champions;
fastest coach in Boston College program history to net 50th career win (in only 74 games);
Northwestern Assistant Coach from 2005 to 2008 (3 consecutive NCAA National Championships, 2005-08);
2009 World Cup team member (Gold medal);
collegiate All-American (University of Maryland);
1999 World Championship Under-19 Team (Gold medal)

The faceguard defense is becoming a frequently used strategy to minimize the offensive threat of an individual player. In this video from Acacia Walker-Weinstein, you'll learn how to implement a faceguard motion offense that leverages the faceguard and leads to a highly effective attack. Additionally, you will see how to adapt the concepts of the faceguard offense to the strengths of your players in order to exploit opposing teams.

Movement, Passing and Picks

Coach Walker-Weinstein explains how to reinforce the fundamental movement and passing required to make the faceguard offense highly effective. You'll learn explosive footwork and dynamic cuts, how to pass into the passing lane (away from the trailing defender) and how to pass out of a double team.

Through a series of drills, Walker-Weinstein demonstrates how to attack a faceguard in the feeding pockets and exploit it to set effective picks.

You'll see how to:

• Pick opposite the ball
• Pick on the same side
• Pick the ball

Utilizing the Faceguarded Player

Learn to take advantage of the faceguard to force the defense into "sweeping slides." Watch as Walker-Weinstein moves the faceguard around as an offensive tool to create more 1v1 opportunities in the critical scoring area. She helps you understand how to exploit the faceguard defense and use it to attack the strength of the help defense using various dodges and the "two-man."

Coach Walker-Weinstein explains how "re-directive stickwork" is imperative to the success of a motion offense. You will see why it's critical to teach this stickwork and "zipping the pass" in order to complete perfect passes into passing lanes. Additionally, you'll hear why traditional partner passing creates bad habits, which makes it more difficult to complete high-quality passes.

The faceguard is a defensive strategy to minimize the effectiveness of an offense by tightly marking individual player(s). In this video, you'll learn how to turn this strategy into a positive for your team so you can dismantle the opposition!

2018. 48 Minutes