World Class Drills and Fundamentals 2-Pack

with Jan Mueller and Florian Kraus, 2014 German National Team coaching staff

Coach Jack Kaley and the coaching staff of the 2014 German National Team give a comprehensive training presentation of lacrosse fundamentals. Using an on-field format, Coach Kaley shares basic line drills as well as specific offensive formations and the best defensive strategies to use against them. These are the same practice drills that Team Germany used to prepare for the 2014 World Games.

Beginning with "the most important 10 minutes of practice," Coach Kaley shares several basic drills in the line drill format. Multiple line drills covering catching and throwing on the run as well as recovering ground balls are covered. The key concepts of these drills, including important coaching tips to reinforce their correct execution, are reviewed.

Offensive instruction begins with Bow Tie drills, which are intended to standardize and encourage off ball movement in concert with the player carrying the ball. This drill improves the timing of the offense around the crease and prepares the offense to penetrate the defense.

The presentation continues with Coach Kaley covering various offensive formations. The lessons of the Bow Tie drills are skillfully applied to the various formations presented. Utilizing the Bow Tie drills as a fundamental offensive strategy allows a seamless transition when changing offensive formations.

Defensive strategies begin with covering fast breaks and sliding packages. Using a box drill and half field exercises, Coach Kaley presents a sound foundation for a strong defense. Concentrating on defensive communication, denying easy access to passing lanes and always being mindful of where the next slide comes from are core concepts to building a dynamic defensive unit.

The defense is trained in tandem with the offense. The defense learns how to react to the offensive formations presented and learns key responsibilities to work as an effective unit. By applying the drills and concepts learned earlier, these same basic exercises are shown to be universally effective against multiple offensive formations.

Careful review of this presentation will improve your knowledge of the game. Even experienced players and coaches will discover new drills and tactics to strengthen your team.

54 minutes. 2014.

Assistant Coach Ivan Cohen and members of the 2014 German National Team staff demonstrate 13 fundamental goalkeeping drills that Team Germany used to prepare for the 2014 World Games.

Beginning with the proper stance and hand position on the stick, Coach Cohen demonstrates how the goalie stick should be held. He shares ways to reduce rebounds and track down the shot. Using a series of drills - from a simple ball toss to situational toss to using the handle of a short stick - Coach Cohen offers a step-by-step discussion on how to successfully increase hand eye coordination while adding a conditioning element.

Coach Cohen shares a series of six drills designed progressively warm-up the goalie. He begins by having the shooter move back and forth on an arc about 8-10 yards away shooting five shots each systematically working high to low and strong hand to offhand. These drills focus on handling different shots from different angles using body placement to handle every type of shot. Shot angles include corner shots, time and room, bounce shots and shots coming from around the corner and inside.

Coach Cohen puts goalies through a series of breakout passing drills throwing long and outside to on a line to the inside while under pressure. He uses basic field player triangle catching drills to train goalies how to switch hands. Finally, he shows how to play when pressed on the clear and how to reduce the chance for mistakes.

Any coach or player can instantly transfer these drills to their own team to increase the skills and performance of their goalies.

50 minutes. 2014.