The MIAA is one of the best conferences for High School lacrosse. Consistently producing high level players, the “A” Conference is a gauntlet. Once the conference slate gets started, Tuesdays and Fridays in Baltimore are a treat.
Coach Phipps elevated Spalding to title contenders over the past few seasons, and returned a talented group. Coach Farrell, the legendary Bob Shriver’s successor (whom I played against at Loyola), is at the helm and led BL to a title in a thrilling game. Let’s take a look at some pairs and weave concepts used by both teams in this end of season matchup!
Boys’ Latin made a big multi goal run in the 2nd half to get a lead they were able to hold onto. After a couple low angle alley shots early on, the Lakers settled in and ran some quality sets out of their pairs. Let’s take a look at some of their variations.
Tied at 1 early in the 2nd, the first shot in this clip is generated by a pick to get the dodger to the middle. Higher percentages in the middle of the field, and the defense looks less willing to switch off their poles. After the ball swings back around, Dom Pietramala sets a nice pick to get his teammate underneath. Not wanting to switch off the 5 Star recruit, the dodger does a great job of getting his stick back to the middle for the quick time and room shot.
Here in the third quarter, we see a similar look. Eager to help the underneath dodge off the high pick, the adjacent attackman does a great job following the slide to turn the corner. In pairs looks, I think it is critical that the two attackmen around the base do a great job fading, following, and playing together on a string to keep the low defenders from filling up and clogging lanes. Make them pay!
Rewinding back to the 2nd quarter, let’s take a look now at a great topside look. Though the picker doesn’t make contact, #14 does a solid job of being patient and setting up topside. By putting pressure on the defender and being a threat to turn the corner, he attracts attention from the inside defenseman on the backside. What we need to also look at here is the timing of the backside action. By exchanging (with the opportunity to seal his own man), the offensive players relocate, making the recovery by the hedging defensemen tougher. The timing is executed well, allowing the popping shooter to make himself available for the forward look!
To take a pause from the game film, one thing we have worked on consistently this fall and winter with FCL athletes are seals/exchanges on the backside and reading how the defender fights through. We can say it till we are blue in the face that we need to time it up, and we need to “pick a body”, but here we are actually working on more context and giving players the chance to truly set a good off ball seal, to pin the defender inside.
This 2v2 look is a way we can work on some seals/slips on the backside and add some defenders in our skill work.
Let’s look at this next example. This is another great look at the backside action after the topside dodge. The short stick inside is ready to help, and the long pole maintains outside responsibility. You can see here #35 has an opportunity to seal that longpole, making it harder for him to recover out. The exchange still provides good movement.
Where BL takes the next progression here is now catching and weaving off the pass. By being a threat to catch and shoot earlier in the game, we also see that now weaves can be timely to change the angle of approach, and run hard off your teammate, and your teammates’ defender. This creates two bodies that the dodgers’ defender now has to fight through. It’s also a tough switch if they aren’t expecting the weave. One thing I love is that #36 was still putting pressure on the D on his initial topside dodge, and then stepped off and was ready to stay under his teammate. Get topside, turn the corner, and score.
The progression here turns into a thing of beauty. Now isolating the two shortsticks in the pass down pick down, #14 carries hard topside, drawing a switch that is temporarily a double. One of the hardest things to get youth field players to understand is the idea of flipping fields quickly by not overcarrying! Another concept we’ve continued to work to instill in our players.
Study how he quickly fires that ball to Ben Smith on the backside. On the catch, Smith quickly fires the ball backside to Jacob Pacheco, the original picker, for a “Nations” look and a step down! This also naturally doubles as the same concept of a reverse skip, where you skip it back from where the ball came from to target the recovering defender. All this action continues to build off prior movements and players can truly read and react after the party gets started.
Spencer Ford, a former coach of mine with the Atlanta Blaze, has done a fantastic job with the offense at Spalding. Running a combination of some pairs esque action and flips, they do a great job flipping fields.
Like we discussed above, flipping fields in these offenses is key. You can take advantage of backside defenders helping in the middle to the ballside action, and sometimes take advantage of defenders simply looking at the ball for too long! Spalding does a great job flipping fields here, multiple steps before he runs off the pick! You don’t always have to run hard off the pick before you move it. Eyes up, keep scanning, and be ready to fire it across the field!
Ball flips are another nice wrinkle to add into two man action and can create a lot of deception. Syracuse Women’s, under Gary Gait, has exclusively used a flip/weave offense for several years. (Awesome stuff to study). Here, let’s take a look at this on ball flip to a skip pass.
Spalding does a great job from the top of starting with a simple up pick action. The base lefty attackman starts low around GLE to give the dodger space down the alley, but then is ready to attack off the flip. This ballside action creates a nice opportunity to get backside movement. The threat of the dodge down the alley attracts the crease defender initially. This is key to the play on the backside.
As it evolves, notice how the backside Spalding offensive player pins his own man with a seal. This makes it hard to recover out, and you see the initially hot defender being the one that tries to recover all the way out to the shooter. If they were to bump through on their recovery, the seal would still be in a good spot. Because the Spalding feeder sets his feed and is ready to fire it off the flip, he doesn’t waste any time allowing the BL defense to recover to the open shooter.
Back in 2014, we ran a heavy dose of Pairs Offense at Duke. It’s always been one of my favorite offenses to run and teach. Here’s a throwback breakdown to a 2014 goal in the NCAA semifinals. Christian Walsh, the “glue guy” was an incredible teammate to play a pair with because of how he picked. Study how he seals the rotation off-ball!
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