Library: DRL — Goalie Drills (Part 3)
DRL — Goalie Drills (Part 3 of 4)
DRL-32 — Three Homes to Five Spots
SET UP THE SPOTS
Chalk the Rainbow Arc first (DRL-31). Then mark:
Three Homes (grades 4–5): - Home Left — on the arc, just inside the left pipe. - Home Middle — Top Center. - Home Right — on the arc, just inside the right pipe.
Five Spots (grades 6 and up) — the same three plus two in between: 1. Spot 1 — Left Pipe (ball on the left wing or left of X) 2. Spot 2 — Left Alley (ball on the left side, above goal-line extended) 3. Spot 3 — Top Center (ball straight in front, up top) 4. Spot 4 — Right Alley 5. Spot 5 — Right Pipe
HOW TO DO IT
- Stand on Spot 3 (Top Center) in a full stance.
- Call and go. Say the spot number out loud, then shuffle to it and freeze square. Saying it out loud is not optional — it is how the name and the place get glued together.
- Work in order first: 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3. Slowly. 3 full passes.
- Random order. Call out numbers to yourself in a scrambled order — 3, 5, 2, 4, 1 — and go. 15 total moves. Freeze one second on each and check that your toes are on the arc and your chest is at the aim point.
- The ball leads. Place the aim-point ball out in front. Move it yourself between reps to the position that matches the spot, so the athlete learns why Spot 2 exists: because the ball is there.
- Beat the clock. Time yourself moving 3 to 1 and back to 3. Then 3 to 5 and back. Write the times down. Then try to shave a tenth off without letting your feet cross or your chest drift.
- Finish with 5 quiet reps at half speed, perfect shape, to end on quality.
COACHING CUES - "Name it, then go." - "One spot at a time. Never skip a spot." - "Freeze and check: toes on the line, chest at the ball." - "The ball tells you the number."
COMMON MISTAKES - Drifting between spots instead of arriving at them. The athlete ends up in the gaps, square to nothing. Fix: freeze for a full second on every arrival, out loud: "Set." - Skipping the middle spot. Going from Spot 1 to Spot 4 in one slide leaves the goalie badly out of position for a quick ball reversal. Move through the spots the way the ball does. - Arriving late. In a game the goalie should be set before the ball is. If the athlete is still moving when the shot comes, they are beaten. Fix: start moving on the pass, not on the catch. - Teaching Five Spots to a 4th grader. Five choices is too many for a young nervous system under pressure. Three Homes exists for a reason. Use it. - Forgetting to be square at the pipes. At Spot 1 and Spot 5 the body angles slightly into the field, not flat across the goal.
PROGRESSIONS - Have a partner call out spot numbers at random, out loud, and the athlete moves on the call. - Partner points at a location instead of calling a number; the athlete must translate the ball position into the right spot themselves. - Partner passes a ball around the outside; athlete tracks it continuously through all five spots. - Add a save at each spot — partner tosses a soft ball on arrival (chains to DRL-20, DRL-21). - Add a clear after the save (chains to DRL-36).
REGRESSIONS - Go back to Three Homes, even in 8th grade, if the athlete is guessing. - Use large flat cones the athlete can literally stand on. - Remove the stick and just move the feet. - Walk it at half speed with no timing element at all.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Spot accuracy out of 15: after a random-order set, how many arrivals had toes on the arc and chest at the aim point? Track weekly. - Pipe-to-pipe time: Spot 1 to Spot 5, timed. Log it in every testing week alongside DRL-10. - Call-and-go reaction: with a partner calling numbers, measure the delay between the call and the first movement. Under half a second is the target for high school.
DRL-33 — The Angle Map — Cutting Down the Angle
WHAT THE PARTNER DOES (script for parents)
You are the shooter, and you are also the rope-holder. You never shoot in the teaching part. Your whole job: stand where a shooter would stand, hold the ends of both ropes at your chest, and let the goalie see the triangle the ropes make. When the coach or the athlete asks, walk to a new spot and hold the ropes again. That is it. No lacrosse knowledge needed.
HOW TO DO IT
- Build the angle map. Tie or hold one end of each rope at the ball position — say, straight out from the goal, 12 yards. Run one rope to the left pipe and one rope to the right pipe. Have someone hold or stake each end at the post.
- Look at the shape you just made. It is a long, narrow triangle with the ball at the point and the goal mouth as the base. Every shot that can go in must pass through that triangle. That triangle is the shooter's entire world.
- Stand on the goal line, in the middle. Look down at the ropes. Notice how wide apart they are where you are standing — there is a lot of triangle on both sides of you. That is open net.
- Now walk forward toward the ball, staying in the middle of the triangle. Watch the ropes come closer together on either side of your shoulders. Stop when your shoulders are nearly touching both ropes. Look back at the goal. You are now covering almost all of it.
- Take the photo. Have your partner take a picture from the ball's position with you standing (a) on the goal line and (b) out on the arc. Put the two photos side by side. This is the single most persuasive image in goaltending.
- Walk it around. Partner carries the rope ends to a new ball position — left wing, right wing, up top, then down toward goal-line extended. Each time, the athlete finds the spot in the triangle where the ropes are closest to their shoulders. Mark each of those spots with a cone. When you are done, look at the cones: they form the Rainbow Arc (DRL-31). The arc is not a rule someone invented. It is the answer to the geometry.
- The trade-off lesson. Now have the athlete walk two steps further out toward the ball. The triangle gets even narrower — but tell them to look over their shoulder. There is now a large open space behind them for a bounce shot or a quick pass to a cutter, and if the ball moves, they have much farther to travel to get square again. This is the whole argument for depth control, which is DRL-34.
- Optional finish (full gear only): partner takes 10 real shots from a fixed spot. Athlete plays 5 from the goal line and 5 from the arc. Compare save counts. The number usually settles the argument permanently.
SOLO VERSION Stake both ropes at the pipes with tent pegs, heavy cones, or by tying them to the posts. Carry both loose ends yourself to each ball position, lay them on the ground, then walk into the goal and stand in the triangle. You lose the shooter's-eye photo, but the geometry lesson is identical.
COACHING CUES - "Shoulders on the ropes." - "Do not cover the goal. Cover the triangle." - "Every step forward closes the shooter's window and opens the door behind you." - "The arc is not a rule. It is the answer."
COMMON MISTAKES - Standing in the middle of the goal instead of the middle of the triangle. When the ball is on the left wing, the middle of the triangle is not the middle of the goal. This is the whole point. - Reading "cut down the angle" as "run at the shooter." Charging out is a different play with a different risk profile. On the arc, we are talking about inches, not yards. - Skipping the photo. The photo is the drill. Words do not do this. - Doing this once and never again. Re-run the angle map every pre-season. It re-anchors the athlete's sense of depth after a season of drifting. - Ignoring the behind-you cost in step 7, which produces a goalie who lives too far out.
PROGRESSIONS - Add a second ball position and have the athlete move between two rope triangles, staying centered in whichever one is live. - Have the partner shoot at the visible open slivers on purpose so the athlete learns what a shooter is actually aiming at. - Overlay the arc from DRL-31 and confirm they match. - Film from the shooter's eye at multiple depths and build the athlete a personal angle reference set they can review before tryouts.
REGRESSIONS - Use one rope at a time — just the near-side rope — so there is only one line to think about. - Use a smaller goal (two cones 4 feet apart) so the triangle is easier to see. - Do the whole thing walking, with no time pressure, and skip the live-shot finish entirely.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Rope test out of 8: at 8 different ball positions, does the athlete find a spot where both ropes are within a hand's width of their shoulders? - Cone match: do the cones the athlete places match the chalked arc from DRL-31? Measure the biggest gap. Under one foot is a pass. - Photo pair, kept in the athlete's training folder and re-shot each pre-season.
DRL-34 — Depth Control
WHAT THE PARTNER DOES (script for parents)
Stand where the coach or athlete puts you and throw or shoot at the spot you are told, at the speed you are told. Between reps, you will be asked to move closer or farther away. Your one extra job: call out "deep" or "shallow" after each rep based on what you saw — "deep" if the goalie was close to the goal line, "shallow" if they were far out. Do not judge whether it was right. Just report what you saw. The athlete learns to feel their own depth from your feedback.
SET UP THE DEPTH LADDER
Chalk or cone three depth lines running out from the middle of the goal:
- Depth 1 — Home. On the shallow arc (DRL-31), roughly a foot in front of the goal line. This is default depth.
- Depth 2 — Step Out. One full step forward from Home, about 2 to 3 feet.
- Depth 3 — Attack. Two to three steps out, 4 to 6 feet. Reserved for specific situations only.
HOW TO DO IT
- Learn the three depths with no ball. Stance at Home. Step to Depth 2, freeze, then recover to Home in one explosive movement. Then to Depth 3 and recover. 8 reps of each. The recovery is the skill — going out is easy, getting back is what wins games.
- Depth 1 shots — the default. Partner shoots from 12 to 15 yards, chest-down, moderate speed. Athlete plays every ball from Home depth. 10 shots. Note what is hard: the outside shot feels far away.
- Depth 2 shots. Same shooter, same spot. Athlete plays from Step Out. 10 shots. Note what changed: the ball feels closer and slower, and the athlete has less net to cover.
- The bounce shot lesson. Partner takes 5 deliberate bounce shots (DRL-23) from 12 yards. Athlete plays them from Depth 2. Most will get past. Repeat from Home depth. Bounce shots are the reason we do not live at Depth 2 — coming forward on a bounce shot means the ball hops up under and past you.
- Situational depth — the rule set. Practice the decision, out loud, before each rep. Partner calls the situation, athlete calls the depth and moves there:
- Outside shot, no one cutting: "Depth 2."
- Shooter inside 8 yards: "Home." Time is short and the angles are wide.
- Ball at X (behind the goal): "Home, on the pipe." (Chains to DRL-35.)
- One-on-one breakaway, attacker running at you: "Attack, Depth 3" — come forward as they wind up, and be set when they shoot. Never still moving.
- Bounce-shot shooter, wet or hard surface: "Home." Do 15 situation calls.
- The recovery drill. Athlete steps to Depth 3. Partner throws a ball toward a corner of the goal at moderate speed. Athlete must recover to Home and make the save. 10 reps. This is what being caught out too far feels like, and it teaches respect for it.
- Finish with 10 shots at Home depth, clean mechanics, to reset the default.
COACHING CUES - "Home is home. You visit the other depths. You do not live there." - "Be set before the shot, not arriving during it." - "The step out is a step, not a charge." - "Bounce ball on the ground means feet on the line."
COMMON MISTAKES - Living at Depth 2 or 3 because it feels aggressive. Every bounce shot and every quick reverse pass punishes it. Home is the default for a reason. - Still moving when the ball is released. Momentum forward makes lateral movement impossible. Set your feet before the shot leaves the stick, always. - Backing up while the shot is in the air. Retreating opens net and puts the goalie's weight on their heels. If you are out, you are out — play it from there. - Coming forward on a shooter who has already released. Too late to matter, and it turns a chest save into a facial. Once the ball is gone, only the hands move. - Never coming out at all. The opposite error. A goalie glued to the goal line on a 15-yard outside shot is giving away free net.
PROGRESSIONS - Have the partner vary shooter distance without telling the athlete, so depth becomes a read rather than a script. - Add a live dodger who chooses to shoot or drive; the athlete must pick a depth in real time. - Chain depth control to a clear (DRL-38) so the athlete learns that being too far out also makes the outlet harder. - Add a screen or a cutter in front to force Home depth under visual chaos.
REGRESSIONS - Do the footwork ladder in step 1 only, with no ball, until the recovery is explosive. - Use soft-touch balls for all shooting. - Reduce to two depths — Home and Step Out — and drop Depth 3 entirely until 9th grade.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Recovery time: Depth 3 back to Home, timed with a phone. Track across a phase. - Depth call accuracy out of 15 in step 5 — did the athlete name the right depth for the situation before moving? - Save percentage by depth, logged separately for Home and Step Out on the same shooter from the same spot. The athlete should be able to state which depth suits them on which shot. - Set-before-shot rate: filmed, out of 10. Were the feet still at release?
DRL-35 — Playing the Ball at X
WHAT THE PARTNER DOES (script for parents)
Walk slowly behind the goal, from one side to the other, carrying a ball in a stick or just in your hand. That is the whole job. Sometimes go all the way around the side of the goal and out in front — that is called a wrap-around, and the athlete needs to defend it. Sometimes stop and fake like you will come around one side, then go the other. Walk. Do not run, at first.
THE ROUTINE — FOUR RULES FOR THE BALL AT X
- Get to the pipe on the same side as the ball. Ball at X on the left, goalie on the left pipe, back foot touching the post.
- Stay on your feet and stay square-ish — chest turned toward the ball as far as your neck and hips comfortably allow, without turning your feet away from the field.
- Hand on the pipe is legal and it is your friend. Many goalies keep the off-hand or the butt of the stick lightly touching the post so they always know exactly where the goal is without looking.
- Talk. "Ball at X!" then, as they move, "Ball left!" or "Ball right!" This is the loudest the goalie gets all game, because the defense cannot see behind them the way you can.
HOW TO DO IT
- Pipe finding, no ball. Stand at the left pipe with your back foot on the post. Shuffle across the front of the goal to the right pipe. Back foot on that post. 10 round trips. You are learning to find the post without looking down.
- Follow the walker. Partner walks slowly behind the goal from one side to the other. Athlete tracks them, moving pipe to pipe, calling "Ball left" and "Ball right" out loud on every change of side. 6 full passes.
- The turn. As the ball crosses directly behind the center of the goal, the athlete must switch which shoulder they are looking over. Practice this switch slowly 10 times. Turn your head through the goal, not around your back — the shortest path keeps eyes on the ball longest.
- Defend the wrap-around. Partner walks behind, then comes around one side of the goal toward the front. The athlete's job: get to that pipe first, seal the post with the foot and the stick, and stay tall. 10 reps, alternating sides randomly. Partner does not shoot yet — they just arrive, and the athlete freezes so both can check the seal.
- Fakes. Partner starts around one side, stops, and reverses. Athlete must not commit early. The rule: move when they cross the pipe line, not when they lean. 10 reps.
- The feed. Partner stands behind the goal and passes or rolls the ball out to a cone in front representing a cutter. The athlete must get off the pipe and back onto the arc fast, arriving square to that cone. 10 reps. This is the real danger of X — not the wrap, the feed.
- Full gear finish (optional, 8th grade and up): partner attacks from X and either wraps and shoots or feeds a second person in front. 10 live reps.
SOLO VERSION Use a cone or a ball placed on the ground behind the goal and move it yourself between reps. Do steps 1 and 3 in full — pipe finding and the head turn — plus shadow wrap-arounds where you defend an imaginary carrier coming around each side. You can build 80 percent of this skill alone.
COACHING CUES - "Same side as the ball." - "Back foot finds the pipe." - "Talk loud — they cannot see what you see." - "Move when they cross the pipe, not when they lean." - "Seal the post, then get back to the arc."
COMMON MISTAKES - Standing in the middle of the goal while the ball is behind. This leaves both wrap-around lanes open and helps nobody. - Turning the whole body away from the field to watch the ball. Now the goalie cannot see the cutters, and a feed catches them completely blind. - Committing on the fake. Young goalies chase the lean. Wait for the pipe line. - Going silent. Behind the goal is the moment the defense needs the goalie's voice most, and it is the moment most goalies go quiet because they are concentrating. - Getting stuck on the pipe after the ball comes out front. The pipe is a temporary home. The arc is the permanent one. - Dropping to a knee to seal the post. Popular, but it makes the wrap-around shot to the top corner unstoppable and it kills the ability to recover to the arc. Stay on your feet.
PROGRESSIONS - Speed the carrier up from a walk to a jog to a full sprint around the goal. - Add a live shooter in front so the feed from X becomes a real shot. - Add a second player behind so the ball can be passed X to X, forcing repeated head turns. - Combine with DRL-12 (Compass) and DRL-31 so the athlete flows from behind-the-goal play straight back onto the arc without a hitch. - Add the full call sequence from DRL-45 so the talk becomes automatic.
REGRESSIONS - Do steps 1 and 2 only, at walking pace, for a full block. - Use a cone instead of a moving person so there is no time pressure. - Drop the stick and work only on foot placement and head turns.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Pipe seal out of 10: on wrap-around reps, was the back foot on the post before the carrier arrived? - Fake resistance out of 10: how many fakes did the athlete stay home on? - Recovery to arc, timed: from pipe seal to square on a cone 12 feet in front. Under 1.5 seconds is a strong high-school number. - Call rate: did the athlete voice "ball left" or "ball right" on every change of side? Score it out of 6 passes. Silence is a miss even if the feet were right.
7. CLEARING & OUTLETS
Here is a sentence that surprises every new goalie parent: at the high school and college level, a goalie's clearing percentage matters roughly as much as their save percentage.
Think about what a clear is. Your team just survived a possession. You made the save. Right now, for about four seconds, the other team's players are all in the wrong end of the field and out of position. If you move the ball out cleanly, your team gets an easy possession and often a fast break. If you throw it away, the other team gets the ball back 20 yards from your goal with your defense scrambled. A turned-over clear is statistically one of the most dangerous events in lacrosse, and it is entirely the goalie's doing.
This section builds clearing in the order the skill actually develops:
- The sequence (DRL-36) — "Look. Step. Throw." Three words, taught in 3rd grade, used forever.
- The reads (DRL-37) — the Outlet Ladder: first look, second look, third look, and what to do when all three are covered.
- The movement (DRL-38) — clearing while running, because standing still is a luxury.
- The pressure (DRL-39) — beating a ride, when someone is actively trying to take it from you.
- The route (DRL-40) — the banana clear, the curved run that buys the goalie time and angle.
The habit under all of it: know your out before the save. A goalie who starts thinking about the pass after the ball is in their stick is already a half-second late. Scan the field while the ball is on the other side. Decide early. Then all you have to do is execute.
Two safety notes. Long passes with a goalie stick put real load on a growing shoulder and elbow — build volume gradually and stop when accuracy falls apart, not when the arm hurts. And any clearing drill that includes a live shot to start it requires full goalie gear.
DRL-36 — Target Toss — Look. Step. Throw.
SET UP THE TARGETS
- Target A — the short outlet: 15 yards away, at a 45-degree angle to the left of straight ahead. This represents the near defender.
- Target B — the long outlet: 25 to 30 yards, at 45 degrees to the right. This represents the wide midfielder.
- Target C — the straight release: 20 yards, directly upfield.
Chalk a small "crease" where you stand so every rep starts from the same place.
HOW TO DO IT
- Say the sequence out loud before the first rep: "Look. Step. Throw." Every rep. For ten years. It costs nothing and it never stops working.
- Static reps. Stand in your crease with a ball in your stick. LOOK — turn your head and find Target A. STEP — take one deliberate step with your front foot directly at the target, not across your body. THROW — overhand, top hand driving, follow through so the stick head finishes pointing at the target. 10 reps at Target A.
- 10 reps at Target B. 10 at Target C.
- Randomize. Before each throw, close your eyes for a second, open them, and pick whichever target you see first. 15 reps. This adds the "look" step as a real decision instead of a script.
- Add the save. Start each rep by rolling the ball out in front of you, scooping it up (or making a shadow save), and then running the full sequence. 15 reps. Clearing never happens from a standing start in a real game.
- Beat the clock. Time from the moment the ball is in your stick to the moment it leaves. Target: under 2.5 seconds by 7th grade, under 2 seconds by 10th. 10 timed reps. Accuracy still counts — a fast throw to nobody is worse than a slow one to a teammate.
- Both hands (grades 7 and up). 10 reps throwing left-handed at Target C from 15 yards. You do not need to be great with the off hand. You need to be able to complete a 15-yard pass with it.
- Finish with 5 unhurried, perfect-form reps at whichever target you missed most.
COACHING CUES - "Look. Step. Throw." Out loud. - "Step at it, not across it." - "Finish with the stick head pointing at the target." - "Top hand throws. The bottom hand is the guide." - "Know your out before the save."
COMMON MISTAKES - Throwing without looking. The athlete throws to where a teammate usually is. In a game, that is a turnover. The LOOK is a real, physical head turn. - Stepping across the body. The front foot lands sideways and the pass sails wide or dies short. Step directly at the target. - Throwing sidearm. A goalie stick is long and heavy; sidearm passes with it are inaccurate and hard on the elbow. Overhand, every time, until the mechanics are automatic. - All arm, no body. The pass should start from the back foot and travel up through the hips and shoulders. A pure arm throw is short, wild, and eventually an injury. - Practicing only the strong side. Games do not care which side is comfortable. - Throwing too hard, too early in a session. Warm the arm up with 10 short easy passes before reaching for distance. Growing shoulders and elbows deserve respect.
PROGRESSIONS - Shrink the targets — a bucket becomes a cone becomes a chalk circle a foot across. - Add movement: run three steps toward the target before the throw (chains to DRL-38). - Add a "defender" — a chair or a cone in the passing lane — that the pass must clear. - Have a partner call a target letter at the last second so the read happens in flight. - Chain from a real save: partner shoots, athlete saves, immediately clears. This is the Friday Game Speed Integration format.
REGRESSIONS - Move all targets to 10 yards. - Use a tennis ball and a field stick if the goalie stick is still too heavy to control. - Drop the timing element entirely and score only on accuracy. - Use enormous targets — a garage door, a fence panel, a wall — and shrink them over weeks.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Accuracy score out of 30 across the three targets, 10 throws each. Log it every testing week. A useful benchmark: 18 of 30 in 5th grade, 24 of 30 in 9th, 27 of 30 in 12th. - Release time, ball-in-stick to ball-out, averaged over 10 reps. - Off-hand completion: how many of 10 left-handed passes hit a 15-yard target? - Combined score: accuracy under 2.5 seconds. Fast or accurate is easy. Both is the skill.
DRL-37 — The Outlet Ladder — 1-2-3 Reads
WHAT THE RECEIVERS DO (script for parents and non-players)
Stand on the cone you are given and do not move until the goalie has the ball. Then move to get open — jog a few steps toward a clear space and hold your stick up. If the goalie throws to you, catch it (or trap it with your feet, that is fine). Then throw or roll it back. That is the job. You do not need to know lacrosse. Being a body in a place is the point.
THE LADDER
- Option 1 — the near defenseman on the same side as the save. Short, safe, fast. This is your bread and butter and it should be your first look every time.
- Option 2 — the opposite-side defenseman, across the field. Longer throw, more risk, but it usually beats the ride because the pressure is on the ball side.
- Option 3 — the midfielder breaking upfield. The big one. Highest reward, highest risk, and it often ends a possession in three seconds.
- Option 4 — no one is open: KEEP IT. Do not force a throw. Step behind the goal, protect the ball, look again, and wait for your defense to reset. There is no shot clock on a goalie holding the ball in his own end in most youth and high school situations, and even where there is, five seconds of patience beats a turnover.
HOW TO DO IT
- Walk the ladder with no ball. Goalie stands in the crease and calls out, pointing: "One," "Two," "Three," "Keep it." Five times through. Learn the map before the speed.
- Static ladder, all open. Receiver 1 at the near cone, Receiver 2 across the field, Receiver 3 upfield. Goalie takes a ball, runs "Look. Step. Throw." (DRL-36) to Option 1. Retrieve, repeat to Option 2, then Option 3. 3 rounds.
- Cover one. One receiver puts a hand up, meaning "I am covered." The goalie must skip them and go to the next rung without stopping to think about it. 12 reps, covering a different receiver each time at random.
- Cover two. Now two receivers are covered. Goalie must find the third. 10 reps.
- Cover all three. All three raise a hand. The correct answer is Option 4 — keep it. The goalie steps behind the goal, protects the ball, counts "one thousand one, one thousand two," then looks again as a receiver drops their hand. 8 reps. Practicing the decision not to throw is the whole reason this drill exists.
- Add the save. Every rep now starts with a shot (full gear) or a soft toss the goalie must save first. The ladder happens under the fog of a save just completed. 10 reps.
- Add a clock. From save to release: under 3 seconds to complete the read and throw. 10 timed reps.
- Add live pressure (9th grade and up): one rider chases the goalie. Now the ladder is being run while someone is trying to hit the stick. This chains directly into DRL-39.
SOLO VERSION (cones only) Place three cones at the Option 1, 2, and 3 positions. Before each rep, roll a die or have a phone timer decide which cones are "covered." Scan, choose, throw at the open cone. You will not get the chaos of live bodies, but you will build the scan pattern and the discipline of the fourth option — because when the die covers all three, you step behind the goal and hold it, exactly as you would in a game.
COACHING CUES - "One, two, three, keep it." - "Ball side first." - "No one open is an answer, not a failure." - "Scan before the save, not after." - "The best clear is a boring clear."
COMMON MISTAKES - Always throwing to Option 3 because it is exciting. Long passes have the lowest completion rate on the field and the highest cost when they miss. - Locking onto one receiver and staring. Riders read the goalie's eyes. Scan all three even when you already know where the ball is going. - Panicking into a throw when all three are covered. This is exactly the turnover the ladder exists to prevent. Option 4 is a real option. - Standing still while reading. Move toward the sideline or behind the goal while you scan. A moving goalie is a much harder ride target. - Skipping the ladder in practice and hoping it shows up in a game. The order has to be boring before it can be fast.
PROGRESSIONS - Add real defenders riding the receivers so "covered" is a judgment, not a raised hand. - Add a rider on the goalie. - Require the goalie to call the option number out loud as they throw, so a coach can check whether the read matched the throw. - Shrink the decision window to 2.5 seconds. - Combine with DRL-40 so the goalie is running a banana route while reading the ladder.
REGRESSIONS - Use two options instead of three. - Remove the timing element. - Use cones instead of people (the solo version). - Have receivers stay stationary and always open until the map is memorized.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Read accuracy out of 12: did the goalie throw to the highest open rung available? - Completion rate out of 10 on clear attempts, tracked by option number so the athlete learns their own reliable range. - Decision time, save to release, averaged. - Option 4 discipline: out of 8 all-covered reps, how many ended in a held ball rather than a forced throw? This number should be 8.
DRL-38 — On-the-Run Clears
WHAT THE PARTNER DOES (script for parents)
Two possible jobs, pick one. Job A: stand 15 yards away and toss or roll a ball to the goalie to start each rep, then get out of the way. Job B: stand at a cone and act as the moving target — the goalie will run toward you and pass, and you catch it or trap it and roll it back. If you can jog while holding a stick or a glove in the air, you can do Job B.
HOW TO DO IT
- The exit, no ball. From your stance in the crease, take three hard steps out to the side and up the field, then decelerate under control. 10 reps, alternating sides. The exit is a controlled sprint, not a jog and not a headlong run.
- Carry position. Now with a ball in the stick. Run 15 yards holding the stick vertical, head up near your helmet, on the side away from an imaginary defender. The ball should not fall out. 8 reps. Cradle only as much as you need to keep it in.
- Run and release — straight ahead. Run 10 yards toward a target and pass on the move without fully stopping. The rule: one gather step, then throw. You slow down, you do not stop. 10 reps.
- Run and release — across the body. Run to the right, pass to a target on the left. This is hard and it is the one that shows up in games. 10 reps each direction.
- Change of speed. Sprint 5 yards, slow to a jog for 3 steps, then explode again and throw. The change of speed is how a goalie beats one rider without any stick skill at all. 8 reps.
- Both sides of the goal. Half your reps should exit to the left of the goal, half to the right. Most goalies build a heavy preference and it becomes a scouting note against them.
- Timed: save (or scoop), exit, and complete the pass in under 4 seconds from 25 yards out. 8 timed reps.
- Finish with 5 relaxed reps at 70 percent speed, focusing on the stick staying quiet.
COACHING CUES - "Exit under control. Sprint, do not scramble." - "Stick up, head high, ball side away." - "One gather step, then throw." - "Eyes up the whole run. You cannot read the field looking at the ball." - "Change speeds. It beats a rider without a move."
COMMON MISTAKES - Running with the stick head low or horizontal. The ball falls out or gets checked out easily. Stick vertical, head high. - Watching the ball while running. A goalie who is looking at their own stick cannot see the outlet, the rider, or the sideline. - Full stop before every pass. Stopping surrenders the advantage the exit created and invites the rider. Gather, do not stop. - Over-cradling. Frantic cradling with a big goalie stick throws the ball out. Small, calm cradle only as needed. - Always exiting to the same side. Predictable goalies get ridden into the sideline. - Sprinting out with no plan. The exit is only useful if you already know where the ball is going. Scan first (DRL-37).
PROGRESSIONS - Add a passive rider jogging alongside. - Add a real rider trying to check the stick (chains to DRL-39). - Require the pass to hit a target that moves, so the read continues through the run. - Run the banana route (DRL-40) instead of a straight line. - Chain from a live shot in full gear so the whole sequence is save-to-clear at game speed. This is the Friday session format.
REGRESSIONS - Cut the running distance in half. - Walk the whole drill until the stick stays quiet, then jog, then run. - Drop the throw and just work on the exit and carry. - Use a lighter field stick for carry work if the goalie stick is unmanageable, then switch back.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Completion rate on the move out of 10, compared to the athlete's standing accuracy from DRL-36. Expect a drop of a few points; the goal is to shrink that gap over a season. - Save-to-release time over 25 yards. Under 4 seconds is a good high-school standard. - Ball security: how many carries out of 10 kept the ball in the stick for a full 15 yards? - Side balance: accuracy exiting left versus exiting right. A large gap is a training target.
DRL-39 — Breaking a Ride
WHAT THE RIDER DOES (script for parents and teammates)
You are the pest. Your job is to chase the goalie and make the pass hard. Three rules you must follow exactly: (1) check the stick and the gloves only — never the body, never the head; (2) start at half speed and only go faster when the coach says so; (3) when the goalie steps behind the goal, you slow down and reset rather than chasing them into a collision with the post. Your goal is pressure, not a highlight.
THE THREE ANSWERS TO A RIDE
Teach these before the first rep. A goalie facing pressure has exactly three good answers:
- Beat them with your feet — change speed or direction and simply go around them (DRL-38).
- Beat them with the goal — step behind the net. The goal itself is a legal, immovable screen, and it is the goalie's best friend under pressure.
- Beat them with the ball — pass early, before the rider arrives, to the option they are not covering (DRL-37).
The fourth answer, forcing a blind throw into traffic, is not an answer. It is the turnover.
HOW TO DO IT
- Shadow ride, no check. Rider jogs alongside at half speed with their stick down. The goalie exits, carries, and clears. 8 reps. The goalie is just learning to work with a body nearby.
- Add the stick, still half speed. Rider may now check at the goalie's stick and gloves. Goalie protects by keeping the stick on the far side of their body and their body between the rider and the ball. 10 reps.
- Behind the goal. Rider pressures from the front. The goalie's answer for these reps is always Answer 2 — step behind the net, use the goal as a screen, come out the other side. 10 reps, alternating which side they emerge from.
- Change of speed. Goalie must use Answer 1 — a hard change of pace or direction — to create two yards of space, then throw. 10 reps.
- Early release. Goalie must use Answer 3 — get rid of it before the rider arrives. Rider starts 10 yards away so there is a genuine window. 10 reps. This should feel almost too easy. That is the lesson: most rides are beaten before they start.
- Rider's choice, 75 percent speed. Rider picks their angle; goalie picks the answer. 12 reps. After each one, the goalie says out loud which answer they used. If they cannot name it, they were reacting, not deciding.
- Live start, full speed (12th grade / experienced 11th only). Every rep begins with a real shot. Save, then ride, then clear. 8 reps. Stop at the first sign of fatigue-driven sloppiness.
COACHING CUES - "Feet, goal, or ball — pick one." - "Body between the rider and the stick." - "The goal is a legal screen. Use it." - "Do not throw into a body. Ever." - "Most rides are beaten early. Scan before the save."
COMMON MISTAKES - Panicking into the blind throw. The single most costly turnover in lacrosse. If the answer is not clear, use the goal and reset. - Turning the back to the field. The goalie protects the stick but now cannot see anything and gets trapped on the sideline. - Getting run into the sideline. The sideline is the rider's teammate. Work toward the middle of the field or behind the goal, not toward the boundary. - Cradling in a panic instead of protecting with body position. - Riders who check the body. Stop the drill immediately. This is a safety rule with no exceptions and no discussion. - Running this before DRL-38 is solid. Adding pressure to a broken skill only teaches panic.
PROGRESSIONS - Add a second rider so a double team becomes possible. - Add a full ten-man ride shape with a team, if you have one. - Shrink the space to increase the pressure. - Require the goalie to complete to a specific outlet, so the easy answer is removed. - Chain the whole thing off a live save in full gear at game speed.
REGRESSIONS - Rider with no stick, hands behind their back, jogging only. - Rider at 25 percent speed. - Remove the shot and start each rep with the ball already in the goalie's stick. - Work only Answer 2 (behind the goal) for a whole block until the goalie stops panicking.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Clear completion under pressure out of 10, compared to the unpressured number from DRL-38. The size of the gap is the athlete's real ride-resistance score. - Turnover count, broken out by cause: bad throw, stick check, or stepped out of bounds. - Answer naming out of 12 in step 6 — could the goalie name the answer they used? Naming it means they chose it. - Time to release under pressure, which usually gets slower before it gets faster. That is normal and it means the athlete has stopped panicking.
DRL-40 — The Banana Clear
WHY IT IS CALLED A BANANA
Draw a line from the back of the goal, out to one side, and then bending back upfield toward the middle. It is a long, shallow C — a banana lying on the field. A straight sprint upfield puts the goalie directly in front of the nearest rider and squeezes the passing angle down to nothing. The banana takes the goalie wide first, then upfield, which does three things at once: it puts the goalie's body between the rider and the ball, it opens a clean diagonal passing lane to the far outlet, and it gives the goalie an extra second and a half to read the field.
(Note: "banana" is also the name of a ride shape in the glossary. Same fruit, different play. Context makes it obvious — a banana ride is something the other team does to you, a banana clear is something you do to them.)
SET THE ROUTE
Place cones in a shallow curve starting just behind and to the left of the goal, arcing out to about 12 yards wide at the widest point, then bending back toward the middle of the field at about 25 yards upfield. Six cones is plenty. Mirror the whole thing on the right side.
HOW TO DO IT
- Walk the banana. With a ball in the stick, walk the entire route at half speed, touching every cone. 4 times each side. Feel the shape.
- Jog it, eyes up. Same route at a jog, but look upfield the entire way — never at the cones and never at the stick. 4 times each side. If you have to look down to find the cones, the route is not learned yet.
- Run it. Full controlled speed. 4 each side.
- Add the release. Run the route and pass to a target placed on the opposite side of the field from where you exited. This is the whole point of the banana: exiting left opens the throw to the right. 8 reps each side.
- Add the read. Two targets, one near and one far. Decide during the curve which one you are throwing to, and call it out loud before you release. 10 reps.
- Add the timing. From the crease to the release should take under 4 seconds. 8 timed reps.
- Add a rider (partner, 9th grade and up). Rider chases from the front of the goal. The banana should naturally place the goalie's body between the rider and the ball. 8 reps. This chains directly to DRL-39.
- Remove the cones and run the shape from memory. 6 reps each side. The route lives in the feet now, not on the ground.
COACHING CUES - "Wide first, then up." - "The curve is the pass. It opens the angle for you." - "Eyes upfield the whole run." - "Body between the rider and the ball — the curve does that automatically." - "Never run into the sideline. The banana bends back to the middle for a reason."
COMMON MISTAKES - Running straight upfield. The default instinct, and it hands the rider the passing lane. - Making the banana too wide, so the goalie ends up on the sideline with nowhere to go. The curve bends back toward the middle. That is the second half of the shape and it is the half athletes forget. - Looking at the cones. In a game there are no cones. Eyes upfield from rep one. - Slowing down through the curve. Curved running is harder than straight running and athletes unconsciously decelerate. Hold the speed through the bend. - Only learning it on one side. Half your saves will send you the other way. - Running the banana with no plan. The route buys time to read. If you were not reading during the curve, you wasted it.
PROGRESSIONS - Run it with a rider at increasing pressure. - Run it starting from a live save in full gear. - Add a second rider so the goalie has to bend the route in real time rather than following a memorized shape. - Combine with the Outlet Ladder (DRL-37) so the athlete is running the read and the route at once. - Shorten the target release window to 3.5 seconds.
REGRESSIONS - Walk it with no ball. - Halve the length of the route. - Keep the cones down permanently. - Drop the pass entirely and train only the running shape.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Route accuracy without cones: run it from memory and have a partner mark where the feet actually went. Compare to the cone positions. Within 3 yards at the widest point is a pass. - Crease-to-release time, averaged over 8 reps. - Completion rate to the far-side target out of 10, which is the specific throw the banana exists to create. - Side balance: compare left-exit and right-exit numbers.
8. GAME CRAFT
Everything before this section makes you a goalie. This section makes you a player.
Game craft is the collection of skills that never show up in a driveway workout and decide games anyway: knowing what a shooter is about to do before they do it, choosing correctly in the quarter second you actually have, positioning differently when your team is a man down, holding your technique together when the game is on the line, and — the biggest one — running the defense with your voice.
A useful way to think about it: the six defenders in front of you are looking at their own man. You are the only person on your half of the field looking at everything. That makes you the quarterback whether you want the job or not. A quiet goalie with great hands will lose to a loud goalie with good hands, every time, because the loud goalie prevents shots that the quiet one has to save.
Four things to know before you start this section:
- Game craft is layered on top of mechanics, never instead of them. A goalie who is reading hips but cannot make a lawnmower-low save is not ready for this section.
- Much of it is trainable alone. Reading body language starts with film on a phone. The Defense Dictionary can be rehearsed in a backyard with cones. Do not skip these because you have no team available.
- Every live drill in this section needs full goalie gear. These are game-speed drills with real shooters.
- Talking is a physical skill. It gets tired, it needs reps, and it feels ridiculous the first twenty times. Do it anyway. By the fiftieth rep it is who you are.
DRL-41 — Reading Shooter Body Language
THE FOUR TELLS — learn these before the first rep
- The hips. The single most reliable tell in lacrosse. The ball goes where the hips are pointing far more often than not. A shooter whose hips have rotated toward the far pipe is shooting far pipe. This is tell number one and it is the one to master first.
- The hands. How high the shooter's hands are at the top of the windup predicts the height of the shot. Low hands drop the shot down or make it a bounce. High hands go high.
- The front foot. A front foot planted across the body usually means a shot back across the goal. A front foot planted straight at the goal usually means a shot to the near side.
- The shoulder and the wind-up length. A long, deep windup means power and less accuracy — the shot is likely to be a rip at a corner. A short, quick stick means a placement shot or a fake.
Never watch the shooter's eyes for direction. Good shooters look off. Eyes tell you when the shot is coming, not where.
WHAT THE SHOOTER DOES (script for parents and teammates)
You are going to shoot in a slightly exaggerated way at first. When the coach or the athlete asks for "hips left," turn your hips left before you shoot and shoot that way. When they ask for "hips right," do the opposite. Later you will shoot normally. Never shoot at the head. Aim chest-down every single time. Start at half speed.
HOW TO DO IT
- Film study first (SOLO, 10 minutes). Take any lacrosse video — a game film, a highlight clip, even a practice video on a phone — and pause it at the moment before release on ten different shots. Before advancing the frame, say out loud where the shot is going based on the hips. Then advance and check. Score yourself out of 10. Do this every week during the fall.
- Freeze-frame live (no shot). Shooter winds up and freezes at the top. Goalie calls out loud: "Low left," "High right," and so on, based on the four tells. Shooter then completes the shot slowly. Was the call right? 15 reps. No save is attempted. This is a reading drill only.
- Call it, then save it. Shooter shoots at half speed. Goalie calls the location out loud before the ball is released, then makes the save. 15 reps. Score the calls separately from the saves.
- Exaggerated hips. Shooter deliberately rotates their hips toward the target on every shot. The goalie should feel their save start earlier. 12 reps. This is where the concept clicks.
- Neutral shooting. Shooter shoots normally with no exaggeration, at 75 percent. 15 reps, with calls. The accuracy drops — that is expected and correct.
- Fakes and lies. Shooter deliberately shows one thing and does another. 10 reps. Lesson: reads are probabilities, not promises. A read that is right 70 percent of the time is enormously valuable and will still be wrong three times a game. When a read is wrong, you play the ball — which is why mechanics come first.
- Film your own reps. Shoot from behind the goalie so both the shooter's body and the goalie's first movement are in the frame. Watch for the goalie moving before release. That early movement is the entire point of this drill.
COACHING CUES - "Hips first. Hips do not lie as often as anything else." - "Hands high, ball high. Hands low, ball low." - "Read early, play the ball late." - "Never chase the eyes." - "The read starts you. The hands finish it."
COMMON MISTAKES - Committing to the read instead of starting on it. A read gives you an early lean, not a dive. A goalie who fully commits and is wrong looks worse than one who never read at all. - Watching the ball in the stick head during the windup instead of the body. The ball tells you nothing until it is released. The body tells you everything before that. - Reading the eyes. Good shooters weaponize this. - Learning to read before mechanics are automatic. The read is a tiebreaker on top of a working save. Not a replacement. - Practicing only against one shooter. Everyone has a personal tell. Read three or four different people or you are learning one human, not the position. - Giving up on the drill when the fakes work. Getting fooled is data. Log it.
PROGRESSIONS - Add a dodge before the shot so the read has to be made on a moving body. - Two shooters, and the goalie does not know which will shoot. - Shorten the freeze to a quarter second, then remove it entirely. - Add a screen so the read has to happen through traffic. - Move to full speed with full gear (chains to DRL-30 and DRL-42).
REGRESSIONS - Film study only, no live shooting, for a full block. - Freeze-frame reading with no shot taken at all. - Read the hips only. Ignore the other three tells until the first one is reliable. - Use soft-touch balls at half speed.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Call accuracy out of 15, tracked separately for exaggerated, neutral, and fake reps. Expect roughly 80 percent on exaggerated, 60 to 70 percent on neutral, and near chance on deliberate fakes. That spread is healthy. - Film study score out of 10, logged weekly. - Movement timing: on film, how many of 10 saves began before the ball was released? - Save percentage with reads on versus off — run a block where the goalie deliberately does not read, and compare. Athletes who see this number never skip the drill again.
DRL-42 — Split-Second Decision Drills
WHAT THE PARTNER DOES (script for parents)
You will be given a simple rule for each round, like "shoot when you say a color out loud" or "shoot at whichever cone the goalie is not looking at." Follow the rule and shoot chest-down at half to three-quarter speed. Your speed matters less than your unpredictability. Being random is your whole contribution, and it is the most valuable thing in this drill.
THE LADDER — one decision per rung
- Rung 1 — One choice: save or let it go. Partner shoots; some shots are deliberately wide or high over the goal. Goalie must play the ones that are in and not play the ones that are out.
- Rung 2 — Two choices: high or low. Shots go to a defined high zone or low zone, randomly.
- Rung 3 — Three choices: high, low, or off-hip. Adds the hardest save (DRL-22) to the mix.
- Rung 4 — Save or step. Sometimes the partner shoots, sometimes they pass to a cone representing a cutter, and the goalie must step and adjust instead of saving.
- Rung 5 — Catch or clear. After the save, a called instruction decides whether the goalie holds the ball or immediately clears to a called outlet.
- Rung 6 — All of it, at speed. No script.
HOW TO DO IT
- Rung 1, 12 reps. Partner shoots; roughly one in three goes deliberately wide or over. The goalie plays only the live ones. Score: how many did they waste a full save on? Not playing a ball that is going out is a real skill and it saves rebounds and energy.
- Rung 2, 15 reps. High or low, random. Goalie calls the zone out loud as they save it.
- Rung 3, 15 reps. Add the off-hip zone.
- Rung 4, 12 reps. Partner either shoots or feeds a cone. The goalie must move to the arc position for the cone (DRL-31) when it is a feed, and save when it is a shot. A goalie who saves an imaginary ball on a feed rep is late to the real danger.
- Rung 5, 12 reps. Coach or partner calls "hold" or an outlet number (DRL-37) as the ball is released, so the clearing decision has to be processed while the save is still happening.
- Rung 6, 15 reps, unscripted. Everything is live and random. Film this rung.
- The color check. Every fifth rep, the partner holds up a number of fingers at release and the goalie calls it out. If they cannot, they were guessing rather than seeing.
- Finish with 10 simple, single-choice saves so the session ends in clean mechanics.
COACHING CUES - "See it, then choose. Do not choose, then look." - "Wrong and fast beats right and late — but only barely. Aim for right and fast." - "One decision at a time, added on top of the last one." - "Do not play the ball that is going out." - "Reset between reps (MEN-01). A bad decision does not get to own the next rep."
COMMON MISTAKES - Guessing. Guessing feels fast and produces spectacular misses. The tell is a goalie moving before there is any information available. Fix: back down a rung. - Freezing on the extra choice. Adding a decision temporarily makes the athlete slower at everything. That is normal for a session or two. Do not respond by removing the decision — respond by slowing the shooter down. - Adding rungs too fast. Each rung needs to be comfortable before the next one goes on top. - Running this while fatigued. Decision quality collapses long before the legs do, and reps after that point teach panic. Do this early in a session. - Scoring only saves. Score the decisions separately. A wrong decision that got saved anyway is still a wrong decision.
PROGRESSIONS - Increase shot speed at each rung. - Add a screen in front so the information arrives later. - Add two shooters. - Chain into a live clear against a rider (DRL-39). - Add fatigue deliberately — 20 seconds of shuffles before each rep — but only once the ladder is solid, and stop at the first bad rep.
REGRESSIONS - Drop back one rung, always. This is the built-in fix for everything in this drill. - Slow the shooter to 50 percent. - Use soft-touch balls. - Remove the verbal calls and just make the decision physically.
HOW TO MEASURE IT - Decision accuracy out of 15 at each rung, scored independently of whether the save was made. - Highest rung with 80 percent decision accuracy. This single number is the athlete's current place on the Split-Second Ladder and it should be logged in every testing week. - Reaction latency on film: frames between ball release and first correct movement. - Wasted saves on Rung 1 out of 12 — how many balls headed out of play did they play anyway?