Backer Zone Defense The Husky Way

Presented by:

Jim Dock Boys’ Varsity Lacrosse Program Director

Head Coach Gould Academy - Bethel, Maine

Thank Yous

• Gould Academy

• Coach Zach Lehman

• Greg Gilman & Dirk MacKinght

• US Lacrosse

Backer “Gold” Mantra

• Pressure the ball when it’s in your zone

• Get to the ball when it’s in the air

• Play your man to take away the ball

• If you get beat, get beat to the inside

• When you get beat to the inside, follow the ball and seal off the rollback

Purpose of Gold Zone

• Force opposing teams out of their comfort zone

• Since it’s a zone, MDD will improve

• Pressure them to make mistakes

– Pass earlier than they normally would

– Pass or shoot under pressure

– Take outside, low-percentage shots

Actual First Meeting Footage

“Gold” Backer Zone Set

SSM SSM

Backer

Crease Man

Pole Pole

Gold Personnel

• SSMs Up Top & Bottom Corner Poles: Must be aggressive, have good field awareness, & be disciplined

• Backer: Most athletic & aggressive pole

• Crease: Quickest & best takeaway man

• Goalie: Good at saving outside shots

Who Does What???

Bungee Principal:

• All players are on a imaginary bungee cord that runs from their waist to the center of the goal line

• When the ball is in their zone, they extend out and stretch the bungee

• When the ball leaves their zone, the bungee pulls them back into the hole

SSDM Up Top On-Ball

• SSDM steps up to play the ball in his zone

• Take the ball or get beat to the inside

• Drop step to show dodger the inside lane

• Seal off the O’s rollback

• Do not cross the “Rhino Line”

• When your man passes the ball off, slough-in to 3-5 yards above the crease

SSDM Off-Ball

• Sloughed-in 3-5 yards above the crease on their side of the “Rhino Line”

• Should have back to the ball, facing his man to avoid getting caught ball-watching

• Sticks are up to the inside blocking passing lanes

• As soon ball is in flight to his man, he goes to him and tries to get there before the ball does

• SSDMs have backer responsibilities for the poles on their half of the field

Bottom Corner Poles

• Main responsibility is blocking the passing lanes with their sticks and sniping “nuggets”

• When playing the ball, follow the Gold Mantra

• If there’s a mismatch, apply more pressure

• Do not follow ball or engage behind GLE

• SSDMs have their back

Backer

• Backs up the ball in the bowtie

• Steps up with authority to meet the ball when it’s in his zone

• Force the ball carrier to pass, shoot, or rollback into the SSDM for the double

• Backer is always between the ball and the crease man

Crease Man

• Only defenseman that plays the ball behind the crease (3-5 yards from crease)

• When the ball is behind, crease man takes the top side and gives the inside roll (where the backer is waiting) – Crease man & backer should use the crease

itself as a “third man” – When the crease man goes behind, the furthest

SSDM covers the crease & the other SSDM covers the two top zones

How Gould Uses Gold

• After a time out or on a restart, we go into our Gold set

• We prefer to have our SSDMs on the field, but all middies have practiced Gold

• We use it no matter what the O set is

• If O overloads to one half, we “Bingo” out of Gold into our “Husky” man defense

Special Situations & Calls

• “Regular”: Allows adjacent passes

• “Apache”: Cover ball & lock off adjacents

• “Fish”: All-out pressure to take advantage of a mismatch

• “Ironman”: Lock onto dominant player or use against a mismatch

When Things Go Wrong

• SSDM turns ball carrier to the outside

• SSDM crosses the Rhino Line

• Failure to hand off the ball carrier

• Bottom corner poles are sleeping

• Backer comes with their stick instead of their shoulder

• Bungee failure

• Communication breakdown

Implementing Gold

Practice 6 on 5

•Practice against several O sets (1-4-1, 2-2-2, etc.)

•Focus on off-ball movement

•Keep sticks up in passing lanes

•Cut off crease man

•Run at game speed

Dodges From Up Top

Dodges from X

When Backer Works

Contact Coach Dock

• dockj@gouldacademy.org

• www.gouldacademy.org/lacrosseblog

• Cell: (207) 318-9603

• Office: (207) 824-7774

Thank You

Coming Up at 11:00am

Ballroom – Mini Keynote John Danowski, Duke University How To Better Understand Your Players/Coaches and Adapt Skills To Succeed (w/Matt Danowski) 107AB Reid Jackson, Positive Coaching Alliance Double Goal Coach I