with Cindy Timchal,
U.S. Naval Academy Head Women's Lacrosse Coach;
2017 NCAA Final Four - 8x National Championship Coach at Maryland (seven consecutive),
2x National Coach of the Year, 400 career victories;
all-time winningest coach in Division I Lacrosse history
Legendary coach Cindy Timchal has done it all during more than 35 seasons as a head coach. With nearly 500 career wins, she's the all-time wins leader in Division I women's lacrosse. During the 2017 season, the United States Naval Academy Women's Lacrosse team grabbed headlines by completing an 18-5 season, capped by a trip to the NCAA Final Four.
Coach Timchal starts the video with stretching, meditation and stick work, as she would start a typical Navy practice. As the video progresses, there's a natural progression focusing on stick work and movement on the attacking end, in addition to a defensive review. The practice ends with small-sided play, finishing with further discussion of the ride and goalie clear.
The drills shared are simple enough that a less experienced team can do them, but are also intense enough that teams with a high level skill set can benefit.
Footwork Drills
Shuttles are an important part of practice because if you're unable to catch and throw, your team won't be able to do anything on the field. Timchal shows you how to enhance your shuttles with an emphasis on footwork so you can better teach exploding away from the defense, which allows your players to get themselves free to make a quality pass.
The issue many coaches have with shuttles is they get very boring, very quickly. The Cone Shuttle, 4 Cone Drill and Figure 8 are great variations on a simple shuttle that will keep your players engaged, energized, and excited about doing stick work. The added footwork component of shuttle will challenge players to focus on their task and build up the muscle memory of footwork, which is vital in playing solid defense.
Practice Drills to Provide Practice Plan Diversity
For an attacking unit to be successful, they need to have the ability to catch and throw comfortably with both their right and left hands, while also being comfortable switching the field effectively. The X-Pass shooting drill incorporates the use of the right and left hand and switching the field, all with lots of repetition and shooting. Being able to switch the field swiftly on the attacking end allows you to capitalize on an unbalanced defense, which will allow for more open-man shooting opportunities and/or finding the open player for a clean shot.
Defensively, see the coaches walk through both a man-up and man-down scenario, explaining how to pressure the ball and not give up offensive lanes in both scenarios.
The 3v3 drill from up top and behind is a great drill to solidify the concepts introduced in the X-Pass shooting drill. In the 3v3 drill, you can alter the point of attack (up top or from behind) which can help emphasize other concepts you've previously discussed in practice. The 3v3 piece of the drill makes the attacking unit work together more effectively, since there aren't as many players in the space. Watch Timchal help the D get more "hands-on" while talking to the offense about "valuing the shot."
Prior to warm downs, see the team run through both a full field ride/clear drill and a draw/restart drill.
There's no better learning tool for new and experienced coaches than to have a practice explained, and then watch a real practice, from a legendary coach like Cindy Timchal!
50 minutes. 2017.