The 2018 Nike/OHSLA Clinic featured Penn coach Mike Murphy and Darien High School coach Jeff Bremeier.

Coach Murphy briefly discussed Season Preparation and then went in depth on building a team defense.  Coach Bremeier focused on offensive sets and walked thru a few of his unsettled drills.

Coach Mike Murphy - University of Pennsylvania

Coach Murphy's slides can be found in this powerpoint file.  He spent the first half of his principles on building a complete team based on four skill areas: 

1. Physical - speed, power
2. Technical - stick work
3. Tactical - IQ, teamwork
4. Intanglible - mental, emotional

In the pre-season and the practices before the first games his emphasis is on Physical and Technical, as the first game approaches tactical drills becomes the main focus with Physical and Technical moved to maintenance or as needed phase.  While you want to get in shape, you need proper planning so that you have covered all the tactical areas (offense, defense, rides, clears, face-offs, & EMOs) before the first game.  Some other takeways on his philosophy for these categories:

1. Physical - A lacrosse field is pretty big area, so speed > power
2. Technical - There is a trade-off between reps and deliberate practice.  While reptition is good for muscle memory, you don't want to burn-in bad habits, e.g. try not to practice bad technique.
3. Tactical - All lot of times specialty items, like Man-up/man-down, are the last thing in practice.  If it's been a tough practice, the kids could be too spent to get benefits.  Maybe swap an individual skills drill to the end (which requires less brain power) added bonus is they can learn to compensate for fatigue.

Coach Jeff Bremeier - Darien HS

Coach Bremeier did a chalk talk of both offensive sets and some of his unsettled drills.  His Offensive set slides can be found here and here are his slides for the drills He also provided a 3rd slide set that many coaches should find interesting, while titled "Planning and Executing", it actually includes many of his overall coaching philosophies as well and is worth the read.

Coach Bremeier also has an interesting YouTube video online: Jeff Brameier on Building a Better Lacrosse Team

 

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