Shooting on the Run Reps
Ages 9 and up · A stick, balls, a goal or target (taped corners on a wall or fence), 15 yards of running room across the target's face
Lacrosse goals at every competitive level come overwhelmingly off the dodge: shooting at full stride, overhand, placed, while the body travels sideways-ish past the cage. Time-and-room shots are dessert; the run-and-rise is dinner, and it is a coordination pattern (hips rotating through the release mid-stride) that builds beautifully through driveway volume.
The standards do the teaching: OVERHAND (the sidearm spray is this drill's great enemy), placed at called corners (low-far as the default), and released without breaking stride. A season of these reps produces the shot that makes coaches move a kid up a line.
How to run it
- The pattern at a jog: run across the target's face (like turning the corner off a dodge), and shoot OVERHAND mid-stride, hips rotating through the release, follow-through at the target, stride continuing. Six reps each direction.
- Placement standards: corners called before each rep ("low far!"), the default low-and-far-corner drilled most (the hardest save, the highest percentage).
- Speed builds: three-quarter and then full-speed runs, the overhand release surviving the pace or the pace dropping.
- Add the dodge entry: a split dodge at a cone flowing into the run-and-shoot (the full game sequence). Six reps each side.
- Finish with the scored round: ten full-speed shots at called corners, hits logged and raced weekly. Volume honest: 25-40 shots is a session, quality gating all of it.
What to say
Common faults and fixes
Sidearm creep at speed (the universal decay).
The overhand standard graded per rep with the stick-past-the-ear check; pace drops until it holds. Sidearm feels faster and shoots slower and wider; say it once, grade it always.
Stopping or stuttering to shoot (the run abandoned at release).
The stride-through rule: the steps continue through and past the release. Slow to the jog where the mid-stride release works, then rebuild speed on top of it.
Aimless power (shots sprayed hard at the general cage).
Called corners with honest scoring: uncalled or missed-wide shots score zero regardless of speed. The scoreboard converts power-pride into placement inside two sessions.
Make it easier, make it harder
Jogging pace, big targets, strong hand only at first, shortened run-ups.
Full dodge-to-shot chains; weak-hand rounds; a parent's passive positional pressure trailing the run; faking before the release (eyes and stick selling high, shooting low); shooting off feeds caught mid-run (the catch-and-rise, the full crease game).
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