Split Dodge Reps
Ages 9 and up · A stick and ball, a cone as the defender, 15 yards of running room; later a parent as the reading defender
The split dodge (a hard plant-and-crossover that changes direction AND switches the stick to the other hand in one beat) is lacrosse's foundational dodge: it beats defenders with footwork and protects the stick through the move, and every dodging package a player ever builds starts here. It rewards exactly what the driveway offers: hundreds of reps of one explosive pattern.
The layers matter: the footwork alone (a hard plant off the outside foot, the crossover burst), then the hand switch (the stick crossing the face compact and protected, not swung wide), then the two stitched at speed, then a reading defender. Built in order, the move arrives game-ready.
How to run it
- Footwork alone (no stick): jog at the cone, plant hard off the outside foot a stride before it, crossover-burst past the opposite side, accelerate three steps. Six reps each direction.
- The hand switch alone (standing): the stick crossing the face compactly (top hand sliding, head staying near vertical, the switch happening in front of the chest, never swinging wide). Ten switches each way.
- Stitch them at a jog: approach, plant, switch DURING the crossover, burst past the cone with the ball now in the far hand, protected. Eight reps each direction.
- Speed builds: three-quarter then full-speed splits, the cradle quiet through the move, the burst graded (the dodge is won in the two steps after the plant).
- The reading phase: a parent leans or steps one way at the last moment; the split goes opposite the lean, off the commitment. Eight reps. Log clean full-speed splits.
What to say
Common faults and fixes
A rounded, drifting direction change (no true plant).
Back to footwork-alone with the plant graded audibly (a hard foot-strike): the move needs a corner, not a curve. The cone-is-a-defender framing keeps the plant honest and close.
The stick swinging wide during the switch (the strip-and-check buffet).
Standing switch reps with a wall a foot in front (the wall physically bans the wide swing). Compactness is the protection; groove it slow.
Dodging at nothing (full-speed splits with no read, beaten by any patient defender).
The reading phase is the graduation: no split until the lean declares. Splits on commitment beat defenders; splits on schedule beat only cones.
Make it easier, make it harder
Each layer standalone; walking-pace stitches; no ball until the switch is compact.
Split-into-shot combinations; the re-dodge (split, then split back off the recovery); alley-width constraints; live one-on-one to a gate with the parent defending positionally (no checks, ever, at home).
This page teaches the drill. ParentEdge builds it into a plan for your kid.
Built around their game, their goals, and what they’re working on.