Scotland Defense
jmklax@aol.com
www.lacrossecoach.org
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Defensive Terms
• Crunch – slough or collapse to the “Island”
• Island – the area of the defensive area also known as
the “hole” – an area just above the crease
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Yellow = Island
• Crash – Slide comes from the “Crease”
• Tunic (Two Nick) – first slide is adjacent; second
slide from crease
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• Mexico – Substitution from the midfield border ( closest
dpole – exchanges at the Box)
• Bust It – clear the ball up the same side
• Up and Over – Clear ball with diagonal pass
• Eagle – Slide Early
• Liz – Slide Late
• Falcon – Fake Slide – then recover
• Squeeze – Squeeze ball on the double
• Two feet – 1 foot; if you are two passes away from the
ball – you should have two feet in the Island; if you are
one pass away from the ball – you should have 1 foot in
the Island.
Defensive Colors
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• Green – Regular man to manDefense
(Crash /Tunic) – force offensive man
down the side – no sweeps
• Black – Press out on adjacents
• White – The amoeba Zone Defense
• Orange – Pressure Zone defense
• Grey – Deny 1 – lock off
• Silver –Deny 2 – Lock off 2
Coaching Aids
• Flat Indoor Bases
• Laxsoft
• QB Guard
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Ameoba Principles
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Ball in your zone area – play as if man to man – aggressively
SS tries to force ball down sideline
Wing D try to force ball Down (up) sideline ( into LP’s Double)
D3 Plays ball behind , must see the whole field and must not get beat
by a sneak from X behind
LP doubles as ball moves from either S1 or S2 to D1 or D2
LP plays like a backer at other times and looks for flash cuts
Sticks to the passing lanes
The rule for any skip pass is that the closest player to the ball covers
the player with the ball .
COMMUNICATE –COMMUNICATE-COMMUNICATE
• Basic Alignment – 2 triangles
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Vs 1-3-2
X
X
SS1
SS2
LS
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P X P
D
X
X
X
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• As ball moves around the perimeter, the top
triangle rotates ; S1 steps down and back; S2 steps
down; LP looks to double; If the Wing offense player
moves the ball to behind X, LP replaces S1, S1
replaces S2 and S2 replaces LP’s triangle position;
When they can exchange to original spots, I
encourage my players to do so. In the picture above,
D1 and D 2cover the crease man with the help of S2
; the bottom triangle does not rotate , we just do
not play as aggressively behind . When ball is behind
the others hold their positions ( Top Triangle with
the LP or S2 helping crease) and D2 and D3,
watching their pipes.
Vs 1-4-1
X
SS1
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X
LP XSS2 X
P
D
X
P
X
2-4
• Invert SS
X
X
X
D
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P P
LP
SS
X
X
SS
X
SS plays only at GLE;
diamond rotates
Pressure Zone
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Though most college programs utilize man-to
–man defenses as their primary form of
defense, most NCAA programs will throw a
zone defense into the “mix” to disrupt the
offense flow of the opponent( after a time out
or out of bounds ball )
The Basic Set –up:
SS
SS
B
C
W
W
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SS= Short Stick Mids
B=Backer
C= Crease man
W = Wing Defenders
The Roles of each Position:
Primary:
SS = unlike the Princeton Man-to-Man style, the SS should force the ball inside—that is, funnel to
the
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SS
SS
Centerline of the defense ; if this means that the SS get beat inside, then so be it!
W = The wingmen, play soft and are primarily concerned with covering the passing lanes ( Hide a
Dpole here if necessary)
C= Creaseman—plays behind—should be a take-a-way type player.
B= Best Athlete—needs to cover a lot of ground.
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Areas of Pressure:
There are three areas of Pressure
1
2
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3
Backer Responsibility
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C
A
When ball is behind – Crease man must get top side to
funnel to backer
Coma Zone
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The COMA Zone was perfected by the UPenn Squads under Tony Seaman and are typically
employed to clog the middle of the field and slow down the pace of the game. It is not an
aggressive zone, but does require that the man playing the vall does so aggressively. It does
not look to double the ball or trap the ball, although it is capable of doing so. For those not
familiar with the term COMMA—it refers to COMing A-cross the Crease— that is: COME ACROSS—shortened to COM-MA
Key points to the Comma Zone
1. It is based on complete team-work and communication
2. Employs aggressive play on the ball
3. Wing Defenseman are interchangeable
4. Crease defender does not deviate off the crease and is a last ditch slide.
5. Wing Midfielders pass along the ball to the next defender when ever possible.
A zone is always vulnerable and this zone’s weakness is when the ball is behind at X, the
opposite top middie area is vulnerable .
Terms for the Zone:
Front Porch—ball side Top Middie area
Back Door— off ball ( backside) Top Middie area
Areas of Responsibility
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Points of Emphasis
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• · D1 and D 2 must cover a lot of ground
• · Crease D must play belly to belly on offensive crease man
• · SS Middies must get down low on back door position—a
couple steps off goal crease
• · LP must be a solid athlete and understand the zone as he
must accommodate for other mistakes—; he need not look at
ball—but must listen to goalie for ball location– his main job as
ball moves down perimeter to X behind is to watch for cutters.
• · As this is a soft zone—ball should be forced down the side
and D should move as one complete group.
• · Suggestion—when teaching the zone have offense use a
volleyball ( no sticks) to move the defense– a volleyball is
easier to catch and the D can see the ball movement better.
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Change on “Out of Bounds”
Change as ball moves to X behind
Change when Opponent achieves a “run”.
Change on a Time Out – especially when Opponent calls the
TO
• Change when Middies are Tired
• Change to trap weak player.
• 10man on Shot
Info:
• www.lacrossecoach.org
• jmklax@aol.com
• 248-225-2536
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