Lane, Huck, and a bottle of Drills. Call me in the Morning

Any time is a good time to talk about good drills. One of our favourite Torontula drill last fall is called the lane drill. The lane drill has most of the good characteristics of a drill: challenging, game situation, and touches.

You need minimum 4 people to run the lane drill. Two offensive players set up about 15 yards from one another and one of them has a disc. Two defenders matchup. One defender will mark the disc with a chosen force, and one defender will defend the person without the disc. Stalls are counted and the offensive players try to move the disc twice. First, a throw to a cut, and second, a give-and-go to the original thrower.Pictured Above: That's me pulling the disc in an intramural game at the University of Toronto. I played for the first time last year to recruit players for the varsity team.

This drill can be modified to simulate either a vertical stack or a horizontal stack. For the vertical stack, we throw in some more players on offense and defense to work on continuation. In horizontal, we will add an additional pair of offense and defense to the stack such that there are two cutters. We usually have a dump pair just in case a dump is needed.

One of the things I really like about this drill is it gives each player on the team a chance to throw to the stack. I find that too many teams over practice their handlers and cutters in specific positions, when the reality is that the two should be interchangeable. It is also useful for both handlers and receivers to have a feel for the other side of the offensive equation, which will make their own game better.

This drill also allows players to learn each other and develop skills on reading the situation. Similarly, defensive players can work on specific tactics like not allowing the cutter to make an in cut, communicating throws, and playing hard defense.

Wow, what a drill...

PJ