Q: I'm having trouble clearing the ball. Like I make the save and then I dont know who to pass it to, Thats what my problem really is. Theres not a problem with my stick it's just I dont know what to do after the save. I was hopping that you might be able to help me out...thanks
A: Jonathan writes: Javii, this should help. It's a little long but hopefully it covers everything.
First off, clearing is a team thing. It's not just a goalie thing. Your coach should teach your team how to clear the ball after you make the save. If he doesn't know how to do that then the following should help. I'm going to teach you a very simple clear.
If you make a save and the other team doesn't put someone on you right away then you want one defenseman to go to the right sideline behind goal-line extended. Another defenseman to the left sideline behind goalline extended, and another defenseman up the field to the sideline away from the players bench area. Then you put two midfielders in the center of the field and one midfielder up to the sideline by the players bench.
What this does is force the other team to cover these guys and you will be uncovered, for a while.
You have four seconds to hold the ball in the crease then you have to head out of the crease. Once you are out of the crease the other team will want to take the ball from you at some point. This might happen right when you leave the crease or it may happen after you walk up the field a bit. When this happens you want to pass to your teammate who is now uncovered. We call this "Draw and Dump". You "draw" a member of the opposing team to you and then you "dump" the ball to your teammate who is now uncovered. When he gets the ball he now moves the ball up field by doing the same thing. The goal of your team is to draw and dump the ball up to the attackman. Basically if you don't draw anyone you don't pass it, you just keep going. This may mean that you go across midfield sometimes. That's ok. You just need someone to stay back on your side of the field so you don't go offsides. I hope all that makes sense.
Now when you make a save you should yell "Clear!!" really loud so your team now knows that they can bust ass up field. If someone is wide open you can pass to them and possibly start a fast break the other way and give your team a great scoring chance.
Your first look off of a save is right back to where the shot came from. Usually the whole reason that shot was taken was because your teammate did something wrong and was beaten cleanly by the offense. So usually that same teammate is somewhere behind the shooter ready to catch a pass and run upfield. Some teams who are really confident in their defense and goalies will teach their midfielders to get beat and start running upfield right away. If the shot goes in it's not a problem, they were beaten anyway. But if you make the save it's a great chance to start the offense if you can hit him with a good pass.
Javii I hope that helps. Please let me know if you need any clarification. This is a great question, sorry it took so long to get back to you I knew I would need a fair bit of time to write you a great answer. Good luck! Send me your email and we'll put you on our goali newsletter list.
Jonathan -
www.LacrosseGoaltending.blogspot.com
