Cradle Down the Line – Girls
Drill Set Up: In our Down the Line drills, players each have their own ball and all players are lined up, side by side, across an endline or sideline. If there are too many you can always go in 2 separate groups. If all players go in one group, make sure to give them a couple of seconds rest in between each rep. If you go in two groups, make sure to give the first group a good sized head start before the second group goes.
Drill Execution: In this Cradling drill, we will be teaching the cradle in three steps. Stationary, then walking and then running. The stick should be held with the bottom hand a little above the butt end and the top hand 6-8 inched below the head of the stick. The bottom hand should be near the belly button and really only involves twisting the wrist. the top hand will move more side to side along with the wrist twist. The head of teh stick should go from wide of the ear, to the nose and back to wide of the ear. It is important to make sure that there is a twisting during this motion to create centrifugal force to keep the ball in the pocket. It is also common to see the players be out of rhythm between her running cadence and her cradle. It should be a one to one cadence, unless/until the players truly gets it and has multiple strides per cradle. Have each player first walk up the field and see if their motion and cadence are correct. Once they get this, they can do this drill jogging/running and can end up doing it in a sprint when proficient.