Stickwork – Cradle Down the Line

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 want to start with a 2 hand cradle (power cradle).  The bottom hand acts mostly just as a pivot.  The biggest issues are typically that the player is only twisting the stick without the head of the stick going in a large arc and creating centrifugal force.  Make sure that the stick is moving and curling at the same time, the bottom hand is pretty quiet, and the top hand is making a motion similar to a bicep curl, but the motion is also slightly across the body.  It is also common to see the players be out of rhythm between his running cadence and his 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.

Stress Points:

• Top hand near throat, bottom hand on butt end
• Bottom hand acts mostly as a pivot, stays near hip
• Top arm and hand “curl”
• Curl is not vertical but partially across body
• correct rhythm with feet and cradle

We are looking for to focus on good form through the cradle and slowly build from walking to jogging to running.