This version of the 2-2-2 offensive is designed to draw the defense’s 2 slide out away from the crease to open up either a skip lane down low or a feed to the crease depending on how the 3 slide reacts to the play. As with any set initiated by a dodge, the most important thing is drawing the slide. This is why it is key to have your two strongest dodgers in the two top spots, that way you are able to run the set from either side. The two players on the crease should be your most reliable sticks who can catch and finish in traffic and through contact. Lastly you best set shooters should be the in the two low positions as they are most likely to get a time and room shot in this set depending on the side of the field the initial dodge takes place on.
As with every other half field set I will review it is important that you remain in your open set and spread the field while moving the ball around the outside quickly as you sub out your defensive players off the field. This is crucial not only to avoid pressure, but to also take your players out away from the goal putting them in less of a position to to try to force a shot in a situation where you are not set and do not have numbers. Once you have your offensive on the field players can begin to get to their spots as the ball is worked around the outside.
To start this set the ball needs to be passed across the top from one top player to the other. This can either be one pass, or the two top players can pass the ball back and forth multiple times to give everyone time to get set and to initiate the offense with a dodge against the matchup that gives you the best chance of drawing the slide. You do not want the dodge to start on a pass from down low to up top because it does not allow any time for the players in the low positions to get to their spots. As with every set you will see on this site, being in the correct spots is easily the biggest factor is creating the mismatches the set is designed to do. Once the ball is passed across the top, it is important the dodger start his dodge before he catches the ball. This means his feet should be moving downhill towards the goal as the ball hits his stick. Starting the dodge before you catch the ball gives the player and better chance to beat his man and draw the slide because he is more likely to get into his dodge as the defender is still breaking down and does not yet have his feet set.
In this scenario we are going to assume the defense is sliding from the near side crease with the two and three slides coming from the backside as this is the most common base defense. Once the dodger (1) starts to go downhill toward the goal the other top player (2) should drift over closer to the middle of the field at the top of the box while remaining on his side of the field. The nearside crease player (3) should pop up to the high crease area about 12-15 yards above the GLE in the dead center of the field. In this scenario player 3’s defender is going to be the hot slide so what we are trying to do is draw him into a position that draws a slide from a bad angle as well as create a longer two slide, which would be player 4’s man, all while maintaining a position that he is able to catch and shoot. While this is happening the backside crease player (4) should be cutting across the cage to the near side pipe. Player 4 is doing this because he wants to fill the space created by player 3 hoping the three slide does not come or if it does to draw the three slide, player 6’s man, away from the backside. While this action is happening on the crease the nearside low player (5) should be fading back toward X. He is doing this for two reasons. First to create an outlet for the dodger to pass the ball forward once he draws the slide while putting him in a position to immediately move the ball to the opposite side of the field. Second is to be in position to back up a shot should the dodger get a shot off. It is key that he remains of his side of the field while getting as close to dead center X as possible while maintaining a clear passing lane for the ball carrier. The far side low player (6) should be drifting up field getting himself into a position where he is in the skip lane created by players 3 and 4 so he has a catch and shoot opportunity while also staying wide enough on his side of the field that he can be in position to dodge as seen in step 2.
Now as I mentioned the most important thing that needs to happened for this set to be effective is the dodger needs to draw a slide. So for that to happen the dodger most be a threat to score meaning his first priority is to complete his dodge to get a shot off. This does not mean he has to shoot or even should shoot, but it does mean he needs to be dodging to get into a position to shoot. Statistically speaking a shot has much greater chance or finding the back of the net if it is within 12 yards so the ball carrier needs to dodge with the intention of getting to 10-12 yards from the goal to get a quality shot. He should only shoot if he both gets his shoulders in front of his defender’s shoulders and either the slide does not come or it comes from an angle that also puts the sliding defender’s shoulders behind the dodger’s. If these two things do not happen the dodger needs to next consider if he has or can create enough space to free his hands to look to the middle of the field to read the two and three slides and possibly feed the crease. If he is able to either quickly roll back or lean into his defender and step out to free his hand, he has 3 reads he can make, players 3, 4 and 6 which can be seen in Step 1 Looks above.
If none of these players are open or player 1 is not able to either find them or create space to feed them it is important that he does not force a pass to the middle. We have created two outlet passes for him, one on top in player 2 and one behind in player 5. Once player 1 either feels uncomfortable with the pressure or determines he cannot get a shot off or cannot feed the crease he needs to move it to one of the outlets. To feed one of the outlets it is a good idea for him to change the direction of his dodge out away from the goal to make the recovery for the defender longer. Once player passes the ball after changing his direction whichever outlet receives the ball has one job, move it to the backside to player 6. It is vital that the outlet man catches the ball and takes no more than a second to move the ball to player 6. The reason is in this defensive scenario the backside is wide open as described in step 1. By moving the ball to player 6 immediately we are either creating a time a room shot for him and creating a confusing recovery for the defense leading to the possibility of multiple defenders sliding to player 6 when he receives the ball. While we are moving the ball to player 6 on the backside, we are getting additional movement on the crease to create more confusion in the defensive recovery. Player 3 is going to cutting straight down to the low crease and player 4 is going to back fill player 3’s position by cutting to the high crease. If player 6 does not have either a time and room shot and cannot create a hitch a go shot, he can look into the crease to at either player 3 or 4 as it is most likely one of their defenders are the ones that recovered to player 6 leaving one of them open if the defense was not able to correctly recover on their second team slide.
If you have cycled through to this point and have still not been able to get a shot off the last structured step of this set is to move the ball to either outlet, either player 2 or 5, to have them dodge the backside. Once the ball is moved to either outlet, player 1 who is now on the wing, should clear through to the crease to create space on the backside for the ball carrier to dodge. As with the initial dodge the dodger, either player 2 or 5, should begin his dodge before he catches the ball. Once the dodger begins his dodge player 4 is going to back out to the top of the box as an outlet and player 3 is going to wrap around to X on the opposite side the dodger goes. Lastly if player 2 is the dodger, player 5 is going to cut to the crease/GLE to find an opening as shown in Steps 3AA and 3AB above. If player 5 is the dodger, player 2 is going to cut to the crease/wing to find an opening as shown in Steps 3BA and 3BB. If the set has been run effectively to this point we really cannot predict how the defense will react to this dodge to say where the slide will be coming from since players will be recovering from the previous two slides leaving them mis matched so we there are no defined looks off of this drive we are just trying to create more movement to confusion the defense and ensure or dodger has outlets. If the dodger is unable to get a shot off or feed the crease to an open man the set steps for this play are over and the ball carrier has two options. He can either pull into out and reset if he sees his teammates are lost and need to get set before they attack again or he can move it to either outlet who in turn can either dodge or continue to move the ball to find an open man. If they continue to push the ball to look for a shot it is important that the ball is moved fast and dodges continue to attack opposite sides of the field.
To this point we have been under the assumption that he defense will be sliding from the crease with their two slide coming from the backside crease and the three slide coming from the backside low defender. What if the three slide comes from the backside top defender, player 2’s man? This is also another common slide package as defenses often feel that the offensive player that is the least immediate threat is the player that is the farthest from the goal which in this case is player 2. If player 1 passes the ball forward to outlet player 5 the play remains the same, however ideally it is moved back up top to player 2 who is now open. In this scenario that only thing that could change is that you can give player 2 that option to redodge right as he receives the pass instead of moving it to player 6. If player 2 does chose to redodge his only outlet pass if he cannot get a shot off or feed the crease is player 6 so if he ultimately does move it to player 6 the set can resume as it would have with Step 3BA. If you are asking what about the option of Step 3AA, this is no longer a possibility since player 2 took himself out of position when he dodged and is no longer set up top as an outlet. So to summarize the only change that can occur if the 3 slide comes from the top backside defender is player 2 has an option to immediately dodge in Step 2 rather than pass it to player 6 right away in which case if Step 3 is need only the option 3BA is available. If player 2 chooses not to redodge and does immediately move the ball to player 6 in Step 2 nothing changes with the set at all.
The last defensive scenario I will cover here is an adjacent slide. In this scenario the defense will stay put on the crease and send player 5’s defender as the hot slide. While this is becoming an increasingly rare defensive package because of the likely hood for an easy dump down low to player 5 for an easy finish, some defenses will run this because it is a easy slide package to teach or to throw a different look at the offense. In this scenario player 5 has the option to either sneak up field behind his defender’s slide to get a close catch and finish or he can remain at X as an outlet. It is important that player 5 knows he has this option and varies his movement each time this set is run to keep the defense on their toes. In the scenario player 5 seeks near side. the only other thing that should change in this scenario is player 4. Rather than cutting to the low pipe, player 4 should cut straight across to the mid crease leaving space down low for player 5 to sneak into the low post. If player 5 sneaks near side and cannot get a shot off or feed the crease he should roll back to X to move the ball to player 6 where the set can resume at Step 6. With an adjacent hot slide the 3 slide will either come from player 6’s man or one of the crease defenders. In both of these scenarios the rest of the play remains the same meaning the initial dodger, player 1 should be looking to feed the crease if he cannot get a quality shot as his first look or move it to the outlets to attack the opposite side of the field as we still drew an extra defender to the ball side of the field meaning the recovery on the second dodge is going to be a long one for the defense.
At this point you may be wondering what happens if the defense is in zone? If this is the case I would pull it out and look to run a different set because this offense is not designed to exploit a zone defense. Ideally on a zone offense you want to create a scenario where the on-ball defender is caught covering two players in his zone. This set is not designed to overload one spot on the field to create this scenario. As you may have noticed the 2-2-2 Pop is designed to create even spacing on the field which allows a zone defense to stay evenly matched on both sides of the field making attacking the opposite side of the field and feeding the crease difficult in this set.
In summary the 2-2-2 Pop is a great set to exploit any kind of man to man defense if players can get to the right spots and keep the ball hot. It keep continuous pressure on the defense by creating multiple slide scenarios which in turn leads to confusion increasing the likelihood someone is left uncovered. Below you can find a complete slideshow of the images shown above to allow you to see the set in motion from start to finish. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below because as I mentioned previously, my philosophies do not working for everyone and often times what works best for you is a combination of multiple ideas and philosophies so the more a coach or player can understand the better they can tailor their offense to best fit their needs and strengths.
Lacrosse Concepts 