The lacrosse dodge is a fundamental skill of lacrosse. Developing good dodging skills is critical to the ability of your team to score. The goal of any dodge is to protect the stick for a pass or shot. All dodges share a common goal which is to keep the stick and ball away from the defender to set up your next move, be it a pass, or a shot.
There are many different types of dodges, but the thing they all have in common is that when you dodge you are trying to avoid the opponent. The dodge is a an offensive attempt to evade the defense.
There are many different Dodges. We will take a look at a few of the most popular:
Face Dodge
The easiest dodge is probably the Face Dodge. Its just straight forward you draw the defender to you with a fake shot or pass, and then quickly transition the stick across your own face to avoid the defender and then accelerate toward him. to setup a shot or pass once you get by. With the face dodge you are really just moving your stick from a shooting or passing position quickly across the front of your face to the opposite side tucking it close to your ear. When you have the ball as a defender comes out to attack, you fake a shot and then transition from a shot/pass position to protect the stick with your head and body, and you accelerate past the Defender to an opening for a shot on goal, or a pass to another teammate.
Split Dodge
Split dodge is like the Face dodge in that it is a straight ahead dodge (no roll). This time instead of trying to fake the defender into thinking you are going to shoot, you are going to make him think you are trying to blow by him on one side, but instead quick plant your lead foot and switch directions. You switch your stickside hands in front of your face, and then blow by on the other side of the defender. Basically just getting the defender off balance with the quick change of direction and stick hands, and protecting the stick near your opposite ear as you scoot by on the other side.
Roll Dodge
No doubt the roll dodge is one of the most effective dodges especially in the open field, run with the ball and stick in the left hand to your left side lets say that you are stickside left, stay fairly tight to the defender, get them to commit a little, and then spin to the left keeping your back to the defender basically rolling off of him protecting the stick with your body,while switching to right hand. The goal is to get the defender to over commit and get off balance before you roll. you also have to be very close or touching the defender to make the roll really effective.
Bull Dodge
Is generally for bigger stronger players. The key to a Bull dodge is that it really isn't a dodge in the true sense of the word. Unlike the previous dodges, the bull dodge is really won by getting close to your opponent, and running him over, always keeping the ball to the free hand side, away from the defender. Make sure you are at full speed when you try a bull dodge.
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