Defense in Settled Situations
As in basketball, there are two basic defensive styles: man-to-man and zone. Man-to-man, or simply man defense, is more commonly used in lacrosse. This is due to the lack of a shot clock at most levels of competition, so a man defense will tend to force more turnovers.
In a man defense, every defensive player will be responsible for one offensive player, as well as having a support responsibility in the "slide" system. A slide is when a defensive player is beaten on a drive, and another player must slide over to stop the player with the ball, and the other defensive players must attempt to cover the uncovered players until the defense is recovered. Teams can use a "slide from adjacent" meaning that a defender will have responsibility to stop the driving player if he breaks through on his side; in this system, if the attackmen at X is driving to the right, the defensemen covering the right wing attackman would slide, whereas if he drove left, the defensemen covering the left wing attackmen would slide. The other option is implement a "slide from the crease" whereby the defensive player on the crease always slides, and one of the other defenders will pick up his man.
The other option is to use a zone defense. The most common, generic defense, is known as a 3-3 (similar to the 2-3 in basketball). The area above the goal line is divided like a rectangle into 6 zones. The long stick defensemen will cover the bottom 3 zones, and the midfielders will cover the top 3 zones. Unlike in most man defenses, defenders do not go very far below the goal line, so often an attackmen at X can simply hold the ball and wait for an open pass. This is why some run four long poles (one LSM) on the corners and have two midfielders in the middle, then when the ball goes to X the low midfielder drops and plays him behind the goal the top midfielder fills into the low position until the ball is moved from X and then the midfielders go back to their original positions in the 3-3.
Other zone defenses are more tailored to the offense that is being used, such as the 2-3-1 zone, in which the defensive players mirror the offensive players positioning, but when offensive players rotate, they are "passed off" to the next zone, rather than being followed as in a man defense system.
Overall, man defenses are favored as they allow players to strip the ball and attempt to intercept passes more aggressively. However, they also require faster athletes, and it can be difficult to recover when a defender is beaten. As a result, some teams choose to run a zone defense. Zone defenses also can be easier for younger athletes, and are used more commonly at the youth level. Zone defenses can also be used when a team has a large lead, and wants to make sure they opposing team cannot score goals quickly.
Read more about this topic: Lacrosse Strategy
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—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
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—Anne Cassidy (20th century)
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)