Lacrosse Strategy - Unsettled Clears

Unsettled Clears

The term "clear" refers to when the defense gets the ball in their half of the field, and tries to get the ball across half-field to their offensive zone. The term "ride" refers to the efforts of the opposing attackmen and midfielders to recover the ball before it can be brought into their defensive zone.

When the defense gets the ball in an unsettled situation, such as a defensive player picking up a ground ball, intercepting a pass, or the goalie making a save, the defense will try to spread out and try to get open for a pass. When a defensive player picks the ball up behind the goal, or on a far when, they will often pass to the goalie, because the goalie cannot be checked while standing in the crease, and thus has several seconds to look for an open pass. Generally, the defensemen will try to move out to the "alley" between the box line and the sideline, and midfielders will try to break upfield and towards the corners, all in an attempt to get a player open, and force the opposing players to spread themselves out.

The players who are riding will generally try to harass the player with the ball before he can pass to the goalie or pass upfield, and drop back, generally to around the box line, if they are unsuccessful at doing this. The reason for dropping back to the box line is that the defense has 10 seconds from when they pick the ball up to clear the ball across midfield. This means that the riding players can force a turnover by stripping the ball or intercepting a pass, or by forcing the clearing team to make many passes and take more than 10 seconds in clearing the ball.