Nations Looks

In this piece, we are discussing a very interesting variation of 2man game called "Nations." First, let's define what the "Nations" is."  A Nations look is a two pass pick and roll.  Meaning, if you can imagine a pick and roll where the dodger feeds the picker, a two pass pick and roll or Nations look would be where the dodger feeds a third player who feeds the picker.  Nations looks are both effective in creating offense but also a powerful tool for developing skill and IQ in players.

 Nations looks are utilized regularly in basketball as you can see from the video below.  One reason why Nations looks can work better than the standard Pick and Roll (PNR) is that the rest of the off ball defense has a harder time helping to the "Roll man" in a Nations look than in a classic PNR because the ball movement forces attention away from the roll man.   See below as the two low help defenders would have easily been ready to rotate the the PNR, but are basically stuck in the middle between between their man and the nations cut as the ball moved to the third player.

 In the clip below, the PLL Chaos run a beautiful "Up Pick Nations" look where Myles Jones dodges the alley, Jake Froccaro sets the pick and Myles Thompson is the feeder.  There are a few notable nuances here.

• The Chaos run this play using a short to short pick, which is smart because it almost guarantees a switch.  In women's lacrosse obviously, there are only short sticks, which means there are huge opportunities to create switches!
• The picker sets his pick with his butt while facing the net ad cuts with his stick in his inside hand giving him better angle to finish.  The "Back up" pick is an interesting way to set a pick that we work on with our girls.
• The Feeder, Thompson positions himself so he's available but as tight as possible without being checked and executes a "One time" quick stick pass. This is so important.  I see too many feeders out wide, which lengthens the feed and makes the timing very difficult.
• Jones is the dodger and he does a good job of drawing the switch, but is slow to get rid of the ball.  One of the biggest keys to nations looks is the initial dodger getting rid of the ball ASAP giving the picker more time to receive the ball.  In this instance, Jones honestly waited too long and the play worked because Froccaro's back up pick actually tripped the short.
• You can see the backside defenders are looking to help, but they were a little late.  If the Chaos want to run this more than once, they will need to have a little bit more backside movement.  Any type of Cut the Middle or Cycle action would work great!

Below you can see the use of an Up-pick Nations look in transition offense of girls high school lacrosse.  This is a great look to run if you have three righty's and one lefty on the attack.  This is basically the same thing that the PLL Chaos ran in the clip above.  I do another piece on this that you can check out in more detail.

Big-Little to an Up-Pick Nations

Here Cornell is running a Big-Little invert vs Yale's COMA slide invert defense.  Cornell kicks the ball up and over to a righty alley dodge with an up pick.  In this case, the aggressive switch is similar to what would have happened even with out the pick: the pole had to slide to the backside dodge.  I like to call it "Mirror Nations" when you basically generate a slide out of a 1v1 and a mirror and look to reverse the ball back to the open mirror man.  

The movement and motion of this example of a nations look makes it even harder to guard.  The stagnant Nations look would obviously be harder to guard.  Also, notice how tight the feeder Jeff Teat (one of the most brilliant players in the world to watch at 5'10 160) is to the play.  

A shorter feed is a better feed.

Topside Nations

Topside Nations: One of the looks I really like is running an up-pick nations look for the topside dodge, but be able to skip it down to the same side feeder.  This "against the grain" look is an awesome variation that allows players to dodge topside off the up-pick and snap a skip pass down to the righty feeder and throw a nice right to right pass to the nations cut itself.

Re-Pick Nations 

In box lacrosse, the re-pick is a commonplace and deadly technique because it makes the defense play back to back pick and rolls, which is more difficult than playing one pick and roll.  Often times second pick surprises the defense and they don't communicate well.  Here were were working on a Nations look out of our Re-pick look.

I highly recommend using the Re-Pick regularly!  You will love it!

 Clear-Through Nations

e have discussed how you can run Nations looks on up picks, down picks, re-picks and mirrors.  See below how you can run Nations looks off of clear throughs!  Anytime the defense is sliding or showing off a clear through (similar to a mirror situation) you can take advantage of the Nations look.  See below as USC women's lacrosse runs Clear-Through Nations.

 Pick up Games

We play a ton of pick up games in our household and here's a great example of a 3v3 plus a goalie pick up game where the players communicate and execute a Down Pick Nations.  

Teaching Nations Looks: I love this drill for teaching Nations Looks and two man games. Nations are SO much more than just a good play.  Nations looks teach lacrosse!

• It teaches the roll man to roll to the net
• When running Nations looks, sometimes the defense doesn't switch, which leaves the dodger open on a give and go.  This forces the dodger into the very good habit of attacking the middle rather than fading away looking to feed the roll man.
• The dodger will get in the habit of getting the ball out of his stick quickly.
• The feeder in the nations look learns to see who's open before he receives the ball because it's possible to read if there was a switch or not as the pick is occurring and before the pass is made.

I hope you found this breakdown of nations looks helpful!