33 Zone Ride

The 3-3 Zone is a great ride that is very easy to teach. The objective of this zone is to shift our attack and middie lines across the field laterally to allow over passes from one defender to another, forcing harder passes and removing the easy opportunity for the clearing team to manipulate an attackman who is near the midfield line. It also provides good back up in the event a player tries to run through the defense for a clear. The open clear is the best way to beat this ride.

• The attackmen each cover ⅓ of the field between the restraining line and midfield line. The midfielders each cover ⅓ of the field between the midfield line and far restraining line.

• As the ball is passed to one side of the field each line will shift towards that side of the field. The backside attackman will cover farther back than the rest of their line. This allows the attackman to cover a player that is staying onsides at the midfield line and the middie the opportunity to shift over towards the ball.

• As the clear progresses, the backside middie is always responsible for stopping a fast break

Teaching This

A great way to teach this ride is by breaking it into smaller pieces. 

Start with 3 attackman vs a goalie, two low wing defenders, and two players at the intersection of the sideline and midfield, then have the goalie throw the ball out to one side- forcing the ballside attackman to push down to the ball and the backside defender to cover the backside player near the midfield line. Have the defender throw an over pass, forcing the attackman who was just back at the midfield line to crash down to play the ball and the attackman who was on the ball to hustle back towards the midfield line to cover the player at midfield. Note: although this practices the attack movements, have your midfielders do it as well, to save everyone’s legs and so they understand what is happening in front of them.

Now you can add in the 3 midfielders and have them practice shifting left and right according to where the ball is thrown. Again, I advise having attackmen run this drill as well so they know what is behind them in the ride. 

It is very important to remember that the farther you are from the ball, the farther you can be from your man or area of responsibility. Players that do not shift enough allow shorter passes and easier dodging paths than players that shift properly and allow difficult passes and are ready to double team ball carriers.