Saturday, May 23, 2009

OTT

At Nationals, I saw about five goals (and a lot of excellent leading passes) thrown  in a pretty unconventional way.

High release throws literally over the defender. 

Usually a mainstay of zone offence, this sort of throw I saw pulled out more and more by the elite teams (Fyshwick, Chilly) against a man defence situation, relying generally on the downfield cutter's defender concentrating too hard on the person they are guarding and not the disc or the current thrower.

Spotting height mismatches (or defenders with no read on the disc) and subsequently throwing an overhead, or any other high aerial pass seems to have a stigma of being unprofessional or low percentage. In Vancouver, Lewi Broad (6"4?) marked by a 5"3 14 year old boy from the French juniors team, spent a whole game clogging the endzone yelling 'put it high!' and got in trouble for ruining our offensive structure. Was he in the wrong? All he was really doing was recognising a situation where a high throw into space would have ensured a goal.

Augmenting routine and repetition (the same boring offensive structures every club team in Australia learns by rote) with awareness of empty space on the field and a willingness to be unconventional offensively can lead to reward - not just beating a favourite, but becoming one.

1 comment:

Owen said...

Throwing a huck to a stationary Lewi standing in the endzone is a great example of Malcolm Gladwell's "socially horrifying" tactics.