I need advice on defense

[Hockeylover]

Back from our 90-minute ball hockey practice. My lower back is very weak now. I will start those planks and side-planks to make them stronger. I now realize that if your lower back hurts, you're not going to do much in the rink. The legs are ok, though. I have always thought that if the legs are ok, then all is ok. But it's not. It's the lower back. If you think otherwise, please tell me.

On the positive side, I think that practice will be beneficial in the sense that the more people practice passes and shots, the better they get. For my part, I play defense, and I have learned a few things like avoiding pinching in the offense zone while leaving the man I am covering behind. If I have nobody to cover, then it's ok for me to pinch in. Also, I let few guys pass by me on the boards. We have another practice next week, and a guy who plays Tiers 2 will train me on what to do.

On the negative side, the goalie did not show up! He did not even call us! I play on two teams, and the goalie on each time played that trick on us within a week! What's wrong with the goalies??!!! How is going to improve if he does not practice? The second thing is the same problem we have experienced every game: Our centerman is not coming back in the defense zone to help out. My partner and I are covering their wingers, but their centerman is completetly alone in the creast. If that happens next practice, I'm going to freeze the ball and ask the centerman why he stayed at 100 feet from the ball. This has to be issued or we are going to keep losing. It looks like the centerman is totally focuses on scoring goals. When the ball goes to the neutral zone, he just stands there, and let the defensemen to the job.

 

[toroytorero]

goalies and drummers are flakes... its a rule of nature

 

[Hockeylover]

Just back from another ball hockey game. We lost 1-0 even though we beat them in the number of shots, 22 against 11. I take the blame for the goal. The opponent was behind the net. I stayed just on the right-front of the net and anticipated the pass in front. The problem is that I was not DIRECTLY between both men. If I had been, I would have cut off the pass, and no goal would have been scored. In other words, I was a useless spectator on the play. Next time, I'll know better. On the positive side, I made much better passes and got more shots in the direction of the net than usual.

There is one thing I'm wondering about. There was a one-on-one in our territory, me being the defenseman. I backed off because I figured that it would be best if I let him do the first move. He kept running in my direction hoping I would go on either side, lay on the floor or try to block his body. I was hoping he would get so confused that he would not have any idea what to do with the ball. I finally hit his stick and the ball went in the corner. What would YOU do?

 

[TBLfan]

Just back from another ball hockey game. We lost 1-0 even though we beat them in the number of shots, 22 against 11. I take the blame for the goal. The opponent was behind the net. I stayed just on the right-front of the net and anticipated the pass in front. The problem is that I was not DIRECTLY between both men. If I had been, I would have cut off the pass, and no goal would have been scored. In other words, I was a useless spectator on the play. Next time, I'll know better. On the positive side, I made much better passes and got more shots in the direction of the net than usual.

There is one thing I'm wondering about. There was a one-on-one in our territory, me being the defenseman. I backed off because I figured that it would be best if I let him do the first move. He kept running in my direction hoping I would go on either side, lay on the floor or try to block his body. I was hoping he would get so confused that he would not have any idea what to do with the ball. I finally hit his stick and the ball went in the corner. What would YOU do?

When the ball goes behind the net you want to cut off the pass bu getting your stick down on the ground to make him have to loft it over the stick which will mess up the one-timer(most of the time).

1 on 1... You don't need to worry about the pass so just pinch! Pinch means to get into his face and play for control of the puck, if he dekes you no big deal because you have help from the goalie. A helpful hint would be to pinch so that your goalie still has enough room to move to the front of the crease to cut off the angle of the shot.

 

[Hockeylover]

Finally a first win ever for my ball hockey team! First one in 14 games... We faced a individual team with a very bad goalie. An individual team usually means guys who are beginner players. We won 5-1!

I played a very good game in defense, but alson an easy one as there was was very rarely a threat against us. I had to be in the creast of our goalie only twice, even then it was not for very long. In the previous games we were stuck in our zone praying that the ball comes out eventually... Some of their offensemen tried to get around me with the ball, but they did not know that I have become an expert at stopping that neutralize that kind of play. It's so easy, though. All you have to do is to forget about the ball. You just watch his body moves and you can easily tell what he's gonna do. If he loses the ball, then just take it. If he still has the ball, make sure you'll be in front of him and he does not go any further.

What I did in the offense zone is to forget about scoring goals. The only thing I had in mind was to make sure the ball does not get out of the zone. As soon as I got the ball, I shot it in deep. Those players were telegraphing what they were going to do. You could tell if they would the ball high in the air and where the ball would go. You just had to be there and the ball came to you. I think that anticipation is an essential ingredient to success in hockey. Don't just watch the ball and players going around. Try to predict what is most likely to happen and think about what you should do if this or that happens. For instance, I was running with the ball with an opponent just a few feet in front of me. My partner was about 6 feet behind me. I had nobody to pass the ball to. So I decided to pass the ball to my partner. He was not expecting it, so he missed it. He had to rush back to get it back. After the fact, he complained about this "surprise" pass. There should have never been a surprise there. The problem is not the surprise, but the lack of anticipation on his part. He was guilty of it.

Wednesday might be a different story as we're facing the best team of our division... As our chances to win the game are next to impossible, I will suggest to the captain that we go for a 0-0 game by putting 3 players at the defense position either in defense or offense zone. When we've got the ball beyond the red line, we'll just shoot the ball in the offense zone. In our defense zone, we freeze the ball on the boards, we use our body, and we shoot it out with the minimum of passing. How does it sound like to you? This is called, "Extreme defensive"! I think we have to think not only in terms of what we "should do", but in terms of what we "should NOT do".

 

[TBLfan]

That's a great way to play, because they'll get flustrated and make mistakes that can lead to breakaways. If you don't have the advantage that's the best gameplan you can have. Just try to avoid "icing"