Re: Repost: Snake defense Author: Bruce Nardoci Date: 1998/03/10 Forum: rec.sport.table-soccer Dave Jones wrote: > > Here is a article that helped me a lot. For those of you who like the > snake shot or are indifferent about it, you will just have to wade > through the characterizations like "namby-pamby" shot. It is the > price you pay for knowledge. > > Thanks again to the author of the article, Tim Dudra. > > From - Thu Oct 30 21:26:45 1997 > From: dudrat > Subject: Blocking the Snake (a long post) > Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 16:42:43 -0600 > > Newsgroups: rec.sport.table-soccer > > I'm posting this in response to a number of requests > for "Hints on Snake Defence". This is just a > few points that I've noticed apply to many (if not > all) shooters of the namby pamby roll-over. > > These points come from years of shooting the roll-over > (I are namby-pamby too). Some of this stuff I've > figured out myself, some I've learned from other > players. One point Evan Stacheluk was nice enough > to point out to me AFTER he whooped my butt in Open > Singles. Thanks Ev!!!! > > Initially I wrote this to one person so forgive the > first person style narrative. > > This may not be the be all and end all of how to > block the roll-over but much of this stuff works and > I've applied it successfully to improve my blocking > percentage against purveyors of the limp wrist flip > shot. > > --------------- THE NOTES BEGIN -------------- > > As for the things to look for about the snake there are a > number of simple things (easy to explain via e-mail) that > you can look for. Rookie/Amateur players almost always have > these problems (half of winning at Semi-Pro is not losing to > those categories). > > What I recommend is take this list (or memorize it) and study > a bunch of local roll-over shooters. See if you can figure out > what I mean (much easier to do this visually). > > Since no good players have posted stuff like this I've taken it > upon myself. Then again, perhaps I know more than the good > players. After all, you play more matches on the loser's side > of the bracket. ;) > > HINT 1: > ====== > In general, when defending the flop-over, keep your men moving > (not too quickly). NEVER cross the men over. When I was on > my game the instant I saw a cross-over happening I fired BLIND > to whatever post I was thinking of at the time (usually a push). > The cross-over has to be really quick and it doesn't do that much > good (most roll-over shooters don't read a D anyway --- shoot > like a monkey, think like a monkey). > > TELEGRAPH 1: How they hold the rod: > =================================== > > 1. If their hand hangs down, their best shot is a push. Their > pull will be the weakest - make them beat you with pulls. > 2. If their hand hooks underneath the rod, best is a pull so > make them beat you with good accurate pushes. > > The above rule is accurate for about 98% of roll-overs. This > rule doesn't seem to apply to Terry Moore so don't look at > him. It does work with Robert Mares though (at least last time > I saw him shoot - Besides, at your rank you want to worry about > pros, semi-pros and this rule is very consistent for them). To > beat the pro-masters everything must be working at once OR you > have to get really lucky. > > When encountering either of the above two situations (points 1 > and 2) I generally make them > beat me around the two bar on their strong side and leave the > "perfect" hole on their weak side (i.e.: if the person hooks > their hand underneath I will give them the two bar out around > dead man on the pull side > (don't use the two-bar man that will go dead, use the > other one - that way the shooter knows you CAN go past dead > man and it will make him nervous - in fact, I never move that > man to dead man at all, just let them think I will). > A good way to make this "dead man" hole look even smaller is > to keep the foot of your two bar forward to cut down the angle > (hockey terminology). > > FIGURE 1: D for a strong pull-shot shooter. Note the two-bar > particularly (which man is being used). > > Legend: [] - The ball O - A man on rod > > | Goal | > > Goalie ====---------O------------------- > ====----O-------O---------------- > > [] > --------O-------O--------O---==== Three bar > > By leaving the "perfect" hole on their weak side (for someone > hooking their hand under this would be the push) I mean to make > them beat you to a clean 1 to 1.25 ball width hole. Most > shooters are not accurate on their weak side (a "fire > for effect" thing where you shoot into an area). Under pressure > these holes look tiny on the shooter's weak side because they > (more than anyone) know they are inaccurate there. > > Don't worry about middles as MUCH as you might think. They are > actually kind of hard to hit accurately (but if the hole is big > BAMM!!). > > TELEGRAPH 2: (Courtesy of Mr. Stacheluk) > =========== > > Once you've established the player's weak side, watch for ball > positioning. In order to hit their weak side well, many players > start to cheat on the ball. They line their foot up off center > of the ball (the rock will even seem a little off-center). > > e.g.: Assume weak side is push shot. Following shows my > recommended D and how shooter will cheat to improve their > push shot. > > FIGURE 2: Cheating to the weak side. > > Legend: [] - The ball O - A man on rod > > | Goal | > > Goalie ====---------O------------------- > ====----O-------O---------------- > > [] > --------O-------O--------O---==== Three bar > > > Problem is that when they do this cheat to improve their push > then the pull gets weaker. Sometimes this cheat is small but > usually it is noticeable as anywhere between about 1/8 inch to > 1/4 inch of cheating. > > When you see them start to cheat then shift your D about 1/2 inch > towards their weaker side. Some guys are tricky though and change > the positioning of the ball under the foot often, keep your eyees > on the ball and where the man is relative to the ball. > > The reason the strong side gets weaker is that their is now MUCH > less ball to roll across when executing the strong side. > > TELEGRAPH 3: Change of speed. > ============================= > > Here is one I'm guilty of and I know others are too. Before trying > to shoot their weaker side a lot of players have to "rev-up" to > shoot. Watch for a change in how fast they are rocking the ball. > If the wiggle seems to be getting faster (this will be about 1/2 > to 1 second of "revving-up") then make sure you have good coverage > on the weak side - leave a bit more middle - middle is hard to > hit when rocking quickly. > > If you find someone with this fault you can often OWN their butt. > Ask some of the local goalies around Vancouver. Many of them > brick my roll-over badly. > > TELEGRAPH 4: The Slicer/Dicer Problem > ====================================== > > Have you ever noticed how some roll-over shooters seem to slash > back on your D more often? Some of them even try aiming this > irritating shot (others are just lucky). One of the things some > slicer/dicers do to enhance their slicing ability is to pin the > ball a little bit further back than they normally would. In other > words the ball is positioned closer to their own goal than it would > normally be. By doing this they gain the ability to slice but at > the expense of slowing down their long post shots. When you see > the ball being pinned a little bit further back, try tightening up > your D and DON'T cover the extreme posts until the shooter proves > they can hit them. > > Another good trick in this case is to reset them a little, if you > can get that ball backwards a bit more they might just lose it > backwards (and hopefully score on themselves ;) ). Don't reset > hard or you'll get called on a jar. Just a very slight reset > should be sufficient to cause some problems for the shooter. > > TELEGRAPH 5: The Dribblers > =========================== > > Often roll-over shooters dribble. This is because their brains > are not well developed and they can't control their salivary glands. > > Other roll-over shooters dribble the ball around by tapping it > all over the place. The key point here is that MOST dribblers > cannot shoot long while tapping the ball (they have a range of > 1 to 1.5" from the where the ball is). Keep your D tight and > concentrate on keeping your D centered with respect to the position > of the ball. Ignore the man, just look at the ball and make sure > you cover the 3-4 inches of space in front of it. > > > --------------------------------------------------------- > > I hope this helps you new up and coming goaltenders. As I said, > it is hard to explain > with words but take a look for some of these things and if you > spot them, take advantage of them. If knowing this doesn't seem > to help, send me an e-mail and try to explain to me what you were > trying - maybe I didn't communicate my point well. > Personally, I think most roll-over shooters have > problems but you need to study them and be aware of the variety > of little problems roll-over shooters have. > > The key point is that the shot is NOT unstoppable. It has its > weaknesses and these can be used against the shooters. Usually > to learn these rules you have to learn the shot but fortunately > there are still many players out there with too much pride to > shoot the "donkey toe". Oooops, mispelled that one ... > > I have other rules I look for but I'll let you digest the > big ones above. Once you think you know what i mean on those or > if they aren't working, let me know and I'll drop some more. > > One other point, if a roll-over shooter is crushing your team's > five-bar then they may be so overconfident that none of the above > helps. These rules are best for when games are close. Solution, > play with a forward so good that the roll-over shooter never gets > the ball. I've almost blocked 100% of three bar shots under those > circumstances. > > Tim > > -------------------==== Posted via Deja News > ====----------------------- > http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet > Another defense to try against rollover shooters is to "camp" your goalie in their strong side hole (leaving about a ball's width hole between the edge of the man and the side of the goal, so the ball likely won't go in there and the goalie man is still covering more of the middle of the goal than it would be if you had the man all the way in the corner of the goal. Then move your two bar man around to constantly change whether it's covering the middle or other corner of the goal. Since the "camped" goalie effectively cuts off that part of the goal, you only have to worry about dedending the middle and other side of the goal, with your 2 bar (assuming he can't shoot a cut shot off his rollover, which virtually no one does). If nothing else, this will reduce him to 50% shooting (or less, since he'll have to shoot a middle or his "weak side", and you probably don't want to cover the "deadman" hole on his weak side, even though the 2 bar can go past the deadmansince he probably can't hit it consistently, enabling you to cover more of the middle with that man too) if you just randomly switch between the middle and corner holes. And, depending on your use if the the other tips and giveaways, you might can bait and read with the 2 bar to increase your chances of being the the right middle or other corner hole when he shoots. Finally, since after a while he'll realize that you're just camping your goalie on one side of the goal, he'll eventually not even try to shoot there. Then, on a big point when you really need a block, just before he shoots you can move your goalie from the "camped" hole to cover the middle or other side, and with your 2 bar covering the other "non-camped" hole, you'll almost certainly get the block since the only hole that's left is where you had been camping your goalie, which he almost certainly won't be shooting at.