I guess this depends on what you deem “the top”. If you are talking about excelling at rookie events, sure a good unusual shot may help you win a little more at this level, but in a way you are mortgaging your future for immediate results. This is certainly a theory i don’t agree with. What really makes or breaks a player is learning to adjust. If someone is blocking you, figure out why and adjust, then its his turn.
If you keep switching shots every time you aren’t scroing, then you’re not learning to adjust and eventually this will come back to bite you. Also you are cheating yourself out of the experience you need in reading defences, shooting your shot under pressure, etc. There is a reason why very few people shoot other shots. They are harder to perfect, the work necessary to have a decent push, or push-kick is better spent in getting really good pull or rollover. (imho) Under that same train of thought, it takes alot less practice to develop the other main shot (ie pull if you’re a rollover shooter and vice versa) as a secondary shot than it does an off-color shot. If you feel you need a secondary shot I think that should be the course you take. The exception to this would be if you “grew up” shooting another shot. Then you’ve already put the time into practicing and learning it, you’re not costing yourself any development in having that as a secondary shot. Of course i think a secondary shot should really be called the last resort shot, because thats what it should be. You need to try to work through your problems until you feel you’re almost out of time, then try to work through them some more, then as a last resort you may want to switch shots.
In article <377361B6.FB0C08CF@ix.netcom.com>,
Rocky Willson wrote:
David, for the most part I agree with you, but I have had a few experiences where the players went to their “last resort” and rescued themselves.
There is no better feeling as a goalie to reach that magical point where you are reading the opposing forward like a book–you know what shot he is going to shoot before he shoots it, and you know exactly when they are going to shoot it. With each shot they become more frustrated and more deliberate, and even more readable.
Oddly enough, I can usually only do this to a strong opponent because they are the only ones with enough consistency to allow you to “own them”. I imagine that a top goalie like Diaz, Swan, or Loffredo reaches this point routinely. For me it happens only occasionally.
Once you are bricking a forward because you are “in sync” with him, his only option is the secondary shot, because if he tries to adjust, you are right there with him.I have had a couple of very important matches where a toppish player has gone to his secondary shot in frustration and saved the match because of it–to my chagrin.
Anyway, I have also been in matches where a top player has stubbornly kept to his main shot and lost to me because of it.
These type of wins are especially sweet beacause it is one of the few times you as a goalie are winning the match AND you are actually BEATING a superior opponent–not lucking into a win, but whooping ass on them.
Bottom line is that if you don’t want a goalie like me adding you to his favorite memories list, you ought not wait too long to switch to your secondary shot. “As a last resort” may be a bit too late.
– Rocky Willson
And how many times did you brick them for two games and then they lit you up three straight? Like i said, its a matter of knowing when is too late and trying to walk that line. You are correct though that you need to not wait too long, but i think it’s more important (not necessarily for that match but your overall development) to make sure you wait long enough. And i definitely know what you’re talking about being in the zone and reading them like a book, i may not be a goalie of a status of diaz, but i am a goalie. I find though that when i am so completely in their head it doesn’t matter what shot they shoot. This certainly doesn’t hold true all the time, but a decent percent of players may shoot different shots but they read the holes for the shots in the same way. To over simplify, if they shoot at the open hole with a pull they’ll do the same with a roll over, if they look where the men are and wait for you to move out of a hole and shoot it they’ll do the same with either shot. IE they look for the same type of patterns and react similarly no matter what shot they’re shooting. This is why its important to know your defences and now what type of patterns you’re giving them. Don’t think of it as my “blurring pull – d” and my “move my men slow pull d” Think of it as the “bait and switch” or the “flutter, stutter, and stop” or the “dead man tease”. Whatever, just so you know what you’re showing them so you can offer a similar d for the different shot so they’ll react in the same predictable way.
-David