5man offense follows from defense follows from offense !

[Foozkillah]

Grant,

Have you been playing 5man wars with Mark? I mean serious 5man wars with the advantage you and Mark have living together.

I also advise working on your 5man defense against decent forward passing. This is kind of like the chicken-or-the-egg problem. You have to learn or deconstruct basic and advanced passing series to learn to defend them best.

Let's start with Mark's deadly "hang time" brush down: To fight getting trapped near the wall and basically frozen, you have to learn to use your fingers on the bottom of the handle to control all forward and back swinging of your 5men, and to use your forearm only to place your 55 or 54 in the area you need to be (A Wall & near-wall, B Lane & slight angle lane, C Deadbar & extreme brush up - where your 54 just can't reach). Once you master that separation, you can learn to stop just swishing your men from side to side. Then you can be in the direct area across from where the opponent's ball is and just jab with the wrist an inch or so to either side. This is the classic defensive grip. Most righthanded players use their whole arms and their wrists for everything lateral. This is because they're basically idiots. If the majority of passes were hard swingin swats using the whole arm, these stances would make sense, but a little intelligent observation shows most good passes are designed to find the weakest opening with lateral back & forth motion, a setup with or without misdirection to prepare the hole, and pass execution.

This means if you can figure out: 1. Where the setup is going, 2. What the series is trying to get you out of.. 3. Which small area is where the pass will go... You've solved half the problem. Those wide lateral back-and-forth motions with your defending 5bar are good to flex your defense to make sure you can get to any area, but that isn't what will block the pass! If you notice a great passer like Adam, almost 85% of his passes are ups or sticks through the lane. So wide motions after you know he's in area A, B, or C are silly. Once the ball slows down (the passing setup is ending, and pass execution is next) you MUST have the 55 or 54 right across from the passer's chosen area! Don't care if you're shaking or spinning in place. It is sheer stupidity to run back and forth to your front door and the rear entrance waiting for a guest when you know 17 times out of 20 the guest will knock on the front door.

Another tip is centering. Most good series use the lane between the 54 and 55 5bar men. Staying near the wall means your first reaction is to jump to cover that giant hole for the up you've just left. Staying centered means you close the lane and you MUST use your wrist to snap out or in to cover the wall or up pass. This is a much better defense than any idiotic back & forth. You still use the forearm to move between the areas, but use the wrist to go immediate up or immediate down in the A, B, or C area you are currently in across from the ball. You won't believe how fast you can cover up or down once you separate your wrist control from first your forearm, and from back-and-forward swinging duties (these belong to the elbow and the finger tips). Cupping the bottom of the 5bar handle with your hand and fingers square does this. Keeping your wrist away from the handle prevents any wrist lock that happens when hold the handle in a classic handshake grip and get used to twisting the wrist to swing the 5bar men like a lot of 5man morons out there.

In conclusion, you must figure out what area the opposing forward is finishing the setup at, then practice defense across from that area, using a centered grip & stance. A hard grip with the thumb included is necessary for defense you you can snap the 5bar's feet forward accurately with minimum delay. Square grip cupping the bottom of the handle, the forearm doing all the normal side-to-side motion, and lateral snaps with the wrist is important. These follow (but with the thumb released) when you are passing the ball yourself.

Happy warring!
So practice with the 5bar hold stance on defense.

[Grant]

Hi Brian, I spit this 5 man post off from the pull/snake/push thread into its own thread. I think it will help people who are looking to improve their 5 rod game find your 5 rod advice. Anyway, I am still disecting what you wrote, but I'll be back with some questions.

[Grant]

I've been taking your advice and trying out using my wrist more on my five man defense (and offense). I think it has a lot of promise but i need to relearn old ways (well I've only been practicing 5 rod for a few months so it shouldn't be too difficult). I am used to using my whole arm but when doing this I have trouble keeping track of where the wall is and end up jarring the table or not quite making it to the wall because I don't want to be a jarring hack. Anyway the wrist technique helps alleviate this problem because I have much more control of the range of motion of my wrist (i.e. i can snap it as fast as possible one way and I know what it's range limit is). I think I can train my wrist to be faster than my arm eventually too. I think I will watch your technique at our next tournament.

[Foozkillah]

I am used to using my whole arm but when doing this I have trouble keeping track of where the wall is and end up jarring the table or not quite making it to the wall because I don't want to be a jarring hack. Anyway the wrist technique helps alleviate this problem because I have much more control of the range of motion of my wrist (i.e. i can snap it as fast as possible one way and I know what it's range limit is).

I believe you saw how effective the "centered" defense is when you played Randy and I last Friday. The trick is to hold the 5bar with the fingers curled to allow you to slip, which allows you not to bounce off of either wall when you snap the wrist. Don't know if you've observed this, but when you over-anticipate a wall or an "up" pass by being too close to the wall, you are doing EXACTLY WHAT the other forward wants you to do. Being close to the wall makes you automatically worried about sudden "up" passes! You almost have no tendency to snap to the wall because you are already so close to the wall. That's where any variation of the "hang-time" brushdown wall pass will kill you. It would seem that being so close to the wall (but not quite on it) would discourage the opposing forward because of the smaller hole... but that is exactly why you freeze when the brushdown comes anyway. Any forward who can practice a brushdown pass can make that small hole automatic. What's more, you the defender can get really discouraged mentally after you get beaten time & time again to the wall. That's why you must be centered neutrally between the walls and always have a man cutting the angle off for any lane or "up" passes. You have to believe in and develop that wrist snap to the wall or to the "up".

Watch films or good pro players passing against other good forwards and you will see how many times they feature or "sell" the wall brushdown, but end up with the up, like Adam or Gary Gold. The "up" should be easier to defend, being slower than the almost automatic brushdown wall pass, but they get you 1. Close to the wall, 2. Equally wary of the wall and the big "up" you are leaving, and 3. They might fake to get you moving. At this point, you, the defender, are basically frozen. Toast, up the river with a string for a paddle, falling off the cliff with an anvil for a parachute, etc..etc...

So: STAY IN THE FRIGGIN'CENTER. You can spin the men in tighter or larger circles depending on how laterally wide the ball is moving. But be prepared for when the opposing forward slows the ball almost to a stop, because at that point, he or she can brush the ball at any angle at will. This is how you can anticipate when the actual pass is struck. If you've watched professional tennis, soccer, or hockey, you will notice how the tennis pro receiving serve, the soccer goalkeeper, or the hockey goalie all move forward in the direction of the oncoming forward. This is to cut off the angle of attack on the goal. They do not go wall-to-wall (EXCEPT the MORON LEAGUES of course) because that would mean an easy timing shot at either corner, or a fake to freeze you. I've seen you go wall-to-wall in defense, despite knowing that you defended hundreds of passes, and 99% of them go through 1 or 2 possible lanes. Have you ever seen Agassi or Lindsey Davenport go from the midcourt line and the outside line while receiving serve? NO! They stay centered and sway to be ready to rush to either side. Dominic Hasek the Dominator only goes goal corner to goal corner to warm up and never during the game. He almost goes still, squarely facing the forward, swaying with his legs to be ready to lunge at any angle of attack. Ditto in soccer... Only Brendan Spratt can afford to be at the left corner of the goal while the opposing forwards are attacking the right corner, because he wants to develop his own way of being like the Flash and closing the right or whichever side is being attacked.

Defense, unlike offense, can only be played one way: Correctly! Sure you can take note of the opposing forward's tendencies, but that still doesn't help oneself. And the wrong anticipation always happens at meatball or similar situations.

Your advantage is that you already have major control of your left hand... no muscles need to be awakened, just developed. A little technique like the three sentences I said to GB Ellis while he was practicing 5man D against his partner Adam is all you need. Or the two sentences I told JT after he was getting drilled by Gary Gold, but afterwards, he and Tony Mantani knocked them out despite several dozen shots by Gary Gold. TECHNIQUE is the icing on the cake of practice.

P.S. You will notice that this "centered" principle works for any defense, 5man D, or goalkeeping against snakes or pins. The only difference is you have to add more reach to your left hand and more "snap" to your right hand.