The Offensive “Bag of Tricks”

At times, this one seemed humorous. Yet, it really was sad…

What I’m getting at are my observations of a long ago college guy who once played for me.  Actually, he was a pretty talented forward.  At the same time, he would sometimes get absolutely killed because he was what one might call a “one-trick pony”.  I mean, he had this one move that he’d pull on a rival defender early in most games, and he’d usually make that guy look foolish.  A little later in the game he might try it again, this time with a lot less success.  Still, he’d try it again and… Bang!  A defender would put him in orbit!

So, how does a player NOT become a one-trick pony?  The answer is to gradually — and I mean very gradually — build a full bag of offensive moves.

As an aside here…  The college guy I mentioned above could have added to his bag of tricks by just learning to make his patented move in the opposite direction.  In other words, once he’d mastered faking right and cutting left, he’d have been a lot trickier if he could have occasionally deked left and then cut to the right.

Continuing the latter point, an attacker can easily double his or her tricks by just learning to do each one in both directions.

As a starting point, I only need direct you to my very basic video, Creating the Early Goal-scorer.  Oh, I know I’m talking to a lot of advanced level folks here.  However, everyone needs a starting point, so those simple attack moves are a good way to at least begin building a fairly deep bag of tricks. Then, over subsequent posts, I’ll add hundreds (if not thousands) of additional moves!