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.
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. ;)
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 barBy 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!!).
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 barProblem 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.
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.
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.
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.
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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
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More tips from Bruce
Nardoci
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.