Just like baking a cake...

When I watch the tv-show Masterchef, I always fast forward the episodes about desserts. I find it more entertaining to watch someone do magic of a big salmon or cooking a risotto with skill. But that will not stop me from baking here today. Let me serve you the perfect offensive 2 on 1 cake. It comes down to the right ingredients, proper preparations, a clever recipe, a cup of good execution and a few deciliters of unpredictability. Serve slightly chilled rather than overheated.

So I have been talking probability and decisions, offensive focus and how much a floorball coach can influence his or her team. This time my goal is to be a bit more hands-on: I will try to show you how all of the thoughts I have previously presented in this magazine, will effect the way I approach 2 on 1 situations on court.

Ingredients
Having one extremely skilled left shooting playmaker and a right shooting sniper would be an awesome way to start the baking of this cake. But I sometimes like increasing the number of decisions that have to be made along the ride, meaning that I will take two average two-way left shooters instead. One of them being slightly better at passing the ball than the other.

Preparations
The next step is about making sure that the ingredients will be in a proper position. The two main characters are forwards, and they will soon get a 2 on 1 situation on a counter attack. Hopefully the coach of the team has put the passer on the left side while defending, and has combined the two players with a ball winning defender who rather plays the transition pass to the left winger than the right winger. Why is that? Keep on reading.

Recipe
Since we have two left shooters coming in on this 2 on 1 counter attack, I very much recommend the ball to be on the left side. This gives us two main advantages. The first one being the fact that a left shooter on the left side will have slightly more time to make the proper decision, since he will be able to protect the ball better from the defender - who might consider putting pressure on the ball carrier. A right shooter loses one and a half meter, since he has to carry the ball closer to the central line, if wanting to approach the 2 on 1 situation on his forehand. The other main advantage is that the left shooter on the right side - who is not carrying the ball - is in perfect position for a one-timer shot. If the ball would have been on the right side, the potential shooter would have a hard time shooting a quality shot.

This of course does not mean, that a left shooter on the right side, cannot score himself. Or that it is impossible for him to play a pass to a left shooter on the left side, who will score on a one-timer. Of course that could happen.

This is me translating my ideas of decision making and probability onto the court. If we would be looking at 100 examples of two left shooters approaching a 2 on 1 situation with the ball carrier to the left and a 100 examples where the ball carrier is to the right, I am very certain that the 100 tries with the ball carrier on the left side would be the most successful.

Regardless of what side the ball actually will be on, when facing the 2 on 1 situation, a very decisive factor in these situations will be how the player without the ball will move. The only big no-no in this case, is to move at the same speed as the defender. This will make sure, that the eventual pass will have a much lower probability rate of succeeding. The risk-reward ratio tilts towards the risk side, and the play that is most favored by me (passing the ball for a one-timer) is severely harder to execute.

I want the player without the ball to be extremely active. I want this player to start asking the defender some questions.

How will you act if I change pace and go deep to the far post?

If the defender is not aware of this tempo change and positional movement, the ball carrier will have a pretty easy pass for a big chance of scoring a one-timer in a yawning net. If the defender is aware of the run and tries to take away the passing lane close to the net, I have a follow up question:

How will you act, if I quickly change direction and do a counter move up in the slot area?

Even the slowest player will get an advantage here, since you as an offensive player are totally in control of your own movement, and the defender is only reacting, while at the same time having to keep track of the ball carrier. While I was playing with a lower division club in Göteborg called Bollens BK (The sportsclub of balls), we had continuous success with this counter movement action. I remember once, when I played against a guy I knew on the other team, and I told him what would happen, the next time me and a teammate of mine would end up on a 2 on 1 rush. ”I will fake to go to the far post, stop and wait for a sideways pass, while you will still be heading for the far post.”. I think he thought that I was trying to play double psychology on him, because he was heading for the far post, while I stopped and waited for the sideway pass.

Once this has happened, you will see defenders hanging on to the player without the ball for their lives. The next question is therefor asked by the ball carrier:

How can you hang on to the ball without the ball, and at the same time stop me from getting a 1 on 0 situation?

Well, you cannot. If this happens, you have cooked down the 2 on 1 situation into a 1 on 0 situation. That is seldom a bad thing if you are the offensive team. 

Execution
Of course, no cake will be good without skills in the baking department. The same thing applies for this. The pass quality has to be high, the shots must hit the net, the player without the ball has to be clever in his movement patterns and posses some timing skills. And there is a big help if the players love scoring goals and like to care about decision making on the court. This 2 on 1 situation has been an eye opener into the world of decision making for a lot of player that I have coached.

Unpredictability
Here comes a pretty important part in the end: I am not trying to sell a system to my players, that takes away their right to read the game. Not at all. I am not saying that playing the ball to the left shooter and searching a one-timer shot is always going to be right. Now and then you will need to break your pattern. Shoot the ball when no one expects it, dribble past the defender or give the ball to the right side forward in an early stage and watch him play you a one-hand backhand pass back between the defender and the goalie.

What I am saying, however: it is a whole lot of fun to think floorball, and make sure that your players find the fun sides of playing clever. And in the long run, clever thoughts will score you more goals. And who does not like scoring goals?

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_{David Jansson}

The Author:
David Jansson (1980) has been the Coach of the Swiss National team since June 2015. Already as a 17-year old, he debuted in the SSL (Swedish highest division) and between years 1995-2005 he had played for 3 different clubs  - Jönköpings, Älvstranden and Pixbo. His coaching career includes two years as head coach of the swiss club Floorball Köniz (2009-2011) as well as four years by Pixbo Wallenstam. He had also worked as the sports teacher at the floorball gymnasium in Gothenburg. He lives in Kloten.