Steals

Last time in this column, I wrote about NHL stealing from floorball. This time it is time for me to get back… at basketball.

When I decided that I could make it as a coach in the world’s top league, SSL in Sweden, from the beginning I knew that I wanted to come up with some new things. So I turned to other sports for lots of inspiration. I picked up some stuff from hockey, some things from football and other stuff from ”bandy”, the Swedish sport on skates where you play eleven versus eleven.

Obviously, I had to slaughter most of my ideas from these sports. Out of the ones that I ended up keeping, most of them actually came from basketball. There are pretty obvious differences between the two sports (basketball having a basket instead of a net, the fact that you are allowed to grip the ball in your hands), but also a whole lot of similarities (five on five, court size that does not differ too much, offense where the offensive team has a pretty good chance of shielding off opponents while on possession).

Today I will present the four most useful steals I have found from basketball, so far.

Strong side, weak side
In basketball, the strong side is made up of the side of the central line, where the most players are positioned. A common tactic is to try to overload one side, and then benefit from a set play using lots of players, or change sides and exploit the weak side where there is plenty of room to act. In floorball, this is especially successful against teams wanting to severely overload their defense to one side. It has made me find lots of tools, specifically against 2-2-1 teams.

Triangle
This is obviously nothing that only occurs in basketball (the Ajax triangle in football is probably even more known), but I have benefited a lot from watching the San Antonio Spurs in NBA moving the ball in triangles and rotating positions with players waiting to get passes from the ball carrier. The thought process that the player with possession should always have at least two pass options, is a central floorball thought for me now.

Isolation
Basketball is a lot about finding mismatches between players. You are of course looking for matchups where your quickest player could face a slow one on an isolated area of the basketball court, or your tallest player playing against a short one. Actually, this is very useful in floorball as well, when you are playing a man-man coverage. If you present potential mismatches to an opponent playing man-man, you directly make sure that they either will have to face the one-on-one matchups that you prepare, or forcing them to try and change who is guarding who on the court, with the obvious risk of a misunderstanding or a second of hesitation that might hurt your team.

Pick and roll
Also very importable from the basketball world as a weapon against the man-man defense, is the pick and roll move. This means, that a player who is not carrying the ball, makes sure to position himself so that the player guarding the ball carrier will have to run around him to keep up with his moves. This sometimes leads to confusion. Should the two defending players stick to their man-man plan and maybe give the ball carrier room to operate? Or switch with the risk of losing grip of the player providing the screen? This is of course a risky move in floorball, since you might be obstructing the player guarding the ball carrier. But just by being around in that same area, you are making it more difficult for the defending team to sort out who is responsible for what player.

What more is out there?
That is something I think we should all make an effort to find out. I think there are so many unused smart components from different sports, that we could make good use of in floorball. If I see a ”hail Mary” American football pass in the Swiss league system early next season, I know that someone here took this challenge to her or his heart.

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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.