Offense is fun

Being a child, I could not care less about helping my mum and dad carrying the shopping bags from the car to the house. What I did care about, was joining the street hockey action going on nearby. And I always pictured it the same way.

For educational purposes, I will let you guys have a guess how I saw things happening.

Was it me in possession, and the opposition lining up like the Gauntlet on American Gladiators? I would deke them out easily, one at a time, finally scoring in the top corner with a freaking hard wrist shot?

Or was it me losing the first face off, waiting for someone else to fail on a fancy move, giving me the ball, so that I could run the length of the court to score on the counter attack?

If you have never seen me and my voluminous hair play in the SSL, I think you guessed it right. I wanted the ball. I wanted to dribble. I wanted to shoot a screamer in the top corner. That was how I pictured sports. All I wanted to do was to tear down the defense of the opposition.

However, I am pretty sure that everyone who played with me or saw me play in the SSL, chose the second version. I was a player who coaches would describe as a stay at home defenseman, more than an offensive burst of energy. Kind of the same logics that made girls describe me as a ”friendly” guy, not a ”handsome” guy.  

I guess the lack of offensive adventures as a player turned me into one of the most offensive coaches there is. I have a thirst for seeing my team score goals, and it goes back to the core of sports. Do not tell me that the medieval Englishmen playing mob football was thinking defense first. To actually score a goal, someone from one English medieval city would come up with the idea to kick the ball into the other citys ”goal”. That though always comes before the plans to steal the ball and somehow get it back to the other city. And do not give me theories about Vladimir Krutov being a hockey player excelling in his own zone. The tank loved wearing down the other teams defenders by playing offense.

For me, there are two other main reasons than the fact that the core of sports for me is scoring goals while the other team is defending. One would be the joy of working together in practice six times per week finding ways to beat the next opponent’s organised defensive system. Working on ways to hurt teams where it hurts the most. Beating the way they try to defend their own central nerve system. Scoring while all they do is to defend.

The other one would be plain mathematics.

This year I wrote my bachelor thesis in sports at Göteborgs University studying how goals are scored in the SSL. At the same time, I categorised all of the Pixbo goals we scored during this SSL-season. I had one goal and one theory.

My goal was to score the most number of goals in the SSL with Pixbo on a possession based offensive strategy that people would call naive with a team without seven-eight national team players like in Falun. My theory was that overall in the SSL more than every second goal is goal coming off a counter attack situation.

The good thing? We scored the most number of goals in the SSL with Pixbo, scoring 70% of our goals while wearing down the other teams defensive structure with the ball, and still scoring a decent number of counter attack goals.

The bad thing? My studies showed than every second goal in the SSL is scored on a counter attack. To me, this is a huge - and bad - thing for our sport.

The fact that the best league in the world right now empowers people to actually give the ball away and defend frustrates me. It makes me even more determined to work harder. I will be involved in the Mentor program with swiss unihockey, and I cannot wait to get out to all inspiring clubs in this lovely country and talk about offensive decision making, 360-degree-floorball and how to impose offensive systems, not only defensive systems.

I think that every team will always find ways to score counter attack goals. To me, the difference maker would be the possibility to actually find ways of being creative while having the ball, making it  impossible to defend using that kind of double threat. That was the most decisive factor taking Pixbo back to the top teams in the world again.

Do not get me wrong, we will practice defense with the Swiss national team under my lead. I always envisioned coaching a team that will hurt you in many ways. Ultimately, I think the mentality needed to beat a strong Swedish and tactical and technical Finnish team will come from us being comfortable playing with the ball.

I do not want to see us changing the size of the nets in five years time, and I do not think that floorball should be played 4 on 4. I do, however, think that people should practice more offensive floorball. It is blazing fun, and it will give you a mathematical edge on other teams in case you will still shoot your counter attack goals.

And the English medieval mob footballers would be proud of you. So will I.

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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.