One of the most underutilized strategies in youth hockey is skating at defenders when they are skating at you.
We've covered how to make defenders look like traffic cones before, but we wanted to revisit the topic.
With and without the puck, smartly skating at defenders can be a great way to create space. Too often, players skate to space mindlessly rather than seeing the space invasion game going on.
With Possession
“We don’t want to run away from the tackler. He will just close and take the angle to make the tackle.
We want to attack them so they potentially make a mistake if the tackler loses his leverage.” - Bill Belichick
If the defender:
Over-pursues, then the cutback is available.
Under-pursues or maintains decent leverage, accelerate beyond them as their feet will be jammed and will be flatfooted in comparison.
In ice hockey, I call skating at an opponent who is trying to close you down “offensive angling.” This is a solution against aggressive defenders who do a good job of angling the attackers into compromised positions.
Without Possession
One of the great tight ends of the last NFL generation was Greg Olsen. He was a relatively slow player but had an incredible understanding of the game.
As a potential receiver, his movement would move/push a defender in ways that put the players trying to guard him into tough positions and poor body orientation. Some terms Olsen uses are “restacking” or “flipping hips” when talking about how he put them into spots that created lots of space while making it difficult for defenders to close him down.
At the “top” (when the receiver is getting ready to make a cut), Olsen was looking to take advantage of the defender’s hips (think pivots in hockey) as the timing to change direction or make the play… more on this next month!
Some video from Olsen on his approach: (Note, the NFL videos must be watched directly on YouTube)
Further Reading
Puck Acquisition: The First Move Is For The Defender; The Second Move Is For You
Modern-Day Rush Defending with Moritz Seider & Olen Zellweger