Basic Team Offense

I think we all understand that the teams which work together most effectively are usually the teams that win.  Most of you understand that encouraging each other, working hard and not giving up are qualities of good teammates.  While these are important first steps towards becoming a good team, these qualities alone won't result in a successful team.  A successful team is one which uses a plan or strategy in which every team member has a job.  It is when a team trusts each of its members to play an important part instead of depending on one of two players to do everything that you have true teamwork.

So what kinds of jobs are there?  The easiest thing to do is assign players to offense and defense, but I'd like to take this one step further.  This is about basic team offensive principles and how teammates can work together.

These are simple tactics what apply to any team sport, such as soccer, hockey and basketball, in which the object is to score goals.  Master them and your team will become very effective in multiple sports.

1.  Spacing - In order to be an effective offensive team, the first thing it must understand is spacing.  Spacing refers to the distance between offensive teammates.  Basically, the more distance between teammates, the harder it is to guard them, because it forces the defense to spread out and cover more ground.

Conversely, if the offense is too close together, the defense's job is much easier because they don't have to move very far and, because they are so close together, can help each other out by clogging up the area in front of the goal.

Let's say for example that in a soccer game, the offense has one player in the middle of the field, another 20' away on the right and a third 20' away on the left.  This spacing makes the goalie's job difficult because s/he can only see one player at a time.

From team offense

On the other hand, if all three offensive players were only 5-6' apart, which is common, the goalie can see all three at once.

From team offense

2.  The Give and Go - this is the most basic of all two player offensive tactics.  A give and go is when player 1 passes to player 2 then cuts towards the goal and receives a pass back from player 2. 

From team offense

In order for this to work, the offense must be properly spread out.  That's because the defense will tend to watch the ball.  So, if one player 1 passes to player 2, who is 20' away, all of the defenders heads will turn towards the player 2 and won't see player 1 cutting to the goal.  If players 1 and 2 are too close together, the give and go won't work because the defenders won't have to turn away from player 1 to see player 2 and because player 1 won't have any room to cut.

3.  The Triangle - this is a basic three player tactic which is especially effective in games with goalkeepers.  The idea here is to force the goalkeeper to guard one side of the goal, then pass the ball to the opposite side of the goal.  Let's start with three properly spaced players 20' (or more) apart.  Player 1, in the middle of the field starts with the ball.  S/he then passes to player 2, 20' away on the right.  When player 2 gets the ball, the goalkeeper will protect the goal by moving to the right post.  Player 3 then moves to an area near the left post, behind the goalkeeper, but in an area where player 2 can reach her/him with a pass.  Player 2 passes to player 3, who has a wide open shot, because the goalkeeper is caught on the opposite side of the goal.

From team offense

Again, if the offensive players are too close together, the goalkeeper will be able to see all three of them without moving and won't be pulled out of position by the first pass.

There is at least one hockey team in this year's tournament that understands these basic offensive principles.  An interesting by product of this is that everybody on this team gets a chance to make plays.  As a result, everybody on the team is excited to play, and always feels like they have a chance to win even when players are missing.

Try these things with your team and see how much more effective it will become.