Water Polo Tactics - Team Driving Concepts

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A team’s offensive driving scheme depends on the abilities of the team and the defense that is presented. Additionally, a team should always have a predetermined organization to their driving scheme. Too often coaches will outline multiple driving ideas without identifying and practicing specific situations so that all players understand exactly what to do. Water polo is a dynamic sport but well-organized teams are always more effective. This example is a basic driving scheme: when only one player drives at a time a defense can more easily make adjustments. When more offensive players make coordinated movements the defense is more likely to make mistakes.
Drivers should always attack toward the goalposts in case defenders make poor choices. Driving outside the goal posts allows a wing defender to more easily cover 2 players and generally makes a scoring opportunity harder when a driver beats their defender.
Movement should always occur in tandem. In this example, a zone defense becomes ineffective if 2 of the zone defenders are cleared out. When the 2 drivers are through the middle the last zone defender is stuck guarding a shooter and helping guard the center. If the defenders miscommunicate a driver might also be open. When a defense is pressing, the drivers should still work together to create space. the offense can have one player initiate a screen with a perpendicular drive so that a teammate can drive through the middle. One defender must make choice about who to guard while one defender is stuck in a poor defensive position.
A team can use cues and triggers to create and execute a driving scheme that will maximize scoring opportunities. In this scenario, the cue is the fact that the defense is in a zone. When the offense sees this they should move the ball to the right slot who will attack forward to draw the zone defender away from the center. This triggers drives from the left slot and the point toward the goalposts. In this case, drives never begin when the ball is at the left slot or the point and the players driving are all right handed. As the drivers move through the middle, 2 zone defenders must follow while the third zone defender follows the shooter. The wings roll higher to support the ball. If the zone defender aggressively closes out the shooter, the center will be open. If any one defender is out of position the passer has 3 right handed options for a catch and shoot and if the zone defender stays back the passer can now move in and take a shot from close range.
In this scheme, a defense is in a press and the offensive perimeter players are outside of shooting range. The right wing will support the ball as the point screens the right slot with a perpendicular drive so that the right slot can drive through the middle. The point defender must choose who to guard while both offensive plays drive to the goalposts. 2 concurrent drives will collapse the defenders and shrink the offensive perimeter. The left slot now has a perpendicular drive to reposition closer to the goal as the left wing rolls higher into another shooting position and the drives slide to the wings. All offensive players are now within 6 meters of the goal with catch and shoot opportunities for right handed players.