Location is crucial to staying in the game for a long time. Where you stand on the court affects the efficiency of your throws as well as the moves your opponent makes.
For Example:
Standing at the line will probably push your opponent to move back. (it also improves your chance of making a good throw- you're wasting energy throwing from mid-way)
Standing next to a teammate with a ball will deter your opponent from throwing at you.
A player is at their most vulnerable state immediately after they make a throw. Their center of gravity is thrown off, making it difficult to dodge or catch. This weakness is remedied by having a teammate with a ball nearby. If one player makes a throw, all the nearby player has to do is take a quick step forward. This move, simple as it is, will make the opposing players hesitate, giving your teammate just enough time to recover.
It is so easy to do: before you throw, make sure you have a teammate with a ball to watch your back.
Alright, onto the formations:
Stagger Formation
Probably the most commonly used strategy in the game. A team spreads out on the court, not only horizontally, but also vertically. Every player is able to see the entire court and has plenty of room to dodge and retrieve balls. Having players spread out across the whole court, a teammate can move to a spot that is most advantageous at the moment.
Despite being an incredibly easy formation to use as it requires little to no communication- the Stagger has its downsides. Theoretically, it works out. But my experience with this formation is that players invariably get in each others' way (especially when backing up). Because of a lack of communication or order to this strategy; players can get distracted, or one player can become isolated from a group-making them an easy target.
"Flying V" Formation
A slightly more complex formation, where two players each stand up at the front line in the corners and the rest of the teammates line up further back until they converge about back-mid court creating the shape of a V. Using this formation puts a lot of pressure on the opposing team.
How This Works: Basically, the players in the front always have a ball. The players in the back of the "V" retrieve them and pass the balls forward. Having players stand at the front line may sound ridiculous if not downright stupid, but if the players in the 1 and 2 spots on the Left and Right sides have balls, one player winds up defending the other. If the front player on the left side (we shall call him/her 1L from now on) makes a throw, player 2L has a ball, and is ready to defend if an opposing player attempts to make a move.
This is risky since you are always leaving 2 players right at the line of fire. The formation is absolutely deadly for an aggressive team with really good arms and should be used when one has the lead in the game. Having players at the line on both sides of the court makes it difficult for the opponent to know where a ball will come from.
The biggest weakness of the Flying V is ball control. The opposing team is very very unlikely to throw at you while in this formation, so once you run out of balls, you might as well say good-bye to players 1L & 1R.
Both formations definitely have their benefits. Above all, a strategic formations purpose is to help your teammates out and I strongly endorse the 2 man ball defense strategy I described at the beginning of this article.
What we learn is that there is a time and place for different formations. The Flying V can be very effective at the beginning of the game if you have the majority of the balls as a way to quickly whittle down your opponent.
The Stagger Formation is a good strategy if you need to make a recovery, and should be used as such.
Well, that's all I got for now. Check back for discussions of more strategies later!
Location is crucial to staying in the game for a long time. Where you stand on the court affects the efficiency of your throws as well as the moves your opponent makes. mercedes rims
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