Pyramid Strategy Guide
From ColonialFleet
This page represents draft material to aid pyramid players and teams of all levels to develop and improve their game. Current strategy documentation strives to conform to the latest standard of the rules of pyramid, and should be edited or discussed in cases where strategy violates the rules.
Contents |
[edit] Glossary
- Back corner-- The corner containing the illegal head at Start of Play, shown as the lower-right corner on all diagrams.
- Bottom corner-- The corner on the left boundary line from the back corner, shown as the lower-left corner on all diagrams.
- Bottom guard-- Defensive player protecting the bottom corner at Start of Play.
- Center-- Defensive player protecting entrance to the Neutral Zone at Start of Play.
- Top corner-- The corner on the right boundary line from the back corner, shown as the top corner on all diagrams.
- Top guard-- Defensive player protecting the top corner at Start of Play.
[edit] General Strategy Considerations
Fundamentally, pyramid is a struggle between two evenly matched opponents. Unlike other sports, there is no advantage in numbers or specialty positions afforded to the offensive team. Also unlike other sports, there is no clear specialist position for defending. Every player must be an "iron man", capable of filling in multiple roles, and every team must strive to capitalize on the small opportunities they achieve.
In pyramid, the offensive team starts with two very minor advantages-- initial possession of the ball and an unguarded carrier. The goal of the defensive team at the beginning of a Play is to shut down these two advantages quickly and return the game to a state of being evenly matched. The offensive team, by comparison, but make the most of these short-lived advantages and convert them into scoring opportunities.
Pyramid is an intensely physical game. Non-carriers may block with bodies and bent arms and may push so long as they do not leave their feet or push until their arms are extended. Carriers may push and block with a straight arm. Using these blocking techniques effectively on either side is essential to the process of gaining an advantage in available manpower or free court space. It is essential for every player to be capable of delivering a physical game that best suits their individual attributes and for team management to ensure mixing a good balance of talents into any 3-person active group. This ensures a safe and consistently interesting game.
[edit] Defensive Strategy
In general, the defensive team starts out at a disadvantage. Only two of the offensive team members are covered by defenders in the Starting Positions. The third offensive team member enters play unguarded. The goal of the defensive team at Start of Play is to either take away this advantage or ensure that the offensive team cannot capitalize on it. The central purpose of defensive strategy is to leave the offensive team unable to build a tactical advantage. The offensive team requires at least one of the following two advantages in order to score-- a carrier who is not in danger of being tackled and a clear shot at a legal head.
First, a treatment of the Start of Play. In this position, the offensive team already holds an advantage. The carrier could step into the Arena and immediately shoot. Because of this, the first goal of the defensive team at Start of Play is to ensure this advantage is shut down. The defense must either shut down this advantage or prevent the further use of it. In the former of the two options, the center immediately advances strongly on the carrier. In the latter of the two, the defensive team keeps its top and bottom corner guards close to the heads to block a shot. It is possible to do both, but the timing of such a play is essential-- if the top and bottom corner guards protect the heads tightly, then the offensive team players will have an opportunity to change positions, which could give the offensive team passing opportunities.
In general, a defensive minimum is to ensure a player is always placing pressure on the carrier and to post the other two defensive players at positions where, should the offensive team pass the ball, the new carrier will face similar pressure. Forcing the offensive team to pass to a player in a weaker position or forcing the offensive team to shoot when they have no clear advantage are the major ways to force turnovers and bring down the carrier.
[edit] Player-on-Player Defense
This is the most basic defensive formation. Each defensive player picks an offensive player and defends against only this player. The simplicity of a player-on-player defense is that it requires the least amount of defensive coordination, making it an ideal formation for defenders who normally do not play together. A coach or captain who is assembling a special-purpose defense should be careful to keep that shift's plays in a player-on-player fashion. This style of defense is also very useful for staffing defensive players against offensive players based on individual talents, heavily exploiting advantageous matchups in personnel. Player-on-player defense is, however, vulnerable to drawing the defense, players deceptively moving a defender out of a useful position, and offensive picks. A player-on-player defense will also have a harder time converting a loose ball into a scoring opportunity, as the defensive players may not find themselves in positions that lend well to coordinating as an offense when a ball becomes loose.
There are a number of additional tricks that a player-on-player defense lends itself to. Critical among these is the defensive twist. In a twist, two defensive players agree to switch with one another while the ball is in play. This not only creates confusion for the offense, as the increased complexity of the defense makes it difficult to read the defense's tactics, but it also allows the defense to lull a star offensive player into a feeling of false security. If the offensive player has been matched against a defender who provides light defense, and the defense then twists in a powerful defender at critical moments, a top offensive player may be caught by surprise. The extreme end of twisting as a tactic is known as a weaving defense, in which the defense executes a twist at every safe opportunity.
[edit] Zone Defense
In a zone defense, the defenders choose to each protect a share of the court. Any player that enters a defender's zone becomes that player's responsibility. A highly conservative zone defense assigns a triangular part of the court in front of every head to each defender. The more common formation, however, is to assign the areas around the two current scoring heads to two defenders and the area around the Neutral Zone to the third defender. The advantage of a zone defense is that it requires relatively little coordination and ensures a player will be at each legal head to block a shot. The disadvantages of a zone defense include vulnerability to offensive picks and double-teaming, leaving heads unprotected when a defender is drawn, and a defense that has fewer options for twisting.
To help put some flexibility back in a zone defense, a hybrid style of defense is quite common. Two players will be assigned the task of protecting the heads, but the third player will work in a player-on-player fashion against the opposing team. This flexible player, sometimes called the journeyman, has more license to read the play, move into situations where a defender may be overloaded with a pick or double-team, and twist with his or her fellow defenders. This style of defense is common early in games when the scores are matched and the style of attack is not yet understood. A roving defensive player serves to help gather information about future player-on-player matchups that can be exploited.
[edit] Corralling Defense
Collapsing defense is the most intricate defensive formation common to all pyramid teams. A corralling defensive formation does not assign a specific role to a given defender. Instead, the defenders coordinate in ad hoc roles to achieve a common goal-- to restrict the offensive team to the smallest area of the court possible, preferably away from a legal head. The principle behind a corralling defense is that if the offense cannot build up enough room for its players to break free of a defender to receive a pass or take a shot, then the attack will fail. This defensive style works well with a highly experienced shift of intelligent players with good coordination and strong court awareness. The process of corralling an offense also requires strong blocking defenders, so it is essential that defenders using this formation are good physical players. The biggest weakness in a corralling defense is a collapse of defensive organization or a defender which becomes overloaded and allows a player to break the defense's perimeter, allowing a fast break to develop.
In a corralling defense, each defender imagines a circle on the court that encompasses all of the offensive players and then marks free players in danger of leaving that circle. Through strong blocking, a good defense builds a fence around the offense that becomes difficult to leave. The defense allows the offense to move and pass the ball within the perimeter and instead focuses on ensuring the perimeter does not grow. Then, as the offense makes a short pass or carries the ball more tightly into the circle, an unengaged defensive player moves in. Defenders, through player-on-player blocking at the perimeter and conservatively placing pressure to make shorter passes in the area, work to tighten the the offense into an increasingly closed space until tackles or turnover become inevitable.
It should be noted that a corralling defense does not have to claim a significant amount of the court in order to be successful. It is ideal to restrict the offense to the back corner, but a corralling defense that keeps the offensive team away from the top or bottom corner will find that their troubles have been effectively cut in half.
[edit] Defensive Slide
Regardless of the defense's formation, the most fundamentally critical tactic all defensive shifts should know is a slide. In a slide, a defender breaks formation to create additional pressure on the carrier. Generally, this will leave an offensive player free, so it is important that slides are done quickly and at the right point in a play. A defender should only slide when the carrier is already under strong pressure. The goal of sliding is to finish off the defensive play by bringing overwhelming force against an already harried carrier, to cause the carrier to dodge into the extra defender (making an easy tackle), or to force an unfavorable pass.
When sliding, a defensive player will no longer be free to defend against one of the offensive team members. This will naturally create a passing lane. The defensive team can either shut down this passing lane by moving its third player into it (possibly leaving a less useful passing lane open) or can try to take the risk and try to recover from a fast break when it happens. To minimize the risk of a fast break, however, the sliding defensive player must make sure that the pass is already blocked by other players on the team or must minimally attack the carrier from the angle of the passing lane, insuring that he/she is covering the passing lane until the last second.
[edit] Offensive Strategy
At Start of Play, the Offensive Team has a basic advantage-- a free man. The secret to scoring goals is to maintain and exploit this advantage. Despite limitations on carrying the ball, the close space, and the guarantee that the teams will always have equal manpower, the initiative that comes with offense is indispensable. Offensive players always have the initiative when they break from a defender; defenders can only respond to changes in direction and pace. In addition, the offense has the benefit of being able to change goal locations and the safe shelter of the Neutral Zone and starting positions.
The first and most fundamental tenet of a pyramid offense is never stop moving. The only advantage offensive players hold is their initiative. The moment an offensive player stops moving, s/he is vulnerable to being blocked or tackled. At a minimum, an offensive player who is defended cannot receive a pass, choking up the court and crippling offensive options.
[edit] Fast Break
In any situation where an offensive player is in tight coverage against a defender, the offensive player retains the advantage of initiative. The defensive player can only respond to the actions of the offensive player. An important tactic in working a player free is to use a process of inviting close coverage from a defender at a place in the court that is not relevant to the current offensive play, then using the power of initiative to break from the defender into an open region of the court.
During a break, the defender must be assumed to be in close pursuit, so the window of opportunity for exploiting this open player is small. In addition, the player executing the break runs the risk of being drawn into a defensive slide, and the area of open court may itself be a defensive tactic designed to draw the offense into feeding the ball to a player that will meet with heavy defense. The player initiating a pass to the breaking player must, therefore, read the defensive team's posture and transition to a new play as necessary.
[edit] Drawing Defense
Top and bottom corner defenders face a difficult tension. If the defender opts to tightly guard a goal, then it is difficult for the offense to shoot on that goal but leaves the center of the court free for the offense to choose the way in which they will set up an eventual shot. A goal-tight defender may ultimately face a 2-on-1 scenario and be checked or picked by an extra free offensive player. On the other hand, if the defender opts to tightly cover an offensive player or to move towards the center of the court to break up a play, the goal is more lightly defended and becomes an easier target. The gap between the goal and its closest defender is a virtual bubble of safety, and if an offensive player can enter this gap with the ball, a shot on an unprotected goal is the reward.
The process of drawing a defender is by no means a universal one. It may happen when a defender fails to read the play and believes that the offense intends to shoot on another goal. It may happen when the defense has already shut down most of the scoring opportunities and is holding the offense in the back corner or center of the court. It may happen as a result of a defensive slide or pick which was poorly executed. It may be the result of pairing the same offensive player against the same defender and tricking the defender into believing the offense will function a certain way. Whatever the process is, if a top or bottom corner defender becomes drawn, s/he must be exploited.
Fundamentally, there are three ways to exploit a drawn defender. The first is to pick, block, or harry the defender while the carrier moves off-angle and takes a long-range shot on goal. The second is to pass the ball over the defender to an open player who can shoot from the bubble of safety. The third is to post a player behind the drawn defender to set a pick and secure the open court area for the carrier to take a closer shot. For more information on executing these tactics, see Example Plays.
See also Example Plays.
