By Lisa Brown and Laura Warner

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Bolster Your Offensive Game

This special report gives you two killer strategies for bolstering your offensive game. The first strategy is called the L offence. The L offence is a team strategy for scoring goals by getting the other team’s defensive triangle out of position. The second strategy is called screening. This is the simple skill of getting traffic in front of the other team’s goaltender so she can’t see the ring when it is shot. Using little tricks like the L offence and screens is a great way to boost your individual scoring and your team’s overall offensive production.

Deadly Offensive Secret #1: Team Finland’s Scoring Secrets Revealed As most of you know by now, the Finnish National team pulled off the unthinkable in the 2004 World Championships. In 3 games, they scored 26 goals to Team Canada’s 9! Of course, many people wrote to me asking for more details: “what were the Finns’ secrets? I have to know!” Luckily for you, I have absolutely no loyalty to the Finns, so I’m happy to share!

So, what was this “revolutionary” new offence? Their new offence was a re-invention of the traditional “L offence” style of play. In the L offence, forwards create speed by passing the ring quickly. The basic idea behind the L offence is that the ring carrier always has a minimum of 2 people she can easily pass to. 2

Bolster Your Offensive Game © Ringette Retreat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.ringetteretreat.com

Bolster Your Offensive Game

Notice that the ring carrier (F2) has 2 passing options: F1 and F3. Because of where F1 and F3 are standing, F2 could pass them the ring quite easily. The offensive players without the ring constantly move into a position where the ring carrier can pass the ring to them. Using this system, the offensive players are almost always set up in the shape of an “L”.

After the first pass, F1 skates to the same side as F3. After the second pass, F2 skates lower in the zone. The rule is that no one is ever totally on a diagonal from the ring carrier.

3 Bolster Your Offensive Game © Ringette Retreat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.ringetteretreat.com

Bolster Your Offensive Game When a player is diagonally across the ice from the ring, the ring carrier often cannot get the pass through to her. We say the “diagonal” player is not supporting the ring.

In this diagram, F1 is diagonally across from the ring. If the defence were set up, F3 could not get a pass through to F1. Because F3 can’t get a pass to F1, we say that F1 is “not supporting the ring”. It is easy for the defensive triangle to cover this because only F2 is open for the pass. Of course, the ultimate objective of the L offence is not passing… the objective is to score. The Finnish team used their quick passing to get our defensive players out of position. Once a defender was vulnerable, the Finns would attack 1 v. 1 or 2 v. 1 and get a quality shot away.

Here is an example of how it all unfolds:

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Bolster Your Offensive Game © Ringette Retreat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.ringetteretreat.com

Bolster Your Offensive Game

5 Bolster Your Offensive Game © Ringette Retreat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.ringetteretreat.com

Bolster Your Offensive Game

Secrets to Success – Why the L offence works The key to the L offence is to move the ring quickly. When the ring moves quickly, the defensive triangle has to move quickly and defenders eventually get caught out of position. The forwards’ job is to notice when the defence is vulnerable (out of position) and drive at that defender. When you do this, you create a golden scoring chance one versus one. This is much better than attacking the entire triangle – which is a one versus three.

Why the Finns blew us away with the L offence The L offence was a perfect strategy for the 2004 Finnish National team for a couple of reasons. 1.

The Finns have the best wrist shots in the world, bar none. Their shots are deadly accurate and the ring is off their stick the second they snag it. If you want to be as successful as the Finns with the L offence, spend lots of time working on shooting!

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The Canadian National team played a very aggressive triangle. The L offence is designed to pick apart a triangle that pushes out quite far.

Answer this question: Do the teams you play against push out or sit back in the defensive end? If they push out at you in an aggressive triangle, the L offence could be perfect for your team! 6

Bolster Your Offensive Game © Ringette Retreat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.ringetteretreat.com

Bolster Your Offensive Game Deadly Scoring Secret #2: A Nifty Little Trick Your Team Can Use to Score More Goals… The second secret is called screening the goalie. You create a screen when a player on your team stands in front of the other team’s goalie so she can’t see the shot. I’ll bet you’ve heard of it. BUT: I’ll also bet you aren’t using it as often as you could be. Even my team’s goalies are forever saying to us: “Get someone in front of the other team’s net!”

Here’s what you need to know about screens: •

Screens are only legal in ringette if you are facing AWAY from the goalie.

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The best screens are timed. This means that you arrive in front of the net just before your teammate shoots.

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Your team’s offence will be most effective when your three offensive players are constantly a threat. That means no single player should remain in the slot for a long time. Skate into the middle, set a screen, and skate out again (rather than skating into the middle and staying planted there for 30 seconds). Screens are terrifically effective, and you can use them right away to your advantage.

Try these nifty tricks and light it up out there… 7 Bolster Your Offensive Game © Ringette Retreat 2006. All Rights Reserved. www.ringetteretreat.com