This was one of my all-time favorite posts of yours... and I usually love them all! I think especially when playing a less-scripted "flowy" or "hexy" style, making lots of shorter "easier" passes (instead of looking for high-risk hucks or whatever), these possible moments of thrower-receiver miscommunication are one of the biggest sources of turnovers and hence one of the most important things to figure out how to avoid. And so (for someone who likes that flowy/hexy style!) all of your advice about how to avoid them is super helpful.
I just wanted to add one thing. The "feel" thing that you mentioned several times -- which is basically about players being on the same page about reading the situation and knowing what to expect from each other -- is something that can and should be trained. Of course, it develops automatically from playing with people. You get to know each others' idiosyncrasies like when the big eyes looking that way mean "throw it there!" as opposed to "I want the defender to think I want it there so I can go the other way!", etc... But my point is just that my favorite category of training exercises -- keepaway -- are, I think, the best way to train this efficiently because it's literally just all about thrower-receiver combos reading the situation and figuring out how to complete a pass, over and over and over again.
So, yeah, your post articulated really beautifully yet another reason why I think playing keepaway is one of the most important ways for players to train.
I think in the past year or so, the nonverbal communication has really been a focus point for me. I'm noticing more and more how my eye contact and/or hand signals encourage throwers to feel comfortable releasing a pass to me. And I'm noticing more and more how I holster passes when the receiver is semi-open but aren't giving me any sort of indication about what they're planning. I guess that isn't really replying to anything specific *you* said, but just felt like something I wanted to add somewhere.
You make an interesting point about how these skills are sort of a limiting factor for being able to play a "small ball" style with lots of total passes. Teams like Brown in the college division have shown us how effective a style like that can be...but it takes a certain amount of these skills to string enough passes together in a row to make it so effective.
This was one of my all-time favorite posts of yours... and I usually love them all! I think especially when playing a less-scripted "flowy" or "hexy" style, making lots of shorter "easier" passes (instead of looking for high-risk hucks or whatever), these possible moments of thrower-receiver miscommunication are one of the biggest sources of turnovers and hence one of the most important things to figure out how to avoid. And so (for someone who likes that flowy/hexy style!) all of your advice about how to avoid them is super helpful.
I just wanted to add one thing. The "feel" thing that you mentioned several times -- which is basically about players being on the same page about reading the situation and knowing what to expect from each other -- is something that can and should be trained. Of course, it develops automatically from playing with people. You get to know each others' idiosyncrasies like when the big eyes looking that way mean "throw it there!" as opposed to "I want the defender to think I want it there so I can go the other way!", etc... But my point is just that my favorite category of training exercises -- keepaway -- are, I think, the best way to train this efficiently because it's literally just all about thrower-receiver combos reading the situation and figuring out how to complete a pass, over and over and over again.
So, yeah, your post articulated really beautifully yet another reason why I think playing keepaway is one of the most important ways for players to train.
Thanks for writing that!
I think in the past year or so, the nonverbal communication has really been a focus point for me. I'm noticing more and more how my eye contact and/or hand signals encourage throwers to feel comfortable releasing a pass to me. And I'm noticing more and more how I holster passes when the receiver is semi-open but aren't giving me any sort of indication about what they're planning. I guess that isn't really replying to anything specific *you* said, but just felt like something I wanted to add somewhere.
You make an interesting point about how these skills are sort of a limiting factor for being able to play a "small ball" style with lots of total passes. Teams like Brown in the college division have shown us how effective a style like that can be...but it takes a certain amount of these skills to string enough passes together in a row to make it so effective.