when to slide

[dcarp407]

the worse part of my game is my sliding..... i play D soo its a pick part of my game

i ether slide to early/to late/not at all its like i cant get it into my head and my summer coach is flipen out


and if i wana keep playing @ this leval im gona have too learn

are there ne drils or ne thing out there

idk

just give me ur input

[Barefoot]

watch a basketball game. . . .

[UNCdefense]

Just work on it day in & out...I had trouble sliding a while back as well & I would seriously just picture moments where I'd need to slide in my head all day long....If you see an awesome slide in an MLL game or something rewind or just sit there & think about what happened for a minute...As someone's sig. used to say "1/2 the game is 50% mental"

[Lax.53]

took me 3 years to learn and get the right feel for when to slide, sometimes you have to cheat on a good team sometimes you dont have to go at all cause your middies wont get beat, you just have to play playplay and get a good feel for when you think your teammate will need help or is going to get beat.

[freestylewalkin]

I learned that it is always good to slide early than to slide late beacuse if you slide early you can recover and even if you man gets the ball the 3rd slide should already be there on your man.

[L i LaXbOy11]

your goalie should tell you when to slide.

[marflax33]

your goalie should tell you when to slide.

Not neccesarily. The goalie will tell the defense before the game whether the D is calling the slide, or he is.

[rosslax37]

I personally think sliding is alot about knowing your teamates and how they play. If you know the player that is going into the confrentation that might need a slide is a good quick player, then you might not need to slide till late or not slide at all. On the other hand, if the worst player on your team is about to get iso'd on then you know that you need to take a few cheat steps to him also while comunicating that you are the slide and making sure the 3rd also calls. Basically just be very vocal on defense and get to know your teamates strengths and weaknesses.

[baggataway20]

Rosslax37 was very helpfull.. In myy opinion if your team is vocal yyou dont have to be the best defender ot slider but if you keep the talk up everything will come a bit easier

[Crimdad]

I personally think sliding is alot about knowing your teamates and how they play

Knowing your team is a huge deal, sliding takes alot of practice, you need to know when a man is being beat, if someone is already sliding to the beat man, overall it takes alot game experience, being open to the field helps alot seeing everything thats going on not focusing on what your man is doing but every detail of the picture

[Bobsch]

There are a lot of good points above. The keys are:
1. knowing the system (do you slide adjacent or from the crease or what depending on what your team does....we used different slide packages against different teams and offenses),
2. communication (as said above); you might have a system where you call "I'm hot" and "I'm cold" or maybe "I've got your right", etc.....then you usually call "fire!" or "Slide!" if you go or "Hold!" if you stay.
3. practice; as said above, you need to know how your teammates defend. We used to do some drills where we played without sticks in a 1 on 2 situation. An attack started at X and was covered by a defenseman who would eventually let him get by....the second defensemen would slide from the crease to his body (that's why we didn't use sticks...we wanted to reinforce the need to slide to the body)....you can also do this with three defensemen and put one to the right and one to the kleft if you practice adjacent slides.
4. game experience; slides also work better after seeing how your team plays in games and how your opponents play.

[Woodenstick]

The first key to sliding is anticipation, so you are ready. You can't wait to think about it. Talking (who is taking the first and second slide) allows you to anticipate. Also, being in position, even cheating towards the slide, allows you to get there in time.

The second key is when you slide, go hard and all the way, don't stop in the middle. Don't just try to check their stick, take the body. Put your stick on their stick, body on their body. Even if you don't knock the guy down, if you stagger them, they will lose the ball or be vulnerable to other checks.

[tang]

What I always think of when of when I'm deciding whether or not to slide is "is this man a danger to score". Think like an offensive player. If you had the ball in the opponents position, what would you do? If you can begin to anticipate plays, your level of play will increase dramatically. Also,for the person sliding, it's always comforting to hear "I got your 2". Make sure the whole defense is always in communication. If you know you have backup, you'll be able to learn timing in an environment where your mistakes won't immediatley result in a goal.
Hope this helps.

[Bobsch]

One other thing that is important is your positioning. A lot of times when someone is having trouble sliding it is because they are out of position. Remember to think of a flat triangle, with you at the apex between the ball and your man. In other words, stay generally between your man and the ball, so you can get to your man, but also so you can slide. This is really important if you play on the crease; otherwise, you will have to slide through your man. Work on positioning as the ball moves around the perimeter. You should make adjustments each time the ball is passed.