| (Steve Rabackoff is a member of the Southern
California Ironmen, and works at DYE Products in San Diego, California)
Under-Dogs
On return from the latest NPPL event in Pittsburgh, I would have to say that
everything did not go as planned for many top pro teams. A few top quality
professional teams ended up spectating on Sunday while some of the underdogs
of the tournament played the tournament of their lives and finished in the
finals. In my opinion, the reasons for this happening are that these teams
who were done on Saturday underestimated some of their opponents, while the
amateur teams came ready to play after playing the fields two weeks prior
to the tournament.
As a pro player, when playing amateur teams, I have thought of these games
as being the guaranteed win. However, as I found out in Pittsburgh, the amateur
teams are improving their game as well as taking every measure possible to
win the tournament.
These teams are learning how to win from the best teams, while they are thinking
that they are going to win these games with pure talent without the hard
work. I watched and played a few of these games and noticed that the amateur
teams were more prepared and had devised plans to merely stop the high profile
pro team from winning instead of playing the game to win. In Pittsburgh,
these amateur teams did their homework and studied the fields in order to
put together a plan to either beat the pro teams or just stop them and their
plan usually worked. On the other hand, the pro teams that didn't make it
went home because they expected to beat their amateur opponents with pure
skill and talent. These teams underestimated their amateur opponents and
tried to throw crazy plays at these teams with the idea that they were going
to practice for a more difficult team. To their surprise, these pro teams
ended up stalemating or losing with no understanding of how it happened.
This tournament was a good example of how an underdog team can beat the better
team if they just study the fields and come up with a basic plan to win the
game. At the same time, it shows how a team's ego can get in the way of success
and lead them to believe that they are going to dominate the amateur teams.
The moral of the story is "Anyone can beat teams like Aftershock, Ironmen
and All Americans if they just play the game the same way they would play
any other game and make sure that they do their homework!"
Prior to the Pittsburgh tournament, many teams of all caliber practiced on
the fields. These teams were the teams that fared well in Pittsburgh. As
a player, I feel that playing the tournament field is probably the best practice
a team can get prior to a tournament. Playing the tournament fields allows
you and your team to find all of the angles and shooting lanes along with
allowing your team to try specific plays. When playing the fields, your team
should first walk the field like you would before a tournament and then devise
a plan on how to beat a team on that field. Then when you play the field,
play it as you walked it and make sure that you as a player notice where
all of the fire is coming from along with were you can shoot and move. Once
you
have played each field, when your team arrives at the tournament to walk
fields, your team will know what works and what doesn't and will have a better
understanding of how the field is played. So if your team can, I suggest
that you play the fields prior to the tournament. Thank you for reading and
Good Luck at the tournament.
Steve Rabackoff
PS Don't forget to do your homework!
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