Transition Funnel

I’ve talked about the Transition game in the past, trying to utilize motion within motion, controlled chaos if you will, to take advantage of your opponent just going through the motions.  We used hard sprints from the wing and mid-pool picks to free up players.  But how do you handle a situation when your players are just anticipating really good and getting good jumps on their opponents.

Sometimes, this is where conventional thought kicks in and you begin to think that if I don’t have a 1 on goalie, or odd-man rush with my first two players coming down the pool, the Transition game is done, go to your positions and let’s play our front court Attack.  And if you haven’t figured it out by now, rarely do I succumb to conventional thought and instruction.  You can generate an effective Transition game with ALL of your players in the field by thinking of your Transition game like a Funnel?

A Funnel, it’s wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.  And when you use it, you load everything in at the top, the wide part, and the contents are focused at the small part and eventually exit at the point.  The water polo tank is just the same thing, only it’s 20M wide (the width of the water polo tank) at the top, and the bottom is 3M wide (the distance between the goal posts, or the Strike Zone).  Now, take the concept of the funnel and apply it to the Transition game, starting at around the middle of the tank, and dumping out at around the 5M between the posts.  The players sprint to half tank and then veer to the Strike Zone.  When the player enters the Strike Zone, they have to assess if they have the inside water or if they are guarded.  If they are open, for the love of Pete, call for the ball because you have a legitimate scoring chance.  If you are guarded, vacate the Strike Zone to the Wing positions 1 and 5.  As more attackers funnel through the Strike Zone, they too will either get the ball or vacate the Strike Zone to the 1 and 5 positions.  If players are already at the 1 and 5 spots, they cycle up to the 2 and 4 spots so the players coming out of the funnel can slide into the 1 and 5 positions.  The last position to fill in is the Hole Set, even if the primary Hole Set player is one of the first players down the pool.

 

 

 

The motion is simple enough, and the lead player through the funnel could come from anywhere in the pool.  And notice that the Hole Set doesn’t take his position until that last player drives through the Strike Zone and vacates, and then everyone just cycles through to fill in the open positions. 

Now getting the ball down the pool is a different story.  This is where game sense comes into play.  The player has to be able to recognize that they didn’t get the jump on their defensive counterpart and they have to peal off their transition route and give their goalie an outlet to help the ball get down the pool.  And the goalie isn’t completely out of this either, because that first player that gets into the funnel could come from anywhere in the pool, and the outlet pass isn’t always there, so the goalie has to hit that breaking player down the pool, so practice those long, accurate passes with your goalie.  Lastly, we have to look at the #5 and #6 players coming through the funnel.  For these guys, we look at the #1 and #2 guys that have already funneled through and are already cycling back up to the 2 and 4 positions.  As they cycle through, their motion is naturally releasing them from their defenders back toward their own goal, thus giving the goalie a clear look at a player they can hit with a pass down the pool.

Remember, this Transition isn’t to get us to our Front Court Attack, but rather, it’s to utilize the speed and anticipation that was generated at the other end of the pool and taking advantage of it in the Strike Zone.  After those options have been entirely exhausted, then you set-up your Front Court Attack.  Remember the 6th guy down the pool could have a jump on his defensive counterpart.  Why stifle that because you want to play your front court attack?  This is a VERY aggressive take on your Transition game, and it’s very simple to implement into a game.  And before you know it, your team is going to be scoring goals with just about everyone on the roster, because you have them thinking Attack with the Transition.  And that’s great, aggressive, end-to-end water polo.