3-1-2 Man-Up Diamond Rotation Up Top
This is a great new play we see most top college teams using the last two seasons to move the ball, move the defense, and get a man open in good shooting position for easy goals!
We've had trouble converting Man-Up opportunities into goals with some of our teams this season. We've tried old plays, plus some other standard plays we see lots of NCAA teams using, with not much luck. So we tried this one, and it has really paid off for us. 30 minutes at practice to put it in, and BAM! Easy goals on Game Day.
It's a brilliant idea, but also a simple one. It works against pretty much any Man-Down Defense you are likely to face: "Box and One" 4-Man Rotation, 5-Man Rotation, Box and String, whatever. It keeps all your players in the best shooting positions moving to get open, and forces the Defense to make some hard decisions about who to cover, and who to leave open.
We see teams miss easy Man-Up goals in games every day because they don't recognize or understand the 2-on-1 in front of them: With six (6) men on Offense and only five (5) on Defense, there is a 2-on-1 and an open man somewhere on the field!
HERE'S THE PLAY:
Figure 1.) Rotate your players into a 3-1-2 or "3-3" Formation, to get all our players in shooting position at or in front of Goal Line Extended. You can start in the 3-3, or you can shift to it from other common formations like 2-3-1 or 1-4-1. Most teams will start their Man Down Defense in the common "Box-and-One" [in the Middle] 4-Man Rotation.
We love to use this 2-3-1 Basic Man-Up "Wheel" to test out the Man-Down Defense before we need more complicated plays. Sometimes all you need is one or two passes to find the open man if the Defense doesn't know how to "Rotate!" to cover the ball as it moves.
