Saturday, July 4, 2009

PSP Chicago OTB

Here it is, mostly. I left a couple of minor options out just for the sake of clarity. All the lanes given in blue represent the possibility of a running & gunning (or moving) lane though they needn't be in every situation. The red lanes are essentially fixed position lanes that are shoot, then move.
Starting with the blue and A I'll take the lanes in alphabetical order.

A: Is a step off the board using the pins to block in order to get a quick lane up for a snake runner (or the snake wire temple.)

B: Can be (and often is) the follow-up position for the A lane shooter. Alternatively OTB a deep position can be taken up that allows the shooter to lane the snake side gap while stepping into the B position.

C: Is an alternate cross field contain lane option that does a couple of things. It lets the B position player play wide on the D-side while setting the C (pin) player up to wrap on a home shooter and rotate into the 40 D-side dorito or the X. Additionally, A can shoot the lane and move to C while B shoots wide then switches for cross field lane control.

D: Is a step off the board cross field lane on the D-side break. It's an option that mixes up the angles and shooters and allows for a snake side heavy break while protecting against a strong OTB push D-side. D is also the first step in the progression D, E & F. In that capacity the D shooter can lane inside/outside the snake dorito, into the fingers or wider.

E: Is a gun up holding spot that allows for an extra lane but also allows the shooter to delay, evaluate the opposition's break, and then respond accordingly with the option to feed wide or upfield.

F: Both snake side pins are playable and playing them up tight is a variation on E. If a player can get small the wide pin is well protected from most shooters with the best out of line-of-sight lane being to bounce paint off the inner pin. Otherwise E offers many of the same lanes and if/when heavy pressure holds up movement playing in tight is a very playable option.

G: Is the primary option on effectively laning inside the D-can. This can be a simple sweep the gun up on the horn and/or step up into home while holding the lane. G also gives very quick shots to multiple lanes on both sides of the field but carries the downside of an exposed shooter to any edging gun.

H: Similar to D in terms of the available lanes except H offers a solid lane inside the snake dorito. H is also primarily a hold, shoot (delay) then cut out to a primary option. A good choice for a delayed corner runner or even a delayed snake runner.

I & J: standard home shooting positions and the available lanes.

These OTB lanes leave out straight Run & Gun options but otherwise reflects 90% of all the lanes we used in Chicago and should (hopefully) offer some more ideas for the developing Xball player. (Or else it will show you how clever you already are. And what could be better than that?)

1 comment:

papa chad said...

studied this. I especially like the D-E-F progression, and how A can cover B's lane momentarily while B looks at dorits.