Tips for Defending in '23
Seems like many people have some gripes about defense - myself included. Over the last couple of weeks, I've refined and adjusted defensively, and I feel that I've gotten more comfortable in defendin...
Forum Discussion
@KidShowtime1867 wrote:Seems like many people have some gripes about defense - myself included. Over the last couple of weeks, I've refined and adjusted defensively, and I feel that I've gotten more comfortable in defending than I was at launch.
Here are a few tips I'd like to pass along to the community. Some of this might already seem self-evident to long-standing defenders who understand the position inside and out. So, these may not be for you - although I hope my GIFS can add some context to age-old defensive nuance that may provide a new perspective and encourage everyone to up their game.
These are all good tips, some of which I have been using/figured out also.
The only complaint I have is that all this just underlines how very bland and boring it has become to play effective defense in this game. It just gets more and more boring and less dynamic and fun.
I mean there is the fun of breaking up a play but everything about playing effective D for the most part seems so passive now.. ya know?
You mentioned times where you chose a more passive approach over opting fore the poke and/or a hit - I commend your discipline, I just think these types of decisions are why so many people are having problems with defense as a whole.
What I mean by this is, in the game's current state, defenders are forced into a single type of defense in any situation -- you have to either depend on automatic responses from Defensive Awareness and certain X Factors, or you need to take a more active role with the Poke and Body Check stats: there is no mixing/combining these together (like, if you enter DSS, you lose the ability to snag an intercept unless your skates are in a pixel-perfect spot).
In any case, I like the examples you gave; A visual representation will always be better than text alone.
