Small Sided Game: Asymmetric
Use uneven teams to encourage new behaviours
Earlier this week I wrote about how much I like using small sided games. If you missed it and want some practical guides on setup and structure for these, check it out here.
Asymmetric Offence Game
For this small sided variant, the offence team starts with more players than the defence. This is looking to encourage:
Recognising the value of keeping possession
Looking at the whole field to find the free player
Figuring out the throws you need to get the disc to the free player
For high-level or experienced players, these skills translate directly to playing against poaching defences and zones. A lot of players learn offence skills and tactics in a rigid environment where they are told what the optimum approach is. As a result a lot of players and teams are good at offence when the defence allows them to play the game they want - but struggle when they come up against a team that can shut down their basic patterns either through athleticism or an unusual defence.
For beginner groups these games can be used to bridge the gap between teaching them how to throw and playing games. When you are just learning to throw it can be very difficult to apply those new techniques in a game when you might not have any free targets. For these players, ensuring they have free options will naturally lead to more successful passes, and consequently more confidence and enjoyment in throwing in games. You may probably be surprised to learn but if you tracked beginner sessions a significant number of players don’t complete any passes during games.
How to coach
This applies to all small side games: Don't rush to correct - you want to encourage your players to figure things out themselves through playing. Good coaching can be providing the environment for players to learn by themselves, rather than you giving direct instructions.
To reinforce this, a questioning approach rather than a directive approach would be my suggested intervention if you do feel like you need to step in for a team that’s struggling to grasp what they need to do.
Recommend Setups
Number of players
For experienced/high-level groups I generally like 4v3, although 5v4 and 3v2 are good too. I’ve used 5v4 a lot in the past to practice zone skills specifically.
For newer/beginner groups I’d recommend you start as unbalanced as 5v2 and reduce the advantage as players improve. You want the offence to succeed so adapt accordingly.
Possessions
Generally I run these as 1 possession only for the offence. A turnover is a defence win, a score is an offence win. A team plays offence for 5 possessions and sees how many they can score out of that 5 before switching to defence.
I like this setup as multiple short possessions consecutively gives the players a chance to try things and adjust. It also gives a chance for me as the coach to come in and ask a question or give direction if required.
You can do full points though. Put one player in a distinct bib/jersey and they can play offence for both teams, so on a turnover they switch teams automatically.