Key components to an effective fake
Building a great fake starts in the same place that shooting an accurate shot does, with proper balance. Your fake isn’t nearly as scary if your leg, hips, shoulders, off-hand & shooting arm are not in balanced, yet aggressive positions.
Build a fake in a way that doesn’t take you out of good shooting position. Keep your shooting shoulder engaged and locked back. Know how to rebalance should your fake take you off balance.
Start building your fake by looking in the mirror and moving the ball all the way through your shooting motion, then keep shortening that motion until you have a nice, tight fake.
There are a variety of fakes that can set up different shots. Find the fakes that work for your own individual body type by working with the goalies on your team to see how they react. If the goalie is not reacting to your fake, you may need to rethink what you are doing to better manipulate the goalie’s rhythm.
“1,000 players, 1,000 different shots” is a Hungarian saying that reflects the uniqueness of each individual. You should build a faking arsenal that complements your shooting.
Types of fakes
Standard fake - Your bread and butter. Something that minimizes your chances of mishandling the ball and does a good job of locking the goalie. Tighten it up.
Body Fake - Can be done stand-alone or to change rhythm when complemented with your standard fake. The better your legs, the more effective this fake is.
Hammer Fake - Excellent for locking goalies or setting up lob shots, requires strong sculling from the off hand and dexterity from the front leg to return to balance prior to the shot.
Worm/Sliding Fake - Used for covering water and improving your angles. The more of the momentum you use from the ball to move, the more you will need to be conscious of getting back to shooting position.
Inside/Outside Wrap Fakes - Best used to set up beating a field blocker on a later catch→shoot opportunity or beating the field block in 1 on 1 situations.
Ball Fake - One of the most underutilized offensive tools in the age-group levels. Ball faking to your teammates gets defenses and goalies to jump out of position as they try to anticipate your next move.
Unique fakes from the pros.
Gonzalo Encheneque (Pro Recco/Italy) - “Chalo” Encheneque may have one of the best fakes in the entire world. He shoots rarely and only takes high percentage shots, but this lefty has seen success nearly everywhere he plays because he sets his teammates up so well with what I would describe as a combination of a hammer fake and standard fake. He gets up big and it looks like he’s intent on shooting for a long time, then he almost always hits a teammate with an accurate pass. It’s one of the many reasons why the team’s he is on are successful.
Nikola Jaksic (NBG/Serbia) - The “tornado fake” from Jaksic get’s goalies jumping and makes my shoulder sore just thinking about it. He utilizes the fake on outside shots and at the posts on 6/5 if he doesn’t like the look of his quick redirect opportunities.
Dusan Mandic - (FTC/Serbia) - One of the best players ever has a relatively unique fake when compared to most of the water polo world. He keeps his entire arm in shooting position and manipulates the way his arm looks with his torso and his leg mobility.
Denes Varga - (FTC/Hungary[ret.]) - One of the greatest shooters of all time has a great variety of fakes and because his wrist is so strong, bringing his elbow and the ball forward does not affect his ability to shoot.
Alvaro Granados (CNAB/Spain) - The Spanish superstar utilizes a high, fundamentaly sound fake, but the real star of the show is his legs. He is able to move while remaining high on his platform, revealing shooting lanes for him that would otherwise not be available.
The importance of verticality
In closing, everyone has some uniqueness to their fake, because everyone has unique body compositions. However, everyone can benefit from faking from a higher place in the water. The higher the platform you throw from, the more holes that you expose in the defense. Field blockers and goalies are required to drive their legs harder vertically, which also decreases their mobility laterally as defenders. Try it in practice shooting. You’ll see a marked difference in how the goalie reacts to your fakes when you play higher in the water vs lower in the water.
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