Do You Like Playing Offense or Defense Better?

[garbage]

In games where there are clear offense/defense teams, purely offense. Usually prefer quarterback, team lead, strategist, or equivalent.

In games where there are not, I usually watch for an opportunity for a short length of time, and then aggressively launch an all-or-nothing strike when it comes. If an opportunity doesn't come in a short time, I do my best to create my own.

Note that this is my preferred starting position. As the game rolls on, I may adjust based upon certain factors such as how much I completely and totally suck at the game.

 

[skylights]

Offense. Defense gets me all anxious... offense is much more fun.

 

[Stanton Moore]

Defense is all about waiting for the right moment to attack.
So yeah, I'll start there, assess the situation, then wait for an opening...

 

[Randomnity]

Definitely defense. I'm not sure whether it's an innate preference or just practical acceptance of the fact that defense (in soccer at least) is far easier to pick up and doesn't require as much technical skill. You can be pretty effective with just strategy/determination and a small amount of skill. I'm hopeless at offense since I'm not very skilled at moving the ball around with my feet, so it's not that fun for me. I also really love locking someone down who's much more skilled than I am. Their frustration is very rewarding.

It might be an innate preference though since I tend to prefer a support role over a starring role - both in video games, work, and social life as well as sports.

Volleyball doesn't really have offense/defense, I guess hitting could be offense and passing is defense, but we rotate through all the positions (not high-level enough to need fixed positions, rotating is more fun). Both are satisfying for me - hitting is probably the most fun but since I'm not crazy tall and my form is not great, I'm not very effective at it.

 

[93JC]

Bump.

My feelings are similar. I loved playing goal. I am of the belief that everything about a hockey team flows out from the net. The teams' styles of play, the pace of the game; everything follows from the play of the goaltender. The fate of the entire game rests in your hands.

And yes, perversely the fact that most people didn't want to play goalie made it more appealing. You're the only one on the team crazy enough to purposely put themselves in front of the very hard, very fast-moving projectile. At a bare minimum your teammates wear a cup, shin guards, gloves and a helmet. You don't wear shin guards, you wear pads. You don't wear gloves, you wear a blocker and catcher. You don't wear a mere helmet, you wear a mask. When you're in net you don't just wear 'equipment': you wear armour.

No one dares to enter your crease. It is yours, and yours alone. (Or else someone gets a lovetap to an ankle.) You rarely venture from your crease but you still have to follow every single play, every single man out there. You have to because there's no defensive partner to bail you out, no winger setting themselves up for a pass from you if only to deflect the other defence's attention away from you. You are the last line of defence. You are the last man standing. If you let one in you're not only letting the other team win, you're letting them crush your team's spirit. If you let the other team think they've got a chance at scoring and then steal that goal right from under their noses you can intimidate them like no body check could.

There's no better feeling playing that game than catching a glimpse of the face of an opponent as you make a save. There's no mistaking that look of frustration or dejection for anything else. The best is when you can tell they're thinking "Dammit! I can't believe he stopped that! How the hell am I going to beat that guy?!" You have become their worst nightmare. You have become the faceless warrior at the other end who is the arbiter, the one man who will decide, at will, who the victors shall be tonight.

From The Oracle of Ice Hockey:

What happens on the ice is notably free from religious exhibitionism: players don’t kneel in prayer at center ice after a game or cross themselves before a breakaway. The game is the spirituality.

In all of team sports, there may be no more lonely a position, nor one as fraught. Baseball pitchers seem alone on the mound, but they are in constant communion with their catchers. Soccer, like hockey, is a low-scoring game, so every goal is freighted, but a soccer net dwarfs the goalie: great shots simply cannot be saved. The hockey net, by contrast, is small: every goal might be viewed, on some level, as a goaltending failure.

The premise of goaltending is to stay between the net and the puck. The puck handler wants to outwait you. Wants you to lose mobility, to fall for any one of an endless series of fakes, so that you go down on the ice and abandon your form. The job gets more complicated when you add a second, third, fourth, and fifth skater to the attack. The goalie needs to keep track of each body, all the while focusing on the one with the puck. Some of these skaters will drift into seams beyond your field of vision; others will plant themselves right in front of you to screen your view entirely.

To the casual observer, it looks like the goalie is at the mercy of those attacking, but elite goaltenders turn the hunter into the hunted. They know every skater’s tendencies and adapt accordingly—showing an extra quarter inch of a top corner the way a burlesque dancer will reveal thigh; tricking puck holders into passing when they should shoot; sometimes even forcing a player to hesitate and overthink so that no scoring chance occurs.

 

[JustAMind]

I play basketball only and it is offense easily, I love to shoot

 

[five sounds]

i do not play sports but voted anyway.

how very sweet to give us that option, [MENTION=9486]gromit[/MENTION]

 

[garbage]

In games where there are not, I usually watch for an opportunity for a short length of time, and then aggressively launch an all-or-nothing strike when it comes. If an opportunity doesn't come in a short time, I do my best to create my own.

It turns out that my boxing instructor advocates this method, too.

 

[JustAMind]

gromit are there any psychological conclusions to be drawn from this?

 

[Opal]

I played right-center defense in soccer. I preferred the sort of passive/reactive play style; my ability to read body language and players' positioning made it a natural choice (plus I was more of a sprinter than a distance runner). I also enjoyed the tacit leadership involved. If I hadn't torn a ligament in my ankle I'd probably still play.

 

[gromit]

gromit are there any psychological conclusions to be drawn from this?

Not that I can tell... haha...

 

[LadyLazarus]

I don't play sports, but offense looks like it'd be more fun to play.

 

[rav3n]

It's a combination, based on personal skillset and opponent capability.

An example would be playing pool. If an opponent is far superior, I'll legally hook the shit outta' him until an offensive opportunity can be manufactured. Then I sink his battle ship.

 

[ndovjtjcaqidthi]

Preference: Offense

It could change depending on the situation.

 

[Honor]

Defense. I don't think I could do offense if I wanted to.

 

[Honor]

Oh wait. I didn't read the OP.

Offense.

 

[badger055]

what is this defense you speak of

 

[gromit]

Defense. I don't think I could do offense if I wanted to.

Oh wait. I didn't read the OP.

Offense.

Ha... what did you think we were talking about?

 

[Honor]

Ha... what did you think we were talking about?

I was thinking psychological warfare! lol!

 

[Azure Flame]

When I play soccer, I play defense, because I hate running for 3 hours.

When I play paintball, I am the front line.