The deke is a maneuver that advances the puck and player past an opponent with very little direction change. The player uses a small swerve to move the puck around the opponent's stick, quickly extends their arm with the puck, and accelerates hard with their kick, putting their body and the puck safely past the opponent.
What to think about with the deke:
The swerve motion with the stick is small and fast. The swerve is a small sideways movement to the left for right handed players (right for left handed players) that is done under the playing hand shoulder. The puck should stay on the front of the stick the entire time.
When coming out of the swerve the playing arm will extend forward to the left side (or right side for leftys) of the opponent, moving the puck out of the reach of the opponent. This extension should go almost straight in front of the player, meaning in the same direction that the player's torso is pointed in. The maneuver should only angle out enough to lead the players body to the appropriate side of the opponent.
The player must accelerate with their legs as they do the swerve and extension with their wrist and arm. Failure to do this may allow the opponent to reach back and attack the puck or could result in the puck sliding forward off the player's stick.
Players can briefly slow down and go into the cobra position before lunging forward into the swerve. When in the cobra position, the player can do a small move to their stick hand side to try to convince the opponent that they are going in that direction. Once the opponent shifts their position to follow that, the player can then more easily deke them. This makes it harder for opponents to predict which direction the player will go, often giving them more space to successfully perform the deke.
Hips should stay low to the bottom through the entire deke.
This move is most effective for advancing the puck straight forward from whatever position the player is facing. It is most effective when a player comes face to face with an opponent whose shoulders, hips and feet are all in line straight ahead of the player. When the opponent is positioned like this, they do not have time to turn and attack the puck as the player dekes them and moves past them. The deke is an effective way to advance the puck without the risk of a pass being knocked down or blocked.
This move is extremely difficult to do successfully if the opponent is not directly facing the player with the puck. This includes anytime the opponent’s hips and legs are not on the opposite side of their shoulders from the player with the puck. Even if the deke gets the player past the sideways facing opponent, it is easy for the opponent to turn and stop the forward advancement of the puck.
The white player driving the puck up pool dekes the opponent, doing a really effective decoy move to draw the opponent to her right side then deked to the left side.
Black player #2 recieves a backpass and then dekes an opponent.
The black team player taking the puck off the advantage puck does a small swerve right around the first attacking player.