Defense, like in any sport, is extremely important in underwater hockey. Defensive strategies can be used at any time in a game, they are low risk and effective.
When playing defensively, forwards should focus on coming back towards the play, still on the front side of the puck, and back-pick or disrupt passes. It is easy to feel that a forward's main job is receiving passes form the backs and driving the puck forward, but playing defense as a forward is critical. The other team attacks offensively using all six of their players, so all six of the defending team must work to defend them. Backs are set up between the goal they are defending and the puck, and are playing defensively for much of the game.
A defensive stand occurs when the opponents do an offensive push. They best way to successfully defend an offensive push is to have more players down than the opponents. So, the forwards should be down back-picking and disrupting pass and as many backs as possible should be down, covering every attacking player.
Demo video coming soon!
Defensive stands should be used every time the opponents start a hard offensive push. If the other team is not pushing hard, the team should take that opportunity to push offensively as much as possible.
Teams and players should be aware and ensure they don't miss offensive opportunities by being too focused on defense.
In this example both teams have most of their players down, and a forward on the defending team gets the puck and clears it from the goal area.
DEFENSIVE STAND