2 Good Fundamentals for Defense

Here are some rules from the 11th edition to set the stage:

Fouls (II.E): It is the responsibility of all players to avoid contact in every way possible.

Contact resulting from adjacent opposing players simultaneously vying for the same unoccupied position, is not in itself a foul.

1. When the disc is in the air a player may not move in a manner solely to prevent an opponent from taking an unoccupied path to the disc and any resulting non-incidental contact is a foul on the blocking player which is treated like a receiving foul (XVI.H.3.b).

2. A player may not take a position that is unavoidable by a moving opponent when time, distance, and line of sight are considered. Non-incidental contact resulting from taking such a position is a foul on the blocking player.

Reckless disregard for the safety of fellow players or other dangerously aggressive behavior (such as significantly colliding into a stationary opponent), regardless of whether or when the disc arrives or when contact occurs is considered dangerous play and is treated as a foul. This rule is not superseded by any other rule.

Dictate where you man goes. If your man wants to make a cut, he should have only one option, which is to cut into the open space that the defender is allowing him. If you are a couple of steps off of the cutter, he can go wherever he wants. However, if you are nearly touching them, constantly positioning for position right behind him, he can only cut one way, and that is in. By lining up on one side of the man, you are taking away a cut he could do, or half of his options.

Force the player to do the opposite thing they want. After a couple of points, you will know what kind of player each man is on the other team. If you are guarding the guy throwing deep bombs to the deep receivers, make him go score by forcing him to cut deep (position yourself in front of him.) If you are guarding the speedy/athletic guy who jumps over you, position yourself more behind him in order to force him to cut in. This isn't to say that you are giving the player the in cut. Your priorities should be

1. force him one way with your body
2. beat him to the disc on the way you are forcing him

Thoughts from Queen City Tournament

Hey,

Good weekend in Charlotte, NC. Those fields are perfect for laying out, making huge cuts, and at the end of the day, walking back to your car barefoot.

Here are my reflections from this weekend

1. Sidelines - When our sidelines were in the game, we were unstoppable. Our team was excited to play as an entire team again, and you could see this excitement during the first game. While the defense was on the field, the offense was extremely helpful in the sidelines. Every person on the field had someone yelling at them, "up" calls were yelled, and our defense was stopping every type of cut. The defense was aware of all things happening, which is a scary thought for an offense. While the offense was on the field, the sidelines whenever they turned the disc over. Also, we went crazy when they scored and congratulated them for making the easy passes. This sideline effect allowed us to keep playing at our level throughout the tournament, except for a couple of times when the sideline went quiet.

The sideline effect helped us in the UNC Darkside game and the Notre Dame Papal Rage game. However, in each of those games, we saw what happened when the sideline goes quiet. When there is little sideline support, it only takes a couple of passes to break a defense. We saw a lot of easily executed deep hucks happen.

What we need to learn is how to better communicate as the sidelines and how to sustain our high level of sideline energy. I think the best place to learn this would be at practice. At practice, the gimps and subs on our team usually bundle up and hang out right next to coach. We need to be more intentional about our time at practice.

2. We can get in better shape. We outran a lot of our opponents this weekend, but I still think we can get in even better shape. Our core workouts for track haven't happened in a long time. Also, I think some of us (including myself) need some work in the weight room when it comes to the squat machine. I want to be in the type of shape where I can sprint down on a pull and play great defense for 10 throws, then maybe start fatiguing after that. It seemed like getting down on the pull and the first 4 throws was about all some people could manage this weekend. Also, our pulls can improve A LOT from some upper body workouts.

3. Stagnant defensive offense - The defense needs help with the goal line offense a lot more than our offense. For some reason, when we get on the goal line, everyone wants to score the goal. This causes a lot of clutter in the open lanes. If we learn to stick to our game plan, we could be a lot more effective. I need to learn this especially. It's hard to be the guy who stretches the stack to the back of the endzone. It's hard to be the guy who doesn't get a lot of scoring stats because you're helping the team open up lanes. It's hard to be equally as explosive cutting back to the stack as your cut to the open side. It's hard to be the guy who knows he's not going to try his cut because it's not his time to. Every member of our team will benefit a lot if more of us are willing to be become that guy.

Slam Dunk Contest - Dwight Howard's first dunk wasn't worth a 50. Rudy got duped, his first dunk was awesome. The man who won deserved it.

What makes a team successful?

An email had me thinking about team chemistry. For a team to be successful (where success is defined as the number of wins you have), does a team need team chemistry? What does a team need to be successful?

For a team to win, they need to score more points than the other team.

Offensively, a team must do this by throwing and catching the disc. If you throw a disc to someone, you trust them to catch it. If I don't trust my cutters, I will never throw to them. If I don't throw to them, I get stalled for a turnover. If you are cutting, you trust that the handler will throw it to you(if you are open). If the handler constantly looks you off when you are open, you won't cut as much for handler. If you don't cut as much, the handler won't have someone to throw it to.

Good offenses - The handler can accurately predict which way the handler is going to cut before they make the cut. The cutter knows what the handler is looking for just by looking at the current situation. If there are a lot of people cutting on the open side, they will go break. If there are a lot of cutters cutting for the break cut, you might need to make an open side cut. If there are a lot of people making in cuts, you might need to go deep. You trust that the handler is looking at these situations, and act on them knowing that they are looking for you to make the right decision.

Defensively, a team must stop the other team from throwing and catching as they wish. If I am the mark, I trust that the downfield defenders are taking away the open side by lining up on the open side. If I am a defender, I trust that the mark won't give up a break mark throw. In a zone, you have to trust that the other players are in their positions so that you are making the offense throw over the cup.

Good defenses - They trust that they can poach the lane knowing that their teammates will help you deep. A good defender can trust that his teammates will take care of his man if he goes and crashes a huck or if he helps out someone.

The word trust comes up a lot in both offense and defense. Trust is something that says you have faith in your teammate over the opposing team. You know your teammate is better than the other team's designated match up. Also, the better teams have more trust in their teammates. You can build trust with your teammates in a number of ways, which I'll discuss later. The more you trust your teammates, the more you will act on that trust.

Mudbowl Reflection

From the perspective of Georgia Y, the team I played for this weekend:

This past weekend had its share of highs and lows. The highlight of the weekend was winning the tournament over Tennessee. The low was losing our first game of the weekend to Kennesaw State. Between those two moments, there was a lot of great play from our rookies.

This was our first tournament win since Sectionals last year. Even though it was Mudbowl, there were still some competitive teams playing in Talladega this weekend. Our Georgia X team beat North Park, whom I considered to be the best team there. Tennessee proved that they are strong team with some crazy throws. I hope to see them at Regionals. A tournament win was good for this team, especially the defensive unit. After getting crushed by the offense the past couple of practices, we were all thinking that this Mudbowl was going to be a hard one (especially because we were playing with only 9 guys).

What helped us the most was playing mini-games to 3. After we lost to Kennessaw State, we started the games to 3 system. We won every single game to 3 except 2 the entire tournament. That was an accomplishment, especially because Davis drank a beer for every game to 3 we won, which caused him to drink over 15 beers.

Georgia Y's offense wasn't consistent. The goal of the weekend was possession. This was important because of having only 9 people on our team. If we didn't value possession, we would of had to play more points. We stressed possession and games to 3 almost every point. I don't think you can achieve the goal of possession, but I do think we put an emphasis on it. For me, I remember 3 hucks that I felt uncomfortable with before I even threw them.

Here are some things we did well: Ran down on the pulls, threw high percentage hucks, allowed cuts to develop, end zone offense looked better, and playing some inspired defense at all times.

Things we will improve on: Dictating where the cutter goes, holding the mark, taking match-ups more personally, throwing into the wind, and our zone and transitioning into man.

Mudbowl 2009

This weekend is Mudbowl. This will be my third Mudbowl in my career. The first time I went with the B-Team, we capped off our Mudbowl experience with a loss to Birmingham Southern. Saturday night was filled with rookies doing their discs and drunken ultimate culture (BOOOOO). I have never seen a hotel completely taken over by a party.

UGA has 4 teams entered into this weekend's tournament. That's a lot of Bulldawgs in Talladega. When UGA goes to Talladega, the world (or Coach Mark Richt) better watch out.

http://deepsouthsports.blogspot.com/2007/05/talledega-days.html

Splitting our A team into two teams is a great idea. It allows our defense to find its grove on offense, and our offense to continue dominating as they have so far. Because of injuries, our teams will have around 9 guys on each team. Playing almost savage at this tournament will be a great time for players who don't play a lot to get a lot of experience. The teams in our pool aren't pushovers, especially with the lines we will be throwing at them. Every player on our A team will be given a chance to play every role on the field. The guys who don't cut a whole lot in the stack will be forced to cut. The guys who are scared about handling will be throwing breaks. The guys who like to handle a lot will be cutting in order to provide the cutters some rest.

The most critical part of the game I want our defensive team to work on is not turning the disc over. We tend to not appreciate possession. When a team has possession, they control the tempo of the game and don't have to run as much. This weekend, if we don't take care of the disc, we will find ourselves exhausted by the third game. If we huck the disc away, we have to play more defense. If we take care of the disc, we will play less points and gain a valuable skill.

What does valuing possession mean? It means playing with discipline and smarts. Commit to the dump when the stall count hits 5. When you don't get the disc on an incut, clear the lane QUICKLY. During endzone offense, stick with the plays we have. When you get the dump pass, look to swing it immediately. Finish your cut. Also, allow your teammates to get open. A lot of times, 30 yard in cuts don't happen quickly, they take time.

I'm hoping to see UGA v UGA in the finals on Sunday... But then again, it is a party tournament.

Team Defense Video.

Check out this video:

Team Defense Part 2

Continuing with the topic of Team Defense, here are a couple of other things that are important to team defense.

Flashing - This is a quick poach that usually involves taking a couple of steps into the open lane acting like you are going to make a play. The point of flashing is to make the handler believe you are guarding someone. This will help out a defender who is trailing his man on an in cut.

• Perfect Scenario to Flash - The man you are guarding is jogging (not trying to cut) away from the handler to get back into the stack. While he is jogging, an in cut forming near you. The guy defending the in cut is way behind his guy, so you step into the lane for a couple of seconds facing the open cutter. While you step out, raise your arms and make it look like he's temporarily covered. Most of the time, the handler will have to dump it.
  
• Should you face the thrower or cutter? I tend to face the cutter that way I can keep an eye on the guy I'm guarding in the stack. Also, if the handler throws the disc to the cutter you are preoccupying, your arms are up and you are in front of him, which means you have a high percentage of making the block.
• Your goal is to make it look like you are making a play or trying to guard that guy, when in fact you are only guarding him for at max 4 seconds.
• I rarely ever flash the open lane when it is off a set play. On set plays, I believe the best defense is to dictate where your man goes purely based on body positioning. If he's a deep receiver, force him under. If he's a handler, force him away.

Center Fielder or Last Back - This is just the defenders (not singular) furthest down field or the defenders guarding the off side cutters (which may happen in the H-stack). Their mindsets have got to be:
1. Stop the huck
2. Take care of my individual match-up

• Most set plays are supposed to end up with a huck off the first, second, or third throw. If you know that, and your man does not move during those throws, chances are you should be looking to help our your teammates.
• In the H stack, if you are guarding an off side handler (if the disc is in the middle or the open side), put yourself in the center of the field, five yards back than your man.
• Be patient, you will see a man cut in, and then go out.
• Have someone on the sideline talking to you about where YOUR man is.