Tactic of the Week

Zone Defense

Ultimate frequently utilises a Zone defense.  This is where you are marking an area, rather than one particular player, and sticking with anyone who moves into your area until they leave again.  Fans of Basketball, AFL, and NFL will have seen this before. The most common zone we use at the moment is called a 'Puppy-Fence' zone.  Here is a brief description of the positions in this Zone.

Puppy:  This player chases after the disc.  They are always marking whoever has the disc, and obviously jumping around wagging their tail.

Fence:  The fence comprises of 3 people who stand three metres back from the thrower.  They are trying to a) stop throws going forward and b) mark cutters coming between them and the thrower. The fence moves as a unit, acting to contain the throws and add pressure to the thrower.

Wings:  The 2 wings mark and cut down options further down field.  Sticking to players on their wing, but making sure to cover cutters sneaking deep of them

Deep:  The deep is the last line of defense.  The deep marks the longest cutter, as well as tells the wings if there is anyone threatening their space.

Here's a picture:

In this picture, if the disc is moved to the blue player immediately left of the thrower, the puppy will get inbetween her and previous thrower, while the fence moves across to the sideline to stop throws up field.  It will make more sense when we start using it.

Next week, I'll be detailing the offensive structure against a zone D.

Tactic of the Week

Forcing

A 'force' is so called because you are forcing the thrower to only throw to one side of the field.  By preventing throws to one side, you're limiting the options and allowing your teammates to focus their defensive marking on one side.  The diagram below (which I ripped off some unsuspecting ultimate site) shows how the defense should ideally set up.

The two directions to force are Home (the side where your stuff is) and Away (the side where your stuff isn't).  Usually, some local vernacular comes into play to describe the force side, we might use force Bowls (toward the bowls club) or force Uni (toward uni).  We're going to work on forcing this comign week, so if you hear me yelling a force, try and force the thrower to throw that way. If you get confused, don't worry, everyone does. It took me a million years to learn a force existed, then another half a million to work out what it meant.