Thursday Jan 8

Focus: Vertical Stack and Marking.

Vertical Stack.

In our vertical stack, we'll have one thrower, one dump, and five players in a stack in the middle of the field. The last person in the stack will initiate cutting, usually cutting in, while second to last person in the stack will make an away cut. It is important not to strand the thrower and stack "short" to make the deep cut viable.

In addition to an in-cut and an way-cut, the thrower has two other options. She can get the disk to the first person in the stack (this is a thrower initiated look) or she can reset the stall count by hitting the dump. In general, we are going to turn and look at the dump at "stalling 5". If the thrower cannot reset the stall count by hitting the dump, at "stalling 9" she will face up-field and throw a long floaty throw/"punt".  Then we as a team will sprint down and play hard D with the plan of forcing a turnover near our goal line.  

If you are playing the dump position, you should always be about 7 to 10 yards away from the thrower. If the disc is in the middle of the field, line up on the break side at a 45 degree angle to the thrower. If the disc is on the sideline and trapped, line up parallel to the thrower. If the disc is on the sideline and the force is towards the middle of the field, line up on the open side at 45 degree angle to the thrower. Before making a dump cut make sure you can identify two different places where you could get the disc from the handler.

As mentioned earlier this website has a good description of vertical stack. Feel free to learn more by clicking on the link.

Drill: infinite stack.

Marking.

The most important to remember about marking is that marking is not rest!  If you treat marking as a break from running and playing D, you will be broken.  You should be moving on the mark; don't be a lazy mark.  As a mark, you have the important job of taking away half of the field from your opponent.   Your downfield teammates are depending on you to not get broken so they can focus on taking away the open side from their cutters.  Such a difficult task can only be accomplished with hard work and focus. When marking, stay on the balls of your feet, bend your knees, and be ready to move with the thrower. Make sure you can get your body between the break side of the field and the disc in the thrower's hand. Finally, don't forget to count to 10:).

Because Defense is a team effort, we can help the mark by telling her where the downfield threats are.  She won't be able to see them because she'll be facing the thrower, so we need to communicate where open O players are.  One easy way to do this is to shout "strike" when there is an open player on the open side, or an up-the-line cut to the open side, and "break" when there is an open cut on the break side.  I have seen many teams' offenses shut down by good defensive communication -- it's like having an 8th player on the field.

Drill: 30 second marking drill with stall count (3x10).