Mon Feb 23

Focus: Woodchip trail run + Defense chalk talk.

Defense chalk talk.

We covered ho-stack D, introduced clam, and talked about advanced D concepts in our 1-3-3 and 4-man cup. Please see the coaches if you missed the meeting.

Brief clam description.

Clam is a type of "junk" D. That means that it can be easily broken and it's not a defense that will work against good offense for more than a point or two. It is a good defense to have in a team's tool-box because it can confuse the offense, mess up their flow, and get us an easy turn.

Clam is somewhere between 1-3-3 and switching man defense. There is still a type of "back-wall." There is one person picking up people on the open side (similar to open side wing in 1-3-3/zone), one person picking up cuts on the break side (similar to break side wing in 1-3-3/zone), and one person playing deep of everyone else (similar deep-deep in 1-3-3/zone). On handlers, we will have 3 people playing man. That means we are covering the thrower, the dump, and a second dump or front of the stack with hard man D.

This leaves a seventh defender. In the meeting we discussed having that defender play man on the fourth person in the stack (second to last). They could also play man on the second person in the stack (or front of the stack if there are two dumps). This will depend on whether our opponent will try to break our clam through cutting close to the front of the stack (then we'll add a defender on the 2nd person in the stack) or by making regular cuts into the open lane (then we'll add a defender on the fourth person in the stack).

The main idea behind clam is to sandwich offensive players between defenders. The defender playing in the front herds the offensive players towards the defender playing in the open lane. The defender playing in the open lane, in turn, herds the players towards the deepest defender. This is very similar to front-wall, back-wall idea of 1-3-3. In clam, unlike 1-3-3, the defenders play facing the opponents (fronting). The only exception is the deepest defender. Their role is to play behind and cover all the deep throws, and it is exactly the same as in 1-3-3 and 4-man cup zone.

There are many ways to break clam. Someone mentioned double-cutting to the open side during the meeting. Another good way is to break the mark and work the disc down the break side. If the disc is swung and advanced along the break side, we will always go man! Please don't worry about the defense being beat. Remember, it is a "junk" D, and every good offense should be able to break it:). But, as all "junk" D's are, it is a confusing D, and it will generate easy turns for us!