Mon April 20th

Focus: Man DEFENSE!

We have not talked about defense in a long time! Our offense finally looked awesome at sectionals, so we can finally afford to spend a few practices on our defensive game:).

Remember on defense it is important to:

FOCUS
stay on your TOES
bend your knees
DICTATE (always anticipate, never react)

At sectionals we had a few problems with our man defense. Some examples (which were demonstrated at practice by Jen):

1. Turning away from our player.

Try to always keep track of the girl you are guarding and if you do turn away from her, anticipate her trying to take advantage of the situation! During our Davis B game, especially, our opponents really took advantage of us looking away from offensive players. As soon as our defenders looked away, their girls would make a great cut.

By "turning/looking away" I mean either looking to check where the disc is or changing direction while shuffling and turning your hips away from your girl as opposed to towards your girl.

2. Opening the door.

We made this mistake repeatedly in every game. I hope everyone understands what it means "to open the door." Imagine the girl you are guarding sprinting at you and you losing ground and letting her go past you. Then, all you can do is turn and chase after her.

The best way to play defense is to dictate to the offensive player where she should go. If we decided to force our opponents away, position yourself between your girl and the disc and don't lose your ground. Step in her path, make the out-cut her only option. If we decided to force our opponents under, position yourself between your girl and the deep space and herd her to the disc.

Remember, that even though we are dictating where our opponents are going to go, it doesn't mean that we are letting them complete easy passes. If you are good at dictating, you know where your girl is going to cut and all you have to do is beat her to that spot:).

3. Being caught flat-footed.

We were often caught standing on our heels on defense which allowed the offensive player to run by us without us having enough time to react. Remember, we don't want to react, we want to anticipate. A good defender will anticipate offense moving in the near future and will always be on her toes! A good thing to do is to just bounce back and forth on your toes while your offender is stationary. You could never bounce on your heels, so by bouncing you are insuring that you are ready to play hard defense:).

4. Over committing to the break side cut.

We often found ourselves biting too much to the break side and then letting our opponent run undefended into the open lane. Remember, it takes more than one person to play defense. We will always have a mark, and she will be responsible for protecting the break side. You want to be close enough to your girl so that you could put up a good mark if she catches it on the break side, but we don't want to contest a break mark throw and as a result, allow our girl catch it on the open side, uncontested.

5. Lack of focus.

Defense takes focus. It's not about how fast you are or how high you can jump. It's about paying attention to where the disc is, to where your girl is, and positioning yourself correctly. It's about being disciplined and staying on your toes and protecting either the cutting lane or the away space. It's about staying active on the mark instead of resting for 10 seconds after your girl catches the disc. Pay attention, know where you need to be, and do everything you can do physically to get yourself there.

Drill #1: backpedaling drill!

In this drill, there is an offender and a defender, playing in ~10 foot wide and 20 yard long lane. The offender makes cuts, while the defender practices her footwork by backpedaling and shuffling. The goal is to herd your offender to one side of the lane and stay in front of them.

Game version: mark a line half-way between the start cone and the finish cone (divide the lane into two 10 yard areas). Once the offender gets to the line they get a choice to either sprint to the finish or backpedal back to the start. The defender has to tag the offensive player to win:). If the width is increased from 10 feet, the drill becomes harder for defense and if the width is decreased, the drill becomes harder for offense.

Drill #2: marking approach drill!

This drill works on taking a correct running approach to the thrower. For example, if you are trying to force forehand and the disc is in the middle of the field, you need to take a wide angle, taking away upfield backhand throws and then close in to the thrower. However, if the disc is on the sideline and forced back to the middle, you don't need to worry about wide break-mark throws and you can run straight at the thrower with your arms wide and then set your mark.

Scrimmage: double-score. We continued to work on our endzone offense efficiency!