Questions and thoughts on Redzone offense

Labels: , ,

For some reason i feel like you guys talk a lot about scoring and for some reason, i dont really remember scoring all that much every game this summer. Perhaps this is due to my team clogging the lane like crazy and the fact that my team's deep throws are for the most part non-existent. Or perhaps, in an attempt to not clog the lanes in the endzone, i shy away from making endzone cuts unless they are truely wide open, limiting my chances. Anyway, I was thinking, I don't exactly know what the best way to cut is when you are in the endzone. Is there a particular strategy or place (position in the stack or from the handler position) that you cut from that works best for you? Or is it pretty much the same as cutting anywhere on the field but with less room. Its pretty nooby to be asking this at this point but hopefully we can share and improve on this aspect of the game.

At risk of ranting horribly, my thoughts on the issue: the cuts that i see generally working in the endzone are cuts to the front force-side cone or either break-side cone. This generally is true regardless of where you cut out of the stack unlike on the rest of the field. The real problem with endzone offense, obviously, is clogging as people become a lil glory hungry and cut when it would be better if they did not. Realistically you can only have 2 cuts happening at a time in the endzone/ever and hopefully you should always have a breakside and a forceside cut, but oftentimes you will get many more so probably you would want to assign certain positions from where to cut for endzone offense. That being said, im not completely sure what would be the best place to do this from, traditionally we used the front of the stack in the endzone, but i think that in some ways the middle would be almost more effective as the defender is generally not on his guard as much. On another note, the right cut will not always materialize so the best handler strategy is probably to be super patient, as the worst thing is to work it down to the endzone and then turn it over on a bad throw. You should always have only 2 cuts at a time, forceside/strike and breakside, to maximize opportunities for the handlers. Maybe we should have set plays, that go farther than just the ones we already have as those tend to sometimes force unnecessary throws, called that make it so that this is constantly happening w/o clogging. 2 comments

Sharing is caring. Share this article now!

2 comments:

  1. Sean July 29, 2010 at 1:52 PM

    My immediate reaction is: what about the breakside deep, for a hammer or over the top throw? If that's considered another cut there should be three possible cuts. At W&M, and on more conservative endzone defenses, I think that cut is not made enough. This is probably due to a handler's inability to throw a low, quick and accurate hammer?

    I think set/called plays work wonderfully. If they fail then a dump-swing in front of the endzone should work until an opening is found for the score.

    When I am in the endzone I wait, sometimes longer than is safe. It keeps my defender nervous, and allows my anxious teammates to make the obvious cuts. Works about 50% of the time, pretty big success rate if you ask me. I find myself in the middle of the stack, willing to cut to any open space, depending on the positioning/skill of my handler.

  1. Niji July 29, 2010 at 11:38 PM

    The solution is simple, elegant, and did I mention simple?

    Either set an Iso right away, whether its hydra or vert,
    or
    call a set play right off the bat.
    If you haven't looked through the playbook, there are probably 5 different endzone plays:
    Cam, old school, dirrrty, gigolo, and hydra.
    Do you really need more than this? Not really.

    As for hammers in endzones, yeah I guess, but it really should be a lot easier to score, as long as you don't have people getting in the way. Aka, a good handler and a good cutter at the front of stack, will score more consistently and easily than 5 people trying to get the disc or hammers over the top. If you can just break the mark with a backhand, why go with a hammer? If your cutter can burn the defender force side, why even bother breaking the mark? With less space, the solution is to become as simple as possible, and isolating your best shot at completing a less than 5 yard gain.

    I mean think about it, is it easier to score if that situation is a 2 on 2, or a 7 on 7? Probably a 2 on 2.

    Especially in the 09 season, we scored every time, without fail, once a play was called, whether it was iso, gigolo, or dirrrty. (Those were our go-to calls, which works, cuz basically they are fakes of each other.)

    On another note, if you are not on your usual team, and need to figure out what to do to score, the easiest way to do so once you're stuck in the endzone, is anticipate the movement of the disc as well as your fellow cutters, and go when and where the opportunity is ripe. My go-to cut is to start to cut to the force side as the disc is being dumped (defender is watching me and thus doesn't know this) and then I break away to the dark side, which a) should be wide open space and b) completely unmarked by the defender who just go beat dump. Or you do the opposite: Get close to your man, and as the disc is being swung force side or to a strike (as long as the cut isn't too close to where you are about to make a cut), start to cut dark side and right when you man reacts, go the opposite way and continue all the way for an easy open side throw.
    So I guess the most important thing is timing, timing, timing.

Post a Comment