Showing posts with label defense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label defense. Show all posts

Niji: Defense - Heads Up or Lock On?

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Re-post (excerpt):


Nick Hargreaves: Just some preemptive advice: watch your man's eyes and hips. I don't know if you've ever noticed but when I'm playing D I hardly ever look at the disk. I always stay right on my man's hip and look him right in the eye. I also love to keep a hand on his back/hip, it helps you know where your man is at all times, even if you're looking at the disk.



Interesting point about watching hips and eyes Nick! I definitely agree that this is a great way to play shut down defense, and is a very necessary component in the overall scheme of defense.


In response to that though, I would recommend that you try to be more aware of where the disc is as well as who has the disc. This way, you will be able to:

a. anticipate the next throw which lets you

b. anticipate the next cut as well as

c. play help defense.


This way, you can play smarter and not fall for cuts that wont lead to anything, e.g. if the thrower is looking dump, there's no need to stick to your man like glue on a deep cut. In fact, in this case, if you do, then a smart cutter will short-change that deep cut and cut in dark side, which will be a perfectly timed continuation off of the dump-swing, leaving you miles behind.


My favorite example is a vertical stack in front of the endzone:

The disc is on the trap-side (let's say force flick), and is being dumped and swung all the way across the front of the end zone. A smart defender will see this happening, and *switch positions* to shade in the *dark (break) side* to stop the easy IO or around backhand throw for the score. Obviously, the further the disc gets to the dark side, the more you should shade in towards the dark side. In fact, is the disc is all the way on the backhand corner, and the stack is in the middle, then I as a defender, would 100% be standing on the break side on my man, i.e. as if the force were backhand. The point is that at this juncture, the IO flick or the around backhand is pretty easy to put (especially since there is a high probability that this person is a handler), so you want to force a much harder throw (like a blade-y flick to the opposite corner) rather than give up the much easier IO flick score.

Again, you must quickly anticipate and switch positions before the disc is swung back to the force side, because if you are caught in this position, then the obvious result is your man taking you force side for an easy score.


That being said, there is a time for both methods of defense. In my opinion, no player is complete without both, and the best way to utilize these strategies is in tandem. Mixing it up and doing both (many times within the length of a point) will definitely make you guys monster defenders.

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O-line and D-line

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If your o-line scores every offensive point, you will never lose.

But, unless your d-line can break your opponent, you can never win.

The best o-line is not simply about having no turns. While this has happened, its near impossible to actualize. So then what? It's tough on a smaller team like WM, where we have to draw from a smaller talent pool, but this problem remains: An o-line player has to be able to play defense when the disc is turned over. In fact, no player who does not play good defense should ever be allowed to play offense. Because doing so makes it clear to everyone on your team that that is okay. And it most certainly is not.

Your thoughts?
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Sean: QCTU w/ Floodwall

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Fickley invited me to the club version of Queen City Tune-Up. Nothing else to do so fuck yeah!!

Things to work on:

BIDDING!!!!!!!!11!1!1!!!!! ALL FOR D's!!!! MEHHHHHH!!

Handling, overall. I think this might come from experience, in time. Hard to work on controlling a point when you dont get the disc much. Specifically, handler movement and knowing my receivers. Some people arent as fast as those on the WM squad.

Getting enough sleep before a tournament. Affects my physical readiness, but more my intuition. Made a few dumb decisions due to a lack of sleep (10 hrs in two days).

For some stupid reason, my cutter movement in the endzone was stagnant at times. Stagnant as in I watched the game unfold rather than take action. WEIRrrrddDD. Another player thought this was due to the stack cutting before setting. Teammates would all cut at once, and jog clearing out. Womp. Regardless I should've been more aggressive as to make myself available.

I wanna throw more hucks.

Conditioning, as always.

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Things I did well on:

Huck for a score. Highlight of the weekend, for me.

Cutting was quick, but not necessarily efficient. Got open a bunch.

My D improved, huge. Shut down two teams best cutters multiple times, on day 2. First day they burned me a bunch. For me, this time, it's all about body position. Looking forward to playing better teams to see how I do.

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Conclusions:

Constructive criticism is absolutely crucial to self-improvement. Because fellow players gave great feedback, I improved immensely on defense over just two days of play.

Personal commitment has an immense impact on how quickly one improves.

Looking forward to having Fickley as a captain next year. Most definitely has his head in the right space. 0 comments

Bobby: Quick Defensive strategy

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I tried this today, I think it should work pretty well:

When playing against a ho-stack and the disc was on the sideline, I covered my man in on an in-cut but the throw didn't go off to him. I heard the the stall count at 5, so I quickly checked behind me and saw that I had a teammate deep so I stopped where I was and clogged the lane expecting my teammate to cover me deep (should have yelled but it slipped my mind, obviously very important to do), playing a poach D to try to get the stall for my team. Probably some holes in this strategy as in all poach D's, but I felt that this was a particularly good opportunity to poach, we forced them to throw a stall 8 wobbly dump throw which was disappointingly not D'ed, but it did put a fair amount of pressure on the thrower and we got a good result out of it.

The real point of this though is that on D you should always be looking for opportunities to play a little bit of poach D if it is beneficial, for the beginner player it is something you should observe and register but perhaps not act on, but it can be a play that makes getting a D possible for your team while conserving energy and can therefore be extremely valuable. 2 comments

Thoughts On Pick-up/Practice 5/27

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Um.


Marks: people's marks suck. IE, its way too easy to throw through a mark.
- Point to take away: A team that prides itself on its marks will give opponents a really tough time. Really stress the importance of a good mark; it'll pay off.

Fitness: Mediocre, somewhere in between not wanting to hurt my knees and not being in shape, I'm taking it too easy on myself. Push myself a little harder. Also, playing good defense and shutting my man down for the first 4, 5 seconds doesn't count. Don't rely on the mark to let me play lazy. Smart does NOT = lazy. That being said, I was doing a good job of anticipating and choosing some points within the flow of the game to make some plays. Being able to make plays when I choose to felt good.
- Point to take away: Smart never equals lazy. No matter what.

Throwing/decision-making: Pretty good for the most part, only had one or two turns because of a throwing error. One turn on a miscommunication, one turn throwing deep. One huck went way farther than I intended, but still hit my man in stride. Otherwise, on point.
- Point to take away: Focus.

Offense (cutting): Good overall. Never had trouble getting open.

Defense: Just play harder. "Go for it!" mentality is lacking. Aka, too close to too many D's to not get them. One extra little push.

Quick movement: When McCoy, Ted?, and I were moving the disc, we worked it beautifully. Why? Quick movement of the disc. We never lingered on any one cut/cutter for more than a second or two. Defense never had a chance to even set up a mark, let alone get close to a D. This worked because we all saw where each of us were cutting and anticipated where the next open space would be, making it so that we all had easy options to throw to, while never clogging each other.
- Point to take away: Quick decision making + quick cutting to adjust to the quick movement + awareness/anticipation = flawless offense.

Deep balls: Experimented a bit with juking out my defender. If the disc was coming in a little slower and a little floatier with my man right on my heels, I would pretend to set up my jump a second earlier than I actually was going to, and thus, slowed down my man who also would try to set up his jump. Then, I'd just run under it for the easy catch.
- Point to take away: Little tricks can make it easier for you on offense: You don't necessarily need to play a disc straight up and sky your defender.
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A Year in Retrospect Pt. 2

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Here we go...


Athleticism

For the most part I am skeptical of any workout schedule or routine. Same goes for theories on when to stretch. Luckily my stretching suspicions are founded in a lack of science. Here's a good article on stretching:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/health/nutrition/13Best.html

Sadly, my workout doubts do not hold water. There seems to a certain way to workout/stay in shape. Even though the field of physical fitness adjusts to scientific discoveries pertaining to the development of muscle and such, this does not give anyone an excuse not to workout. This is what I tell myself haha.

So, Ill go on and do all the workouts doled out to me by my captains. It'll keep me in shape. But I will begin to change when and how I stretch. The variables will be types of stretches, whether to stretch after warmups after practices (or both), and for how long. My gut says to vary the stretches every two weeks, always stretch after practice ends and stretch for a moderate amount of time (around 10 mins maybe). Sidenote, I think a swimmer told me that you should stretch a quarter of the time you spent working out. Sidenote on that sidenote, I hate unsubstantiated workout advice. Pisses me off. For all we know they made it up.

Athelticism wins games. A team that has better athleticism can keep up/beat a team that has everything else but.

Bids

All mindset? Sure, at first. But once youre over that hump, I think it's more about physical not mental commitment. If youre running all out and your body is low youre more likely to bid successfully than when youre standing straightup. Of course body positioning and speed become irrelevant after youve done it a few dozen times on the worst surfaces imaginable (e.g. The Barksdale Desert)

"All about the toe" - Andy

Reading the Disc

"Decide where its going to go immediately after its thrown" - Niji
"Take a few steps back in preparation for the catch, then attack" - William
Only intentionally backpedal from the disc.
Oh and attack that shit.

Cuts

I dont like turtles I like cutting.
Stuff I need to work on:
1. Instinctively I know when to make a cut. Go all out when it occurs to me, and already be cutting when it occurs to me. Trust yourself Luke.
2. More than one fake is ok.
3. Try both playing off the defender's position and cutting where you want to cut
4. Alternate feet in which to pivot
5. For handler cuts, always move right after a throw. Quick.

The Mark

A certain demotivational poster comes to mind.
1. Staying close is key for the first six counts or so, after that backup.
2. Hold that force, dont get faked out of position.
3. On a turn it, depending on field position of the disc and players, it helps to go strike for two seconds max to cut off the huck.
4. Bring the condoms.

Conclusions for the year: I have learned alot, something Im proud of. Alot more to go, to put it simply. Looking forward to all of it.

Aight. Thoughts on high school pickup to come.




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Thoughts on Pickup Game- 5/23

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A few thoughts from my first game of pickup for the summer:
We had only 12 to begin with so we played savage 6's for the first 7-8 points, needless to say i played all of about the first 12 points that we played with very little down time, i was disappointed that i got quite tired after these points and my ability to make plays was decreased for the rest of the game, i guess this is somewhat expected considering i haven't played in about 3 weeks but i would like to improve my stamina and maybe learn to conserve energy more effectively, tips for this- remember to eat and drink before playing/ bring snacks and water as my lack of doing these obvious things definitely did not help. On another note, we ran a really sloppy vert for the most part (not wholly unexpected for a pickup game) and I found cutting to be challenging without a structured stack due to lanes being clogged, this really enforced the importance of having a structured stack

Good to take away from the day-
Threw some really good flick hucks, some that i thought were good were unfortunately not caught I'm assuming its because it was a pickup game
Threw a really good backhand huck for a score.
Worked on my fakes and break mark throws and definitely felt some sort of improvement as the game progressed
Played pretty good defense (on a random note I was called out for bodying up on a strike cut)
Made good short throws and dump cuts, played relatively good handler
Realized the extent of my improvement over the course of the year in both throwing, cutting, and defense playing against players that were not on a collegiate level as i was able to dominate the game until i became fatigued

Things I still need to improve-
My mark is still kinda shaky (though macked one or two, need to work on being lighter on my feet, got semi-broken a few times
better decision making with the disc, threw away too many discs of throws that i did not need to make; make sure communication has been established before throwing
Remember the rule of thirds

A lot of these observations are a bit basic but still vital to improving my ability on all levels going forward, furthermore pickup games are obviously not the place to improve on a lot of aspects of the game as hard man D and cutting deep are quite a bit easier due to an overall mismatch in athleticism. 0 comments

Defense: Versatility

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If you can play a perfect offense, you can't lose. While this is true, its equally as true that if you can't play defense, you certainly can't win. Then what is the key to defense?

"Play hard on your man!" We've all heard and yelled this before. This system of aggressive man-on-man defense definitely works, and works best when you field a team of athletes who are bigger, faster, stronger, (and harder?) than the players on the other team. But what if you don't? What if you come across a team that has an arsenal of players more athletic than yours?
You try to play hard man defense, and time and time again, your players are juked left and right, up and down the field, open cut after open cut... Your opponents are used to strong, aggressive physical defense, and they don't even think twice when you bump and grind in the lane. Your force is being broken at will as they just throw right through the in-your-face marks. At this point, do you simply concede? Of course not.
It has always been my opinion that defense is about mixing it up. Never to linger too long on any style of defense. The hardest times I've had running an offense is when I don't know what's coming, and I have to constantly change the mindset of the way I play. On defense, all we have to do is make the o-line screw up. If we can do that using an array of tactics, hell, that's just as good as getting a layout in-cut d. The changes can be subtle; force backhand to flick to straight up; or they can be dramatic; man-on-man to zone to clam back to man. As a matter of fact, why not throw in a force middle, or a poach system on a ho offense? Get creative, be versatile. Nothing is easier than beating a defense with only one style of defense. Nothing is more devastating than figuring out a defense, finally, only to have it changed up on you.
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