USA Ultimate

The Huddle, Issue #13: Teaching Team Defense

Young, athletic, inexperienced players can be taught 1-on-1 defense, at least at a cursory level, very quickly. "Stay close to your person" or "run hard, get your hand on the disc" work very well for simple defensive skills.

 

However, team defense (poaching, switching, zone) can be harder to teach, which is probably why so few players are really good at these skills. In a search for insight on this topic, we asked our authors the following questions:

 

• Real Time Space For Real Time Results
  
  
  
  • At the college level, the dividing line between teams that can generate a break or two, and the teams that consistently go on a run of breaks can be attributed to the concept of team defense.
    
    My experience in trying to introduce this concept to new, or inexperienced, players is to break things down to the absolute basics. Initially, during our first chalktalk regarding the defense I like to introduce the name of the D (something catchy, without lending too much information to opponents who might hear it on the sideline), and the main objectives of the defense (forcing lots of short passes, forcing inside out strikes, forcing long, low percentage throws).
    
    I may show the defense on a chalkboard. for some, it is very useful to move off of the chalkboard and onto the field. I like to place people on the field (or a shortened field) and walk the entire team through each position, and explain what the contribution of each position is to the team-D concept.
    
    After fielding questions (taking special care not to get into a flurry "What if?" questions) we run the defense against a 70%-speed offense. After 5-10 minutes of reps, we go 100% live. This is the usual time for things to degenerate, or objectives lost due to competitiveness, so it's very important to ensure that the reps are not rushed, and are re-focused with the team defense concept in mind. This is also a great time for people to experiment at different positions to get a feel for where their strengths lie in this particular team D.
    
    If there are still troubles with results, objectives, or simple understanding, I find it very useful to bring a whistle and explain that during the reps if the whistle is blown, everyone freezes. While frozen, I ask various positions what thoughts they have at the current time-frame (Are you in the right spot with regard to the nearest offensive player? What are you planning to do next to move the offensive flow in the direction of our concept? And so forth).
    
    This basic teaching formula has been very effective in teaching beginning and intermediate players some of the more advanced concepts of team defense. As an added bonus, these positional concepts also condition them for advanced concepts of man-to-man defense.
     
  • JAIME ARAMBULA
• Don't Screw The Team
  
  
  
  • Team defense begins with an understanding and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your team's defensive talents, followed by the development of defensive philosophies that are executed by specific team-oriented strategy. Too often, "team defense" is taught in terms of situational defensive sets such as zone, clam, poaching, and whatnot with an over-reliance on individual athleticism to play man-D. While high-flying layout blocks are at times warranted and necessary, it appears the spectacular has come to define a team's defensive prowess along with foot-races and gravity-defying leaps. Rather than focusing on improving individual D (with a run harder, jump higher, and spit further mentality), teaching broader defensive concepts can help a player step up both their own and their team's D by seeing the field better.
    
    One way to think about it, is to have players answer the questions "where and how is the team going to get a turn?" This team defense philosophy shifts the onus from the individual player creating and getting a block to the team generating opportunities for everyone to get turnovers and, in theory, increasing the chances of any player on the field to earn a D. Obviously when the opportunity arises, the individual(s) must still make the defensive play but the overall strategy relies on the entire team creating specific outcomes. Instead of the "play hard man D" or "run harder and faster than the O and get a block" motto, the underlying tenet is that turnovers are created when the D forces the O to do what the D expects, which allows any player on your team to earn/get the turn.
    
    In addition to forcing the O to do what the D expects, force the O to choose their second or third or fourth options. The O clearly has an advantage if allowed to play to their strengths, so structure your team's D to expose and exacerbate their weaknesses. Dictate how the O will have to beat you through team D strategies and your team will likely have a better chance of winning—i.e. if you get beat by Rondo hitting pull-up jumpers all night, then tip your hat off to the other team. But if you let The Truth take you down the river then shame on your team D.
    
    How does this translate onto the field? Something simple such as forcing one-way (forehand/home) for a point needs to be translated into a systematic team-wide approach. Pit the strengths of your team against your opponent's weaknesses. Evaluate what types of D-players you have on the team and how the O likes to score. One scenario can be if your team is full of short(er) speedy players and you know the O prefers to bomb the disc down the field to score in minimal throws. Thus forcing the O to repeatedly cut under to make them throw more passes is a good start to a team D strategy. But it doesn't stop there as the D can systematically further reduce the offensive options.
    
    The team will make sure to disrupt any sort of big throw, so when a marker sees the thrower wind up for huck, she will step-off and be bigger and more straight-up, forcing a less than perfect shot. The marker is also responsible for holding the force but given the throwing talent around today, that isn't always possible. However, this too can be turned into a D-earning opportunity. If the O is going to break your mark, how does that fit into your D-strategy? In the case of forcing a team under repeatedly, the O will be running full steam to the disc on the in-cut so where do you want to generate a block? Do you want the O to try throwing floaty IO's or do you want the O to throw zippy IO's or do you want flat wide step-around backhand break throws and will those be fluffers or zippy? Does the wind affect any of those choices? Does the O run mainly through their handlers? If the lane cutters rarely look up-field, do you want to force the disc into the hands of the lane cutters more often and take it away from the handlers? How does each of these things change the mark? The important thing to note is that the mark isn't "giving" anything but making sure that if they are broken, it will be by a certain type of throw that the entire team will expect and can either deny and/or contain. At this juncture, the team D strategy has now defined which lanes and spaces the downfield D will control and clog, what throws are expected, and as a result, when and how a turnover can be achieved.
    
    Obviously, this is just one over-simplified scenario of forcing one way, but it demonstrates the types of questions that the entire team needs to be able to answer and that team defense is a general philosophy and not only applicable to fancy defensive sets.
    
    As a final note, team D is firmly ensconced in the concept of deny and contain D. First deny the disc to the O-player but if the disc goes up and the D isn't 150% sure about getting the block, then he switches immediately to containment mode. This means the D-player no longer goes for the block but now works hard to get into position to ensure the designated force is put on the early on the imminent thrower. How many times have we seen a team break the force and the disc move quickly up the broken side for an uncontested score? Or how many times have we seen someone whiff a diving block or lunge past the disc thus giving the thrower an uncontested look downfield?
    
    The beauty of team D is that it doesn't rely on just a few individuals on your team to either get blocks or shut down specific people on the O. You don't want to rely on individuals to win you games since you just don't know who will get injured or who will simply have a bad day. As one of the smartest and most successful players once said—someone always blows a knee at Nationals but if you have a team philosophy and strategy, that won't kill your chances of winning. Don't screw your teammates, follow the plan of attack, and more often than not, you'll get the turnover you want.
     
  • VY CHOW
• Give Specific Calls To Your D
  
  
  
  • Rich "Farmer" Hollingsworth once said that when a team is on offense, seven people is too many (a crowd), but when a team is on defense, seven isn't enough. Communication is the extra player, and it's the key to successful team defense. For team defense, I don't think that there is a more important skill or a more simple one. It's also hard to develop and I have always found it to be really difficult to teach. It's especially difficult for players who are either new on a team or just on the cusp of becoming elite.
    
    Probably every team at some point when in a huddle has talked about the importance of talking on the field, the importance of the players not on the field being 'part of the game' and about different things to say during the game. The cliché statements often don't work. There are only two things I have found that work, and even then I can't promise success.
    
    The first is be specific in what you expect to be said. Telling people to talk without telling them what to say doesn't work. As an example, think about the offensive calls that your team has. If there's a turnover, as the handler is picking it up, teams will often make a play called that defines what most of the players on the field do. "Yellow thirty-seven five puppy" On defense, you'll only hear part of it. "Force flick." It's a start. But, if you add more specific things to say, then even the most reticent player will probably use it. "Strike" probably sounds familiar, and most people know that this means to stop the throw up the force side (usually on the line) for a second. Define terms for your team to use that have very specific meaning. Next, define what the person who hears the call is supposed to do. "On a strike call, the mark goes flat for 2 counts." Now you're playing team defense. "Switch" is another call that you've heard. It's meaning is pretty obvious—but even these 'obvious' calls should be clarified. "If you are last in the stack, and a player calls switch, you do it. Period."
    
    Two quick asides: (1) I don't want this to discourage players from saying anything. Any piece of information is useful, so you can't only focus on specific calls. I watched a player turn and get a D last weekend because one of his teammates got beat and communicated that he had been beat. What did the player yell? "Oh s***!" It worked. (2) The things that you say don't have to be too complicated or secret. It's more important that your team understands what it needs to do than it is for you to hide it from your competition.
    
    The second thing that I've found works is to do it. You can't tell people to talk, and then stand on the sideline looking at the sub sheet between points. You can't tell people to talk on the field and then cover your person without saying anything. Leadership and example goes a long way.
     
  • ADAM GOFF
• A Little Theory & A Lot Of Practice
  
  
  
  • It can be easy to make excuses for not playing team defense in Mixed Ultimate, especially in man-to-man set-ups. About half the people on the field you would never choose to mark up on/cover prior to the pull, the people you want to set up switches with may not be the closest people to you, and the person in the best position to help you might not be the obvious choice given the situation. However, with practice and communication, there's no reason why skills such as poaching, switching, and being heads-up in general can't be incorporated into a defense's repertoire.
    
    Unfortunately, there are no strict rules for teaching these skills since the configuration of genders on the field is so unpredictable and ever-changing; also, a person's thinking will often have to shift from moment to moment between guarding one's person, guarding one's gender, and knowing when to help out regardless of gender. It can be a lot to process and therefore becomes more a function of being able to react dynamically, which is, in larger part, based on a person's/D-team's experiences. Therefore, while theoretical explanation can help foster understanding of the basics, honing the skills is best done via real or simulated game situations.
    
    A LITTLE THEORY...
    
    Low Risk/High Reward Poaching
    
    One of the easier poaching strategies to master in Mixed is a woman poach in the lane off of the woman handler. Often times, this offensive position will stay behind or around the disc and so a poach will never be too far from putting a mark on. The biggest advantage to this poach is that, if done properly, she can cut off the in-cuts, which means that the downfield defenders can back a little, thus the out-cuts are also covered. Then when the disc goes to the woman handler, the downfield defense can adjust to covering the in-cuts since this is generally the more dangerous part of the field at that point. The challenge for the poacher is to position herself so that she can see where the cuts are coming in while also keeping track of where the thrower is looking. Sideline talk can help her be in the right place at the right time. This D can be especially effective given adverse weather conditions and can be a way to switch up the D from zone to man so that the offense doesn't get too comfortable with one particular look.
    
    Prepare for Switching to Make the D's Job Easier
    
    Switching can take several different directions in Mixed. Although there are times when there is switching between genders, it is usually out of momentary necessity (i.e. zone O to man D transition) and looks to be resolved as quickly as possible since those are probably not the match-ups you are hoping for. However, switching within a gender leads to more equitable match-ups, can be planned for, and can be used to make defense easier and help save your legs a bit.
    
    Being able to prepare for switches with players of your own gender depends on how the offense sets up and how quickly they get going. If there are two people of your gender in the stack, one defender could cover the in-cut and one could cover the out-cut. If there are three people of your gender in the stack, you could set up an in/out/middle or an in/out/break (this one is great around the endzone where there is less field to cover on the force side and a break side throw could lead to an easy score). The thing to remember is that the genders are probably spaced out in different places in the stack and so you have to keep an eye on what all the cutters of your gender are doing and continue to communicate with your teammate(s) when your wo/men start making their moves.
    
    Switches become slightly trickier when the offense is in a split or ho stack. With the split stack, unless two of your gender are set up on one side of the field (in which case you could set up in/out), preparing for switches probably isn't possible. And with ho stack, the spacing between offensive players is probably greater than with a straight stack so, again, unless two of one gender are next to each other to provide an in/out set up opportunity, switching could prove to be more trouble than it's worth (although it might be worth a try anyway to see for yourself—defensive points are the times to take chances). What it comes down to is being aware of where the genders are set-up, what opportunities for switching, if any, that provides, and then communicating intensions with your teammates.
    
    Be Heads Up and Go Get It If You Can
    
    One mentality that needs to be avoided in Mixed is the one where a defender thinks s/he should only go for a disc that is meant for someone of his/her own gender. If you are in a position to make a bid on a disc, do it. This means knowing where the disc is, where the intended pass is going, and gauging the risk of leaving your person relatively undefended (if the situation calls for it). Probably the most advantageous places on the field for one to be heads up are the front of the stack, last in the stack, and as the person clearing out of the lane. The first person in the stack can keep an eye out for the quick, straight pass up the middle; the last person has to be aware of the deep shot; the defender clearing out of the lane can see the next cut coming in and can intercept the pass to that cut if the timing is right. I've found that one of the more fun things about being a woman in Mixed Ultimate is being underestimated. Sometimes you can make that work for you and get your team turns in the process.
    
    AND A LOT OF PRACTICE
    
    Provide Opportunities for Collective Learning
    
    Team D is all about knowing each other and working together and for that you mostly have to learn together. So your aim as a team should be to get your D exposed to as many different situations and conditions as possible. In terms of practice time, 10-pull or some variation of it is a great "drill" because it lets the defense work together more intensely than a simple scrimmage would. Controlled scrimmage, such as a game to 5 with play stoppage, can also be valuable for real-time pointing out of where people are and where they should be for more efficient and effective defense. Then of course it is also extremely important to try some of these things out on people who don't have the inside track to what you've been working on. Worthwhile pre-series tournaments, as many as you can get your team to, are imperative for D-team development. A brief huddle after certain D points where the line can discuss positives, negatives, and adjustments will help to increase their collective learning.
    
    Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!
    
    Team D isn't just about the 7 people on the field; it's also about the other 10-20 on the sideline. True team D gets them involved as well. It is at times impossible for a single defender to see everything s/he needs to see in order to play the best D and so having another member of your team in your ear from the sideline for the duration of the point is invaluable. From the line before the pull, a defender should pick an available teammate from the sideline to talk to him/her and it is that person's responsibility to follow the defender and let him/her know what is going on elsewhere on the field that would effect how one plays D (i.e. who has the disc, where the disc is, where the thrower is looking, where the cuts are going, etc.). Regardless of what kind of D you are playing, communication on the field and from the sideline is a must. The best communication comes from familiarity with each other's voices, which is why being vocally active in everything from a basic endzone drill to sideline encouragement helps make sure that communication comes more naturally and will be there when it matters most.
     
  • KRIS KELLY
• Step-By-Step Approach At Practice
  
  
  
  • Understanding that each player is an integral part in the defensive machine precludes all other aspects of defense. Getting everyone on the same page is of utmost importance as 6 players playing together and fulfilling their responsibilities does not equate to a block. So, this is the initial step in teaching team defense.
    
    From here, it is a matter of understanding the defense we are running (zone, man, clam, junk, etc.) and the duties of each player in the defense thereafter. It is also important to understand the purpose of the defense. Is it containment-based or high-risk-high-reward? What are we taking away and what are we giving them? Questions of this order are important because they give each player an understanding of the overall objective and their personal responsibility.
    
    For example, you can play man defense with a one-way force, but do you want the downfield cutters to be pushed away, under, both?
    
    From here, I would set up an offense and put a defense on them, and walk through the different forces/defenses and what they give and take away from the offense. Let the defense see what the offense sees, what options are available and which are not, and what options are more rewarding to the offense than others. After walking through, let the two teams play for sometime and try things out. Give them a chance to see what works and what doesn't, and improvise a little.
    
    After they played for a while, I would bring it in and let the two teams talk about what they found to work and what didn't. This would lead into drills, which would emphasize these specific traits. For example, if we were working on forcing straight up and having the downfield cutters push their guys out, I would run a drill with a 1-on-1 cutting situation where the cutter has 5-stall counts to get the disc, getting rewarded for beating the defender under, nothing for getting the disc long, and defender getting rewarded for a block.
    
    If the team is working well and understanding everything, I would then move on to try and show switching and poaching; I would not introduce this, however, unless they were confident with the defensive tactics up to this point.
    
    Switching and poaching can be extremely useful and advantageous, but only under the confines of a well-executed team defense. The advantages of poaching or switching are nullified if the defense is not playing together as a single unit; ie a well-timed switch or poach with everyone on the same page can lead to a team block, however, a well-timed switch or poach without everyone together can lead to a quick offensive point.
     
  • BRETT MATZUKA
• Limit Handler Play, & The Caterpillar Drill
  
  
  
  • Team defense starts when you can make solid assumptions about what your teammates will and will not allow. A good team defense limits the offense's options to looks that the D is prepared for, and then pounces when the O predictably does what you set them up for. Basically, you can't play team defense if you are purely reactive to the offense—you have to have a general goal for how you are going to manufacture turnovers.
    
    The key to making an offense predictable is to limit the play of handlers. Since handlers are close to the disc, it makes sense that they can change the point of attack faster than downfielders—as in, a quick yardage gainer to a handler changes the viable deep space instantly—making it much harder for downfield defenders to take away both the out and under. Similarly, a first look break by a handler gives the O free yards by attacking where the downfield defenders assume they are protected.
    
    If you're keeping handlers on the open side and losing yards, the only place downfielders can cut is underneath to the open side. This makes it much easier to switch on D or poach, or generally ball hawk down field. Last year we started with handler D, and we had a lot more success with switches down field, or running stunts that generated blocks.
    
    My favorite drill for working on handler D in a flat stack offense is a 3-on-3 drill, with a full width field, with 5 cones 10 yards apart along the sideline. The O starts with the disc in the middle of the first segment. The O can only advance the disc one 10 yard segment at a time, and if they go back a segment, they have to regain that segment again (you can't lose 10, then gain 20, if that makes sense). It's an exhausting drill and can be used as a conditioning drill—but generally, I like to have the whole team watch, cheer and talk to their defender teammates as the drill is being run. This puts more pressure on the defenders, and makes it painfully obvious when they lose focus.
    
    Before we start, we talk about:
    
    1. Preventing the up the line cut with body position.
    2. Winning the first step after each throw.
    3. Stopping the first break look that your person gets if they do get the disc.
    4. Making a "Strike" call to the marker (stop the open side) if you get beat up the line.
     
  • PAT MCCARTHY
• Communication & Vision
  
  
  
  • I think there are two skills that can take a player from a good defender to a great defender and they both have to do with the transition from an individually good defender to a good team defender.
    
    1. Communication. Silent defenders will never be great defenders. This includes "up," "switch" and "last back" calls. This is particularly important in zone defense for wings and deeps. To practice this, I sometimes require players to be saying something continuously during a defensive drill. This helps generally quiet folks get over the hump of being vocal on the field. This skill also holds true for people talking from the sideline. To practice sideline talk have a thrower pivot while a marker marks with her eyes closed and someone talking from the sideline. By doing this, the marker will learn to listen and the sideline talker will learn to puppeteer the marker.
    
    2. Vision. This can be harder to teach—some people are born with field sense or learn it in other sports and some just don't have it. However, this can be practiced in concert with skill #1 by doing lots of 2-on-2 drills or 2-offense-on-1-defense drills. This forces the defender to be aware of more than just her offender. Erring on the side of fronting in one-on-one matchups and then relying on the sideline for an up-call is a great way of practicing the transition from individual to team defense—finding the disc after an up call (no matter where it was thrown) is an upper-level skill that most good defenders can always work on to become great defenders.
     
  • MIRANDA ROTH
• A Quick Example: Defending The Dump
  
  
  
  • I've had some success teaching team D in the past, and I like to think that young players, especially bright ones, will often surprise you with their ability to learn complex concepts and make them work against very good offensive players and teams.
    
    One example of our team-D philosophy is in how we taught dump D at U of Oregon. This would usually happen at some point during February or March, after the basics of defense and offense but before the real tournament schedule got up to speed.
    
    We'd talk/walk/run through three aspects of dump D. For each aspect, we'd talk as a team, most often using a couple of people as human models. My experience tells me that people learn only rarely from whiteboards. If you want them to apply something on the field, you have to show them on the field. We'd discuss the logic first ("why" are we doing this) and then the tactics.
    
    As often as possible, we'd do a drill where everyone was in a group, and we went through a specific motion together. Wax on, wax off, only we are 'poach on, poach off.' This works really well for individual techniques like marking, as well.
    
    The three aspects we'd talk/demonstrate/drill/attempt for dump D were:
    
    1. Body positioning
    We give our players the option of forcing the dump upfield, backfield, face-guarding, or watching only the thrower (space-guarding). The logic for each is given simply:
    • Face-guard when you want to prevent the throw entirely, and no one else is a threat.
    • Force backfield when yardage is crucial (like, they are going upwind).
    • Force upfield when we want to pressure the thrower or the handler.
    • Space-guard when you think you can get a block, or to poach and force a thrower to give up the disc.
    
    (We'd demonstrate each tool that the defender has, and practice each briefly on a slo-mo D to get the sense of body positioning.)
    
    2. Changing the focus
    Poaching is often more effective early, when throwers won't give up the disc. Changing from force-back to force forward can disrupt timing. Great throwers should be give fewer open looks, if possible. Perhaps most effectively; giving a certain player a different look can keep them thinking, and prevent them from establishing a rhythm.
    
    Crucially; this is the point at which we discuss working together with the mark. Choosing an appropriate focus based on the mark is very useful, and can give us blocks. This is where the team D aspect comes in; the dump defender was allowed to ask for a different mark or a different tendency from the mark, so that this becomes a 2v2, instead of a 2v1 against the dump defender.
    
    3. Frame the competition
    This was absolutely important for us; we had to give our defenders (most often our inexperienced players, if they were learning this for the first time) an expectation of what they were supposed to accomplish. In this scenario, we tell our players that a dump is a 95% throw, and that if they can force a turnover on 2/20 dumps, they are winning their battle by a large margin. They should expect to give up completions, but try to keep those completions off-rhythm, difficult to execute, and occasionally pick off a throw (and then go to the house for the fast-break goal!).
    
    I definitely do not write this to say that this is the best way to play dump D; but rather as an example of how we taught team defense (at least in this fairly specific example).
     
  • BEN WIGGINS