USA Ultimate

The Huddle, Issue #18: Zone Offense

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact us at thehuddle@usaultimate.org.
 

• The Condor Zone O
  
  
  
  • Up through the 90s, teams played a mix of two- and three-handler sets, but all zone offenses emphasized swinging the disc and attacking the far side of the field against a zone on the run. Then, the Condors, led by handlers James Studarus, Steve Dugan and Taro Ramberg began to run something fundamentally different. This was a two-handler set that didn't swing and attacked a stagnant zone. Their philosophy was that no matter how many defenders you pulled in, you weren't going to be able to stop two of them from throwing it back and forth to each other on little two to five yard passes. Then sooner or later, you'd make a mistake and they'd go through or over your cup and have a five-on-four fast break. That's when they'd chew you for big yards.
    
    Look around ultimate today and you can see the signs of this offense everywhere. Handlers who crash the cup? Yep. Teams throwing through and over the cup consistently? Yep. Teams breaking the cup and then stringing four or five passes together rapidly? Yep. Not having to listen to teams exhort each other to "Swing the disc" and "Tire them out?" Yep.
    
    What are the requirements for running this offense? You need are two savvy, creative handlers who can respond to a variety of situations and have the skills to break a cup down. These skills don't (and won't) look the same for any two players. Some players might throw lots of little cute throws like lefties or scoobers (they do work in the wind), while other players might wield a big hammer or a nasty set of inside outs. It doesn't matter so much what it is as long as they have something. You also need a team that can play quick once the zone has been broken. They physical skill of quick catch and release is a must and there are lots of fun drills for this. The mental skill of reading the defense is also a requirement. I like a four-on-three or three-on-two fast break drill to develop this vision and reinforce the physical skills. Good luck!
     
  • LOU BURRUSS
• Adjustments & Positioning
  
  
  
  • The easiest way to simulate bad-weather conditions in a drill or a game is to simply tell your players to not throw the throws you can't realistically complete in those conditions. The idea is to gain confidence in beating a zone with flat, crisp, high percentage throws. And if for some reason they decide to throw a cross-field hammer, or 10 yard push pass, stop the drill and reset, or just call it a turnover and continue playing from there. This will help with throw selection, but executing a throw in inclement weather requires practice in those conditions.
    
    In an ideal situation, I prefer a two-handler set that works together to create windows of opportunity to move the disc upfield. Two main options in this set are to go over the cup, or through the cup. A third option that is less frequently utilized option with two handlers is to go around the cup.
    
    Any time an offensive set is not working, the main responsibility to recognize this lies with the handlers. They should be in a position to see the entire field, and also to realize when the go-to look has been shut down five times in a row. If your zone offense is built around swinging the disc from one sideline to the other, and it gets stopped in the middle, that handler stuck with the disc is probably the person that will realize this first. At that point they can adjust their own spacing, or that of a teammate. If that fails to produce results, a timeout wouldn't be a bad call.
    
    Deep players in a zone offense are in a pretty unique position. If they do their job well, they rarely touch the disc, but are able to create space for the other players to gain yardage. If they don't do their job well by crowding closer to the disc, they'll end up touching the disc more. However, the offense will have a harder time overall moving the disc as the defense will be able to move in with the deep. Ideally, a deep player will touch the disc zero times or once on any offensive sequence, and will totally occupy one person's capacity (or more) to defend. Put another way, the offense is able to score with short, easy throws, because the deep defender is positioned so that no single defender is able to help defend other offensive players.
    
    The easiest way I know of to deal with a trap zone is to simply not throw it to somebody on the sideline. If you have a zone offense that depends on moving the disc across the field to get around the cup, think about learning another offensive set. If you must move the disc to a sideline, you want to impress upon the players on that sideline that their job is not to hold the disc, but to hit the first open player they see, even if that person just threw them the disc. Furthermore, everybody else on the field needs to provide a sideline thrower with immediate targets. The longer you hold the disc, the longer a defense can recognize and lock down on the available targets.
     
  • JEFF EASTHAM-ANDERSON
• Prepping For A 4-Person Cup
  
  
  
  • A zone defense is usually designed to only give the offense options that do not play to their strengths (i.e. working it laterally, taking away speed, or breaking the mark into the wind). I have been on women's teams before that have had a very difficult time with the four person cup in a moderately windy (cross wind) situation. Typically, the defense would trap the downwind sideline making it difficult for the thrower to break the cup not only because there are four big defensive players near them, but also because there is a wind in their face. Therefore, it was advantageous for us to practice this particular situation whenever there was a strong cross wind. Each player would get the disc on the sideline, we would place a four person cup on that person, and they would get five chances to break the cup successfully. Also, since most four person cups double team (either intentionally or unintentionally), we would deliberately practice being double teamed when trapped on that sideline. If it is a four person, two main handlers with two wings would be ideal but it can be accomplished with a three person formation as well.
    
    The Piedmont of North Carolina is fairly mild as far as wind goes. I began playing ultimate in the midwest and I swear I was much less intimidated by the wind when I lived in Michigan playing club women's ultimate than I was after a couple of years of living in NC. It is not just that your team can not practice in the wind, but you do not throw in the wind, you do not play league in the wind, you do not play pickup in the wind. So much lost practice time in the wind. To make up for it, we have routinely had beach weekends hoping for strong winds to practice in and there has even been talk about going to Sarasota at another time of the year besides the end of Oct to get more experience in less than ideal weather conditions. Finally, it is important to emphasize throwing, throwing a lot, and throwing with a lot of spin no matter what the conditions are. Therefore, even though there may be a 5 mph wind in NC, one can not get lazy with their throws and begin throwing with no spin, and no legs. You must pretend there is a strong wind at all times.
    
    How should we attack the zone? Try and do exactly what the zone d does not want you to do. BREAK THE CUP. This can be done numerous ways.
    1. Poppers could place themselves in good positions for handlers to hit them through the cup.
    2. Handlers could move it quickly side to side and then hit wings/popper to gain yardage.
    3. Handlers could move it side to side gaining yards with each swing. The cut will have to pay less attention to those sideline handlers getting yardage if the poppers remain a threat.
    4. Handlers going over the cup using an arsenal of throws to wings and poppers.
    5. Once the disc is past the cup, do not let the cup catch up. It is the wings and poppers' responsibility to make sure they are making real cuts for each other and really attempt to keep the disc moving.
    
    
    Deep players, or wings, generally have the hardest time finding a way to be effective out there in the zone O. In a four person cup situation, one way the deeps can be effective is to have one of them completely drag the other team's deep defender out of the play. Now, you have 6 on 6 with four of those six around one of your players. If that one player significantly breaks the cup it is a two on five situation. Another way the deeps can be effective is by working together as a pulley system. As one goes in, the other can pull out and make a legit deep cut. As the other goes in, the one that just went deep can come in for a huge gainer.
    
    How do you deal with a trap zone? What kind of players should you put in positions (like the downwind wing) that are likely to be trapped? As mentioned earlier, this needs to be practiced. If the disc gets to the trap sideline, you have a handful of options as that person with the disc.
    1. Break the mark backwards for the dump. The dump must immediately swing it to keep it off that sideline.
    2. Have your other handler set up to the right or left of the middle-middle in the cup. Use your fakes and pivots like you are going to hit the behind dump, but then hit your swing handler almost completely lateral.
    3. Use your fakes and pivots to hit a popper. A popper can also provide a decoy cut or crash to make it easier for you to hit either handler mentioned in #1 or #2.
    4. Have the handler that is lined up somewhat behind you come through and crash the cup. From there you would either use that cut as a decoy and either hit handler #2 through a hole created by handler #1 or hit a popper through the same hole. Or, you could give a quick shovel pass to that crashing handler. Now, that handler has the disc very close to the cup. The cup is not in formation anymore as they are no where close to 10 feet away from the person with the disc. It becomes much easier for the handler to go through the cup here.
    5. Go over the top. Easiest way, but maybe the most difficult way once some wind has been thrown into the equation.
    
    
    If the disc gets trapped on the sideline with a non handler (i.e. wing), that wing must not sit and hold the disc waiting for the cup to form perfectly around them. It is the popper's responsibility to formulate a continue cut which, if hit, will put the disc more in the center of the field. It is the wing's responsibility to catch the disc and IMMEDIATELY look to the center of the field, NOT DOWN THE LINE, for this continuation cut. If this cut is not hit, and the wing gets trapped on the sideline, more times than not, it is best to go with option #4 above. If that does not work, hopefully the practice the wing got at breaking the cup at practice was enough to successfully get it out of there.
     
  • LINDSEY HACK
• Questions About Your Zone O
  
  
  
  • There are a number of ways to try to approximate the weather approximations that a zone offense will face. Some of these strengthen the defense such as adding an 8th player to the d or shortening the stall count while others might hamper the offense no overheads or huck limits.
    
    There is really no good way to approximate inclement weather for the offense, but at some point you can handcuff the offense enough that when they face a weather situation with standard playing conditions they will feel that things are easy, and really that is the goal.
    
    There is no right answer for the correct approach to playing zone offense, but some are better than others. The Condors radically changed their zone offense after losing to DoG in the finals of nationals in 1998, basically borrowing whatever they gleaned from playing against DoG that year. The real story is deciding how your team can realistically attack a zone. Do you have consistent handlers who can swing the disc to tire the other team out? Do you have flashy handlers who can beat a zone by going over the top? Do you have runners who can keep moving around to stretch the defense and create holes? Depending on the answers to these questions, the optimal offense may be different for your team. The real key is to get players to know what their role is. Do you want your wings/poppers running around getting into the cup and pulling and prodding at the defense, or do you want them to be stationary and waiting until they are in a free space to receive the disc? Similarly, should your deeps be setting up for a deep cut, or should they be trying to pull the deep defender out of the play, or should two deeps be trying to split the deep defender? These questions can be answered through some trial and error, but eventually the team should be aware of what the goals of the offense are, such as "we're going to swing until Bob can uncork a huck", or "when it gets to the line, we want the deep flashing in", etc.
    
    Recognizing that the opponent is running zone is critical to getting a successful start to the point. Ideally the spatial distribution of skill on your team will look fairly similar whether the opponent is running zone or man. What this means is that your deeps in zone, are also likely the people who are looking to cut deep off the pull, while your handlers are around the disc in either case. Sometimes a clever zone offense doesnt need to announce the other teams defense to fall into the proper spacing, and even making some man cuts might free up space for other players to exploit in the zone. At some point the offense should settle into its zone offense, but I always preferred to try to get the man play off against a zone defense. If you can get the disc past an unorganized cup, there might be an easy chance to exploit the defense.
    
    Finally, I think it is important to put your most composed handler on the downwind side to be there for the trap. This may not necessarily be your best thrower, but rather the person that will create a sense of calm when in that situation. Freaked-out throwers tend to draw everyone closer to them, which might not be most beneficial to the offense. Rather, having a composed thrower will keep the offense in its form so that the thrower will have the best opportunities to complete things, the offense will maintain its plan of attack because the positioning is stable, and finally to give everyone else confidence that the zone defense can be beaten by sticking to the plan.
     
  • GREG HUSAK
• A Slow-Developing Chess Game
  
  
  
  • Zone O is like a game of chess- you spend a while moving your pieces around the board, not making much apparent headway, trying to find the weakness in the other team's defense, and then suddenly you see your opportunity to capture their queen and it's off to the races! Zone O also often showcases the triumph of craftiness over athleticism. You don't need to be faster or taller or quicker than the other team- you just need to be skilled with the disc, disciplined, and know how to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.
    
    Handlers in a zone need to be quick and have good breakmark throws- or at least have a very quick release so that they get rid of the disc before the mark can adjust. They don't necessarily need to have great hucks, since it's rare that your hucking opportunities will come from behind the cup. They do need to have great chemistry and experience working together, so they can advance the disc quickly.
    
    Many teams have begun implementing a 2 handler zone O. The idea behind having 2 handlers is that you're more likely to have a numbers mismatch downfield (since most zone D's have at least 3 people in the cup). With 2 handlers behind the cup, your options are to either swing the disc around to a wing (where the wing is acting like a more traditional 3rd handler), or try to advance the disc through the cup. One way of getting through the cup is to have a handler "crash" the cup (run up into the cup and catch the disc inside the cup, preferably right in front of one of the other cup members). If the handler catches the disc in this position, it is easier to throw through the cup since the shortened distance between the thrower and the cup means there's less time and range for the cup to be able to intercept those throws.
    
    Once your handlers are able to reliably get the disc through the cup, the next step is to make sure they have open targets to hit in the small window of time they might have to get their throw off. The key to this is the numbers mismatch. If you try to make sure that you arrange your upfield players in such a way as to have a numbers mismatch in the "layer" of players directly behind the cup, you will increase your chances of being able to capitalize on that numbers mismatch (for example, by having 2 poppers being guarded by 1 short deep).
    
    Now if you have handlers that can get the disc through the cup and receivers that are open behind the cup, the next step is to capitalize on having broken the zone: keep the disc moving so that the cup can't re-form around you (give-and-go's, quick short passes), and look for long strikes. This is where your huckers come in- if you can afford to put a long thrower in the popper position, they'll be in a much better position to get a long throw off since they won't have a cup around them. Typically you'll find that the deep strikes are more effective from the wings than from the deep position, since the deep is often already being guarded by the defensive deep-deep. The offensive deep is actually in a great position to cut in for a popper, since the defensive deep-deep is unlikely to follow them in (and if they do, well, there go the wings...!).
    
    For a zone offense to be effective, the disc must be kept moving. Any stagnation allows the defense to set up, take stock of where the threats are, and regain the advantage. If you keep the disc moving, even if it's just with short easy throws, you will prevent the defense from being able to adapt quickly enough and will eventually find the holes in their formation.
     
  • PERI KURSHAN
• Wings & Poppers
  
  
  
  • My college team always seemed to be able to only field 5 good zone offense players. The last two players on the line were usually assigned to play the wing position—that is, the popper responsible for making cuts to the sideline when the handlers swung the disc around. As a result, I never really appreciated how important the wing position is to an effective zone offense until I started playing club. In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to say that good wing players can do more to make a zone offense run smoothly than any other position.
    
    All zone defenses are designed to make the offense throw a lot of completed passes. They do this by committing defenders to cutting lanes around the thrower. So in theory, when the handlers swing the disc quickly to the other side of the field there wont be enough defenders to cover the new cutting lanes. This is when a wing player with excellent timing can have the biggest impact. By this time, the wing should have set up a cut to the sideline for decent yardage. The wing, if open, should receive a pass from the thrower quite close to the sideline. If covered, the wing has succeeded in drawing one of the only defenders on that side of the field all the way to the sideline. This is important because there should now be a huge open throwing lane behind that defender which can be filled by someone else. No other zone offense position can do as much to open up cutting and throwing lanes.
    
    The key to playing the wing position effectively is timing. When disc gets swung around the handler set to the off-side handler, he or she will only have one or two seconds to make an up-field throw before the zone defense adjusts. The wing must have already set up and made a strong cut to the sideline so when the handler turns upfield he or she sees either an open wing or a wide open throwing lane towards the middle of the field.
    
    A team that consistently gets these types of opportunities to move the disc upfield will have much more success against a zone defense.
     
  • RYAN MORGAN
• Three Points
  
  
  
  • Three points about zone offense that are usually true:
    1. Your poppers have to identify the zone they are playing against and adjust their positioning/movement accordingly. Handlers must do the same and adjust their throws.
    2. Keep moving. It's easy for deeps and wings to start standing and watching. Even if your zone offense calls for you as the deep O threat to go to the back of the endzone, move around there.
    Let the deeps on D see you moving. You don't have to sprint, but you can't stand. Zone defenders want to keep track of what's going on. Give them more to keep track of.
    3. Never throw to someone backpedaling and don't turn your back to the play. For some players this will seem obvious, but lots of people playing zone O do both.
    
     
  • TED MUNTER
• The Jailbreak
  
  
  
  • For most zones, the vulnerable spot is ten yards behind the cup (or front wall). To get there you can go through the cup, over the cup, or around the cup. Through and over involve risk. Around requires patience and planned cuts. Ideally after the swing, before the cup is reset, the handler has two cutters available for the next throw, one a continuation to the line and the other a throw to the middle. Most zones will stop the continuation, force you to throw back to the middle, and hope the cup will get there to stop or defend that throw. As the cup tires, the window for throws to the middle opens. Once the disc is behind the cup, that player (a popper) should have continuation cuts to the middle of the field. These come from the other popper or the wings. Any reasonable throw, even for a minimal gain, should be thrown. Each throw forces the scrambling defense to readjust yet again. The throw to the middle, and the resulting jailbreak, is the most desirable outcome of the swing, and the best way to beat a zone.
    
    If offensive players hang out too deep, they will miss the continuation cut after the swing, and more importantly, they will miss the jailbreak. If these players stay nearer to the disc, they will draw the deep defender in and, when the jail break happens, a cutter can blow by the deep D for an easier huck.
    
    I would practice zone starting with a swing and with the cup out of position. Practice splitting the D after the swing and flooding the middle. This will help your offense learn to coordinate their jailbreaks and also teach the defense to recover after a swing.
     
  • CHARLIE REZNIKOFF
• Effective Practice For Zone
  
  
  
  • Zone offense is very difficult to simulate in practice. The skills necessary for zone are often quite different than for man (offense and defense). For zone O, you need to practice vision, patience and confidence which are quite difficult to simulate. For the most part, we usually teach zone O by drawing it up on a white board, going over it on the field and then doing LOTS of 5/10-pulls sometimes stopping the point to reposition people, especially in the early parts of the year. Handlers can simulate zone offense by playing against different types of partial defenses (3-person or 4-person cups, box and 1, etc.) in small sided games where they just try to advance the disc. Poppers can be added to increase the reality factor in these small-sided games (we often play 5 on 3 or 4).
    
    I prefer having 2 handlers attack 4-person cups and 3 attack 3-person cups. This is not to say that they can't both work for both defenses, but 2 handlers can easily attack the middle (where the weakness is in 4-person cups) and 3 can more easily and quickly swing to attack the sides which tend to be weaker in 3-person cups. Handlers and poppers should be the first to realize what type of zone is being played and can thus most easily adjust to the formation.
    
    Deeps in zone offense tend to hang out and wait for things to happen around them. To a certain extent this is true—they should never just move around blindly. However, deep movement can not only open throws to these deep cutters, but can make poppers' lives much easier by drawing short-deep and deep-deep defenders away from their space. Deep cutters should try to make the deep deep choose between them by staying in or out and staying left or right. They should definitely switch based on where the disc is and make real cuts but they should never be on the same side of the field or both be under/deep.
     
  • MIRANDA ROTH
• Personal Fundamentals Of Zone O
  
  
  
  • I'll write here about the fundamentals of good zone O. These will, I hope, reveal some underlying principles that any team can apply to its specific strategy/terminology, and to specific situations (e.g., how to deal with a sideline trip). I'll rely on my co-contributors to address those specifics in detail, and read with interest!
    
    So, getting down to basics...
    
    To figure out how our zone offense should work, we should think about what makes good zone defense successful. Most zone defenses have two main goals. First, they want to make our offense throw lots of passes. (If we're forced to throw 100 passes with a 99% completion rate, that equals a turnover.) Most zone defense do this by leaving certain easy passes to the backfield or sideline uncovered, and pressuring the middle of the field with extra defenders. Second, the defense wants to put itself in position to make a play if and when we try something difficult (a hammer, huck, or needle-threading pass through the cup). *
    
    The key to beating most zone defenses, then, is to create openings in the middle of the field by getting the defense out of position, and then to exploit each opening as much as possible. How do we make that happen? A few principles:
    
    1. Philosophy. We do NOT want to "dump-swing all day." That's exactly what the defense wants. If/when we dump-swing, the purpose is to create and exploit openings in the middle of the field. Zone O should not be "chilly." It should be chracterized by two maxims. First, from John Wooden: "Be quick, but don't hurry." Second: Attack the middle, attack the middle, attack the middle.
    
    2. Setup. Different teams will use different terminology and organize their handlers differently, but the best offenses have fewer players at the line of scrimmage than the defense. Defenses usually have 3-4 defenders within 10 yards of scrimmage. The most efficient offenses have 2 (including thrower), maybe 3 (in a trap situation) -- just enough handlers to make sure we reset the stall count and change the side-to-side positioning of the disc. This gives us more players downfield, which lets us do two important things. First, we spread the defense: we are more likely to create holes in the middle if our downfield O players outnumber the downfield D, and if they are spreading the field deep and wide. Second: once we create a hole in the middle, we have a better chance of turning a fast break if the O outnumbers the D.
    
    3. Handler attack. In efficient zone offenses, it's rarely the handlers who gain the yards. The purpose of handler attack is to create yardage-gaining situations (e.g., fast breaks) for the downfield players. I've seen three basic methods of handler attack, which different teams combine in different proportions. The most familiar (and, in my opinion, least reliable) is the "dump-swing." The other two are the "chisel" and the overhead. For the sake of example, let's say we're playing against a 3-person cup zone...
    • a. With the "chisel," a handler, usually set up in the backfield, cuts towards the middle-middle and receives a short flip pass. His momentum carries him right up to the middle-middle, at which point he has only one defender (rather than an entire cup) between him and the middle of the field. A well timed cut (or combination of cuts) from the popper(s), and the handler is only a pivot away from delivering the disc beyond the cup, into the middle of the field.
    • b. With the overhead, a handler delivers a hammer, blade, or scoober to a space beyond the cup. High-percentage overhead passes are thrown to a space in front of the intended receiver, when his closest defender is behind him. (As a hammer receiver, I want to be stepping towards the disc, never backpedaling or standing still.) Offenses generate opportunities for high-percentage overheads both (a) by attacking the middle effectively "on the ground," (e.g., by chiseling) thereby drawing the defense close to the disc, and (b) by keeping the field spread deep and wide with offensive players even after the defense clamps. This last point is key: when the defense collapses on the disc, it becomes even more important to spread your O players.
    
    
    4. Downfield attack. Regardless of your specific strategy, there are three main responsibilities that your downfield O players have to fulfill. a. Spread deep. b. Spread wide. c. Attack the middle. Three general principles should govern downfield O players in almost any zone O:
    • a. Set up for a cut when the disc is still, cut when the disc is moving. Defensive holes open when the disc moves and the defense is repositioning. This is when you're going to get open. In downfield zone O, you are rarely cutting for the person with the disc. You should be cutting for your thrower before s/he receives the disc.
    • b. 95% of good hucks in zone O happen off of swings. When the disc swings, deep spreaders should cut deep, ideally from the opposite side of the field. Otherwise, deep spreaders should threaten deep space just enough to get open for a continuation pass, once the disc breaks into the middle.
    • c. Once the disc breaks past the first layer of defense, find the best angle to cut TOWARDS the disc. Even if you're a deep, take a few hard steps away, then come underneath. (The deepest defender will give up the underneath cut 90% of the time.) If the disc breaks into the middle of the field, then it's the middle we should attack, from as many angles as possible.
    
    
    * A third goal of good zone defenses is to trick you into thinking something is open, and then suddenly take it away when you've already made a fateful choice. This is an important thing to be aware of. (For example, it highlights the importance of throwing fakes, which can help reveal the defense's tricks.) But it doesn't affect the main principles of zone O setup.
     
  • BEN VAN HEUVELEN