The purpose of a zone defense scheme is to take away as much of the field as possible, forcing only horizontal throws in the direction the defense dictates until a trap can be set up on the sideline. As a rule of thumb, teams generally force with the wind (offense gets easy throws with the force, but must throw into the wind to break the trap) or force to a weaker handler (inexperienced player must repeatedly break the trap). <br> <br> In this scenario, Red is on defense, and plans to run a basic three-man cup.
The pull is off, and received in the middle of the field. Red sets up their zone. Here's a rundown of the seven positions: <br> <br> Roles: <br> Player 1 (the Mark, the One): Marks the player with the disc, and issues the stall count. Focuses on preventing behind dumps and horizontal breaks. Should be a strong marker, and understand the importance of not getting broken. <br> <br> Player 2 (the Middle, the Crux, the Two): Tries to be as wide and as big as possible, forcing the thrower to go over the cup and not through it. Responsible for cutting off poppers who try to break into the cup for short resets. This person should be the tallest/have the widest wingspan in the cup. <br> <br> Player 3 (the Tail, the Three): Tries to be as wide as possible, forcing the thrower to go across to the force side handler and not upfield. <br> <br> Player 4 (the Break Side Wing): When the disc is on their side, working to cover poppers and deeps cutting into his/her territory. When the disc is on the far side of the field (force side), looking to break up inverts/floaty throws to the break side, and also possibly pushing forward to disrupt arounds to the break side handler. <br> <br> Player 5 (the Force Side Wing): When the disc is on their side, covering poppers and deeps cutting into his/er territory. When the disc is on the far side of the field (break side), looking to prevent easy, long swings back to their side of the field. <br> <br> Player 6 (the Middle-Middle. the Short Deep): Covers poppers as needed across the field as needed; *not* limited to the middle of the field, but should move back and forth across the field with the disc and the cup. Should watch for scoobers over the middle, and should call crashers for the middle player in the cup. <br> <br> Player 7 (the Deep, the Monster): Responsible for contesting hucks and upfield hammers. This person must be *vocal*, directing the wings and short deep in and out as threats develop. Also responsible for calling the switch to a man defense as play nears the end zone.
Here, we see the middle handler (Blue 2) takes the easy throw to the force side handler (Blue 3). This is the throw that the defense wants, because it allows them to set up their sideline trap. <br> <br> Player 5 (force side wing) positions to prevent any upline throws while the cup moves over to set the sideline trap.
Roles in the Sideline Trap: <br> Player 1 & Player 2: The first two in the cup are trying as hard as possible to prevent a break or an easy dump. The Mark (Player 1) should almost be playing behind the person with the disc to prevent the easy dump. The Crux (Player 2) is still coming into the cup with any poppers who try to crash for an easy reset. <br> <br> Player 3: The last person in the cup should essentially be standing on the sideline, trying to be as big as possible to prevent any upline throws. <br> <br> Player 5: The force side wing is helping to prevent an upline/upfield through by covering offensive poppers and deeps as needed. <br> <br> Player 4 & Player 6: The break side wing and the short deep move up to contest any throws behind the cup. The break side wing (Player 4) should be looking for hammers coming into his/her space and potentially cutting off around throws to the break side handler. The short deep (Player 6) should be looking for inverts coming into his/her space, and potentially cutting off around throws to the middle handler. The short deep should also still be calling out crashers for the middle cup player. <br> <br> Player 7: The Deep is still relaying threats to the wings and the short deep, and is mostly concerned with contesting either long throws up the sideline or big hammers to the break side. He/she can direct wings back to help as needed.
Here's a look at an uncontested crash resulting in an easy reset for the offense. It doesn't seem like much…
...but the resulting adjustments the defense has to make open up some opportunities for the offense to break the trap: in this case, a short over-the-top to the popper (Blue 4) in the middle of the field, or an easier dump back to the force side handler (Blue 3).
Resetting to the sideline trap, we can look at a contested crash by Player 2 (the Crux).
Assume Player 6 (the short deep) calls the crash, and Player 2 (the Crux) is able to cut off the crashing popper.
The offense's options become limited, and the stall count is still climbing; the best bet is likely to try to dump directly back to the middle handler, but even if successful, the offensive handlers will be out of position. and not utilizing the width of the field.
Say the offense successfully dumps the disc…
...and is able to move it back across the field. <br> <br>This should be expected against a good set of handlers, and it can lead to large gains on the break side if the defense does not react quickly. <br> <br> Player 4 (the break side wing) and Player 6 (the short deep) should position themselves to prevent any upfield continuations to poppers or deeps. This allows the cup time to catch up to the disc…
... and start pressuring the thrower once more.
Now say the offense finds a hole in the zone and achieves a decent upfield gain.
Players 4-7 (the wings, the short deep, and the deep) must move back immediately, and try to prevent any upfield continuations, giv-and-gos, or hucks. The idea is to try to take away all further throwing options until the cup can catch up to the disc.
The offensive player with the disc (Blue Player 5, in this case) will likely have an open throw to a handler, but as long as the disc does not move further upfield and the cup has time to catch up, that's okay. Stopping the upfield throws gives the defense the chance to reset, and start to work on setting the sideline trap again.
Zone is all about patience; don't get frustrated if the disc is goes back and forth across the field multiple times without getting a turn; the idea is to make the offense throw the disc as many times as possible, increasing the chance that they'll make an error or take an unnecessary risk. Bide your time, and take advantage when the time comes! <br> <br> That's a look at your basic three-man cup zone; hope it helps!