Step 1

Red is pulling to blue, who will be running a vertical stack on offense.

Step 2

A typical vertical stack consists of 3 handlers alongside the disc, and 4 cutters down field in a vertical line.

Step 3

This is as opposed to a horizontal stack, where the cutters stack horizontally across the field as such.

Step 4

In a vertical stack, cuts will either come from the front or the back of the stack

Step 5

Here is a cut from the front, closest to the handlers.

Step 6

Next you will see a cut from the back

Step 7

The back, being the furthest from the handlers.

Step 8

Now defensively, a team can run zone or man (one on one) coverage against any offense. For the first half of league play, teams are prohibited from playing zone in order to give new players a chance to adjust to the basics first.

Step 9

To simplify, we will reduce the number of players on both sides to 2.

Step 10

A defender has 4 choices about how they match up in man coverage. Right side.

Step 11

Left Side.

Step 12

Front.

Step 13

Back. Of course, you can also combine front / back with a side, but you get the point. Whatever the decision, the defender is taking something away at the expense of giving something up.

Step 14

In this case, the defender is giving the cutter the advantage to take the initial under cut. Defense under these conditions is next to impossible since you can't be on all sides of a player all at once.

Step 15

In order to give the defense a fighting chance, the person marking the disc (the mark) will attempt to restrict half of the throws. This allows the downfield defender to stand on the opposite side of the field. In this situation the mark will be forcing the handler to throw only to the right side of the field. This allows the defender to stand on the right side and give up the initial cut to the left side of the field.

Step 16

As you can see here, the handler cannot make the throw to the left side of the field.

Step 17

The handler can only throw to the right side of the field. So the defender just needs to stay to the right side of the cutter. Whether that is to defend against a deep cut.

Step 18

Or to defend against shallow cut.

Step 19

It is vital for the mark to do their job and not get faked out of position.

Step 20

Otherwise it will be impossible for downfield defenders to stop the disc from advancing. If the handler succeeds in making a throw opposite to the force side, it is called a break.

Step 21

Just a single break can be devastating, and it will inevitably happen if we are tired, over aggressive, or simply not paying attention.

Step 22

If the mark gets broken...

Step 23

The whole team is caught off guard and might not be able to recover.

Step 24

Especially if the other team has good continuation cut flow like this

Step 25

and this

Step 26

and this

Step 27

So the first cardinal rule of defense is to know your force and line up accordingly. This is what it looks like if we are forcing the right side of the field. The defense is daring the mark to try and throw to the right where all of the defenders have lined up.

Step 28

This is what it looks like if the force was on the opposite, left side of the field. Because left and right are relative terms depending on where a person is facing, we just different terms of home and away, which is absolute. The home side, is the side of the field where you place all your gear and where your player stays when they are not on the field. The other side is the away side.

Step 29

The challenge is remembering that where the mark stands and where the down field defenders stand is opposite. If you are the mark, you are forcing them to throw to that side, so make sure it is open and stand on the opposite side.

Step 30

If you are defending down field, we are forcing them to throw to that side, so stand on the force side to begin with to take it away from the cutter.

Step 31