Ideally before every pull, an offense will discuss their strategy and assign roles in the event that a defense puts on a zone. As the disc is being pulled, pay attention to the formation of the defenders as they run down the field. Are they clumping together into groups? Can you tell if anyone or no one has been assigned to you specifically? Try changing your route to see if anyone on the defense is adjusting. Other than being prepared, the key to breaking any zone is two fold. The first is to keep the disc in motion, in order to catch the defense out of position during a transition or simply tire out the defense. The second is to flood an area of the field in order to create a two on one scenario.
Here's a standard 3-3-1 zone formation. Lets first focus on the handler movements. The best way for handlers to keep the disc in motion is to constantly...
dump and...
swing the disc. Swinging the disc to the break side is your best case scenario. Ideally you are able to throw the disc faster than the defense can run across the field. If a player doesn't have a mark, they have a full range of throws available to them, which broadens the throwing lanes and makes more of their teammates a threat. Ideally your teammates have anticipated this disc movement and have already make corresponding continuation cuts.
Even if no one on offense moved, and the defense fully caught up with the disc, the handlers should have a clear opportunity to...
swing the disc back to the force side of the field.
this movement alone, without the assistance of your downfield cutters, will be enough to tire out the cup and create huge throwing lanes.
So let's let the defense catch up, and start talking about what the cutters should be doing. The cutters break themselves into 2 groups: "Poppers" in the middle (#5 and #6) and "Pistons" / "Wings" (#4 and #7) on the force and break sidelines.
For the sake of demonstration purposes I am going to create a little more space between the cup and the mid-mid, to zoom in on the space and lanes that the poppers will occupy Realistically #2 and #3 in the cup will still be slightly more than 10 feet away from the handler.
The poppers will essentially alternate cuts into and out (pop in / pop out) of the space between 2 and 3 in the cup.
You can reset back to the side from where you started, so that you do not cut off the other poppers movements. Or continue to drift to the side, but don't just sit in one spot. As you clear, always try to draw at least one defender. This will either create more lanes for throwing or opportunities for continuations.
Ideally a throw to a popper will move the disc behind the cup, but even if they have to crash all the way in to the handler, it at least allows for a reset of the stall count and allows the handlers space to maneuver for a dump swing opportunity.
The goal is to create an opportunities for down field continuations looks, which can result in the cup being left behind.
If the continuation isn't immediately there,
then dump back to the handler before the cup clamps down on you.
immediately clear out to create space for the other popper.
Again, look for your other popper or wings, if there are immediately open, then hit them
but do not hang out with the disc, we need you to be a threat as a continuation or to break up the cup.
Dump it back to the handlers early in the stall count and clear out.
While the poppers make small popping movements, the wings act like pistons, making larger deep and under cuts along their side line.
The key is to time your in cut for when the disc is moving to your side of the field, which means prior to that point in time you have already faded deep.
The break side wing should not come all the way in unless the disc has already swung to their side of the field. You need that space to be open to fill on a swing, or to be down field for a continuation from a popper or the other wing.
If the disc moves to a popper, you should ideally have a two on one situation where the wing defender has to pick either the popper or the poston.
The same is true if the disc is swung to the handler instead
the wing should not be able to cover both players at the same time. The defense has to perfectly react to stop this.
Let's reset the disc.
On the swing, the wing has to cut off the piston, the chaser in the cup has to cut off the popper, and the mid-mid has to stop the other popper.
But the offense doesn't have to beat the defense on every throw. The offense has the advantage of waiting until the defense makes a mistake, reacts too slowly, or simply tires out chasing the disc.
The break side strategy is similar to the force side. If the popper gets the disc they are looking for their other popper or the piston.
Otherwise...
If the disc is dumped...
then swung, hopefully the timing works out to flood that side of the field, or catch the deep off guard by hitting the other wing way down field.