set up: important notes from our zone now: 3 man cup to stop close throws, middle middle to stop mid range throws (scoobers and hammers), deep deep to stop deep throws, walls (the most important part of defense) to stop the up line breaks. offense, we have normal set up
Offence like normal handlers are going to swing disc between each other to run down the cup on open side the handler stands a few yards ahead of handler with the disc in order to get yards when swinging. Defense, cup stays in front of disc at all times, have to ready after initial swing to get swung back .
as so important tips: anyone in the cup can start stalling as long the mark picks it up after stall 3 or 4 (nonwritten rule) only the top cup (2) should move in when a popper comes in, the wall (4) should be able to pick up a over the top scoober if it happens. overall defend the handlers, dont worry about anyone else.
( going to be a few steps) popping/midmid: offense: in mid field; its 2v1, use that to your advantage. the best poppers i have ever seen are able to strech the midmid and the deep deep to create a scoober void that is very hard to defend, the process is constantly moving the mid in and the deep out like so
then keeping that space like so (hustle not speed is key to popping)
this has to happen within the first 5 seconds of the disc being in. with that space me and few others(tommy, cody, more i will teach later) will be able to throw a scoober within the void
dispite what is normally said about the scoober, this is the BEST throw against zone, instant hammer and it isnt affected by wind. that being said it is easy to throw a direct but floatly scoob into the path of the popper running from the deep side.
Deep/Walls(D)/Wings(O): deep is simple, dont let anyone behind you, but it requires very good defense by the walls inorder to protect the down field. Walls need to play man defense, what screws the down field so often is the wall will guard the under leaving the deep having to guard a popper and another wing. a good wall will allow the wing to get the under, putting a not as solid thrower on the line surrounded by now 4 people (the handlers WILL be behind the wing so cup mark has to guard back, top does swing, outside is top and wall is outside (vid will show what i mean)). the other wall in the meantime should inbetween the middle handler and the mid mid, while the mid mid is in the edge scoober void and the deep deep is cutting off the deep popper and the other wing (going to take a few steps to show all the development).
how it should turn out
this will create a trap forcing the wing to make a poor throw. the wall however (6) is responsible for any across the field throw, this a very unlikely throw but the right throw is a hammer across the field in which case the other wall has to be ready to defend incase
as for offense: the first thing i learned from is when a wing, when the disc is on your side run to it, when it is on the opposite, run deep, opening the fields for poppers is important in order to break the cup and crumble the defense.
like so...
just running back and forth puts pressure on the deep deep to defend both popper going deep and wing that can misplace the deep
if the wing gets the disc on the wall, the best throw is across the field hammer but a easier throw is to break the mark getting the disc to the handler and move away from the sideline
the best way to play zone offense is to create space and exploit mismatched AREAS on the field, as for defense, trapping and forcing the offense to make poor throws is the key. another note ive learned from some pros is zone can be played as man defense (of course cup isnt man) zone however makes it possible to trap creating 3-4v1 rather than 1v1 man