Here, we have our offense and defense set up. <br><br> Zone offense has 3 handlers, and a zone defense has a cup that follows the person with the disc. This cup is made up of a mark (who always marks the dischandler) and a 2 man wall.
Main goal of a zone offense: <b> Swing Often! </b> <br><br> The more you swing, the harder it is for the defense to keep up, and it begins to break apart.
Big goal for a zone defense: <b> Prevent the Swing! </b> <br><br> As a mark, never let the handler break you and throw to the breakside, only let him throw to the open side. When you run to mark the handler who just got swung to, run toward him in a way that prevents further swings; use your body to clog the throwing lane!
Here, the handler is in a very difficult situation. <b> The cup member on the sideline (#3 in this case) steps back to prevent a throw that curves out and comes back in. The mark forces the handler downfield slightly more than before. </b> <i> This is called a trap. </i> The handler's only choices are to throw over/through the cup or swing breakside.
The handler's first priority should be to make the breakside throw and swing the disc. This opens up the field to the center handler who can either swing it again or make a downfield throw.
The easiest downfield throw for the handler is to one of the <b> poppers. </b> They are closer to the handler than the wings are, and their motion allows them to be ready to cut in or out for the continuation at any time.
<b> Popper Motion:</b><br> The poppers are designed to crash through the cup and provide the handler with easy, short throws to reset the stall count.
While one popper is coming into the cup, the other one should be coming out. They operate like pistons in an engine. Both poppers should <b>never</b> be crashing the cup at the same time.
The poppers can enter the cup from any side/opening they please, however it usually makes sense to enter from either between the two cup members or between the mark and the cup.
<b>The Short Deep needs to tell the cup when and where poppers are crashing so that they can defend the poppers. "Crash" calls are important.</b> When the poppers are crashing, it is important that the cup knows so that they can move their bodies to block any throws to the poppers or, even better, prevent the poppers from entering the cup in the first place.
The cup is responsible for defending crashing poppers, but they shouldn't move too far from their designated positions when defending a crash because that opens up space for the handler to make an easy downfield throw.
When the disc is swung, the popper closest to the swing side should cut toward the sideline on that side and only slightly in. The other popper should be cutting toward the same sideline, but slightly downfield.
If executed correctly, the popper who cut closer to the swing can receive the disc.
Now, the popper who just received the disc can continue downfield to the other popper. <b> Zone offense is all about looking for easy continuation like this.</b>
Continuation down the field relies on the wings as well as the poppers.
<b>Wing Motion:</b><br> If you're a wing and the disc is on your side of the field, you should be cutting in and close to the handler. If the disc is on the opposite side of the field from you, you should be cutting deep. If the disc is in the center, you should be ready for a swing and ready to cut in or out.
Here, the disc is swung to the right side of the field, so the wing on that side cuts in to provide a continuation cut. The wing on the other side cuts deep.
When the disc returns to the center, the wings should return, roughly, to their original spot and distance from the handlers.
If the disc starts moving downfield with momentum, cutters on offense should be making <b>checkmark</b> √ cuts out and then in to lose their defender and provide the dischandler with an easy continuation throw.
Here, the popper on the right side of the field cut in and got the disc, so the other popper made a quick cut out. He then makes a slightly longer cut toward the popper, looking for the continuation. As he does this, the wing on that side of the field makes a quick cut out as well.
The continuation was successful. The first popper got the disc and the other one made a quick cut out and then cut under. While this was happening, the wing on that side of the field cut out, and now that the 2nd popper has an easy look to him, that wing can cut in. The other wing now cuts out.
The wing on the right side of the field now receives the disc from the popper, continuing the momentum. The wing who just received the disc looks for the other wing, as he should be cutting in and looking for even more continuation.