One of the most important fundamental defensive strategies is quadrant defense. In Ultimate, this is mostly used in man defense as opposed to zone defense. This type of defensive strategy is also used in other sports like soccer, football, and basketball.
The quadrant defense tactic is used primarily during the one vs one match ups between the offense and defense.
When on defense, divide the field up into a quadrant or into an X-Y graph with the offence being the origin (0,0). In this example, D1 is defending against C1 so D1 imagines the origin of the quadrant to wherever C1 is.
The quadrant is split up into 4 parts, where quadrants 1 and 2 are the deep options and quadrants 3 and 4 are the in-cut options. Remember to note that in this scenario, quadrants 1 and 3 are the break side options for C1 and quadrants 2 and 4 are the open side options for C1. This is due to the fact that defender 4 is forcing H1 flick.
If defender 4 is forcing H1 backhand, then quadrants 1 and 3 will be the open side option and quadrants 2 and 4 will be the break side options for C1.
Depending on how the defense wants to set up or depending on the specific match up, the defenders will place themselves accordingly in the quadrants.
In the example of forcing backhand, D1 has to think what the most threatening thing C1 can do. In this case, C1 can go to the open side (quadrants 1 and 3) so D1 needs to position themselves in either quadrant. If the team wants to prevent the in-cuts, then D1 needs to set themselves up to be between the disc and C1. In this case, they will set themselves up in quadrant 3.
If the defense knows that H1 is very good at sending it deep or if C1 is MUCH FASTER than D1, then D1 can position themselves behind C1 so that C1 is between D1 and the disc. In this case, D1 will position themselves in quadrant 1. This will help prevent H1 from throwing the disc deep as D1 now has a better chance of getting the disc. Note that D1 is still on the open side because that side is still the most threatening side that C1 can run to.
If defender 4 is forcing flick, then D1 should go to either quadrant 2 or quadrant 4 as those quadrants are the most threatening options for C1 to run to. If the team does not want C1 to get the in-cuts, then D1 will position themselves in quadrant 4 so that they are between C1 and the disc.
If D1 knows that C1 is much faster or that H1 can throw the disc deep, then they will want to move to quadrant 4 as they have a better chance of defending D1 from the disc. This means that they are behind C1 or that they put C1 between themselves and the disc.
Positioning is key in quadrant defense and knowing how fast C1 can run is very important to how D1 positions themselves in the quadrant. It allows D1 to comfortably take a couple of steps away from C1 when defending them. Knowing how fast C1 is helps determine how many steps D1 should be away from C1 before they can not defend anymore.