Before we get into the depths of this offense, let me stress the importance of one thing in particular. Patience. The side stack offense is essentially one isolation play after the next. Unless you are the isolated then your mantra should be "When in doubt, chill out". The isolated cutter needs to be given time to work through his or her progressions before the next cutter activates.
This is how you want to set up the side stack offense when the disc is in the middle of the field. Both the open and break side handlers should be slightly the disc. This will force their defender to play in on them and thus leave throwing lanes open for the center handler. Next, notice that the stack is set very shallow. Conventional wisdom would say to set the stack 10-15 yards down field from the disc like a normal stack, but this offense operates much differently than that. By allowing the stack to sag in towards the handlers you are opening up the deep space for the iso-cutter. If that cutter goes deep then the handlers have an easier job of putting it to space for the cutter to run into as opposed to a 50/50 huck.
This offense works by the iso-cutter beating his or her man on split second decisions. The goal of this cutter is to get their defender off balance, out of position, or not looking. The second the iso-cutter notices any of these things is the time he or she should exploit that and make a play to space. This means that cuts always need to be hard and deliberate. No defender will bite on a cut that is being taken at half speed. To start, get yourself out into space and your defender on their heels. If your defender isn't backpedaling then they will turn their hips either up or down field. Your first cut should go the opposite direction of that (eg defenders hips facing more up-field then you cut in towards the disc).
If you can get a defender to sell out on defending the under then you have just won the entire deep space for yourself.
Boom, huge yardage gain.
Let's reset.
This time the defender has completely sold out on taking away the deep and the under is wide open.
Easy yards.
Now, let's reset and look at what should happen if there is a poach on a deep cut.
This offense lends itself to being riddled with poaches from the defense. No fret, just remember your mantra: "When in doubt, chill out." If your man leaves you in the stack to sell out on taking away the deep look then that under space is even more open than it was before. The cutter should notice this and utilize this space. If they do, and the poached defender bites to hard instead of re-committing marking his offender, then take the open space.
This is not a situation that will happen all the time, but is really meant to show that patience will pay off in this offense and that you don't need to rush anything. Take your time, allow plays to develop, and flow off of what the defense gives you.
When it does however.. Boom, huge yardage gain.
Let's reset.
Now, let's run this down the field with unders in flow to see how that should look. First, the deep cut.
The iso-cutter has recognized that the defender has completely sold out on taking away the deep look. That means that he or she has completely turned up field and is in an all-out sprint to beat the iso to the deep space. Upon noticing this the iso-cutter immediately changes directions and receives the under.
Now, remember the mantra "When in doubt, chill out". Again conventional wisdom would say to rush down the field and make continuation cuts. Stop, you're clogging space. The only person who should be doing anything more than a jog is the next iso-cutter. This person is the cutter in the back of the stack and activates ONLY once the disc is in the air or the cutter is very clearly in the process of clearing back to the stack. Since the previous iso now has the disc, the next iso can activate.
The rest of the team needs to jog, not run, to the respective positions. The stack is still sagged under, the handlers are still behind the disc, and the iso has started his or her cuts from slightly breakside of the disc. From here you will work the offense the same as you did from the brick mark. Handlers need to give the cutter with the disc plenty of time to work with the iso-cutter to advance the disc.
The under and the deep look were covered and the handler looks both off.
From here the iso will clear to the stack and the next in line will activate. Additionally, the disc will need to be moved at this point as stall is likely around 7-8. One thing that has not been mentioned thus far is that swings, and loses of yards, are completely acceptable in this offense. The iso-cutters need as much time as possible to setup their cuts and get open. Therefore, swinging is going to happen.. a lot.
The defender who is trailing the previous iso-cutter notices that the new iso is streaking deep and peels off to help take away that look. The now poached offender still needs to get back to the stack. His or her time for iso-cutting is over and needs to leave the space clear for the current iso.
The iso comes in for the easy under and the poach defender begins to peel off to go back to the poached cutter.
The offense slowly marches up the field as the next iso-cutter now activates and works to shake the defender.
As the deep cut is made there is a slight shift in the offense to account for the changes.
The under is also looked off as it is covered and the near center handler begins to activate to receive the swing.
The swing is made and the offense begins to adjust for the loss in yards. Handlers shift back behind the disc, the previous iso clears to the stack, and the next iso starts working towards the middle of the field.
Now, several plays later, we are back in the original formation.
The iso-cutter streaks deep and takes with a poaching defender.
Upon recognizing this the iso changes directions and cuts under to receive the disc. The offense moves forward as the disc is in the air.
The still poached cutter in the back of the stack now streaks down field to receive the huck and the rest of the offense continues to follow the play.
Since we are on the goal line the cutter has initiate the #Hashtag endzone offense.
The disc is swung to the open sideline.
The cutter makes the proper O2 strike and leaves their winded poach playing defender in the dust for an easy score. That is our ideal offensive possession.
Let's reset and talk about a poach in the middle of the under lane. After a while it's not hard for teams to pick up on what you're doing and to simply just throw people into the lanes to take up space. If this is done by the defense throwing in an under poach then the offense beats this by splitting the defender.
When you split the defender, this person is forced to chose one person or the other. Unless these cuts are done improperly, there is no way that one person can cover two cuts under.
The defender bites on one of the cutter and the handler gets it to the other. From there you go back to flow . When in flow it's hard for teams to setup any proper poach. This will only happen if the defense is able to stall the offense long enough for someone to step away from their man and poach the lane. Obviously you would just do this again if need be.
Since most of this will come off a set play then let's cover a flood play that will allow you to disguise your offense when coming in off a pull on an O-line point.
The disguise is a ho-stack.
When the mark has shown what the force will be, which in this case is flick, the play will initiate. The first cut is for the two open-side cutters (3 & 4) to go under, the first cutter on the break (2) will go deep, and the cutter on the far break side (1) will slowly (really walking here is fine) backwards along the line.
Next, the deep cut (the first iso in the side stack) will go under. The 2 open side handlers will clear to the front of the side stack, and the far break side cutter will be in the back of the stack. Should these cutters clear fast enough to get their defender to stay tight then the first iso should be open. The offense is now in the side stack and can continue with flow.
This is another one of the ways to disguise a side stack. It starts by setting up in a vert with the break side handler acting as the shake.
Once the force has been determined (it is flick), then the play will begin with the shake which will clear to the sideline to set the side stack. This will simultaneously initiate the next three cutters to clear (flood) with the shake. Additionally, the last in the stack will bust deep as if going for a huck (or actually going for one if his or her defender gets caught sleeping.
Now that the stack has flooded to the side of the field, the cutter who went deep should come hard under. If both cuts are done with intensity then the defender should have gotten burned and left in the dust. The under should be wide open and the side stack should be able to initiate flow.