Thoughts.

Continuing in my UCPC seminar review, Ben Wiggins’ seminar on marking.

It was an interesting seminar–definitely different from what I was anticipating; instead of perhaps an endorsement of well-known marking strategies, or a long list of little tips, Wiggins goes for the marking jugular, so to speak, with a few solid to useful ideas and a few more radical, though potentially very useful, ideas, as well as a fair bit about team defense (of which the mark is possibly one of the most important components, as the mark is the most powerful defensive position on the field in terms of space defended by a good mark). Wiggins’ target audience for a lot of these thoughts is elite-level play, where a defense cannot expect the offense to turn the disc over without considerable pressure, and where the offense will likely score with great consistency nonetheless–where a single turnover or two might be all a D-line needs to win a game, so a lot of these ideas aren’t necessarily for, say, rec league pickup.

I’m going to shoot for more brevity in this post and try to list more than rant.

Simple, useful ideas:

• The notion of “blocking back,” whereby a mark reaches away from the thrower rather than towards them when attempting to pointblock; this allows for a slightly longer window to react to the disc’s movement.
• Similarly, Wiggins suggested keeping the head back as far as possible while marking, to give oneself perhaps an extra split-second to see (and perhaps tip/block) a throw
• When trying to stop a continuation off of a dump/etc., the player setting the mark should take a very quick glance (glance, don’t stare) upfield while running to set the mark–look for a split second, and then process what you see as you run to set the mark, don’t get caught looking away from the thrower
• A good mark will learn which fakes are bad, and will ignore them as non-threats, rather than responding to any movement and letting the handler toy with the mark.
• Finish drills! In a dump-swing drill, for example, the last handler and mark should go for 1-2 seconds as though the handler were trying to continue the disc upfield. Over many iterations of a given drill this gives everyone on the team dozens more opportunities to work on marking per practice.

Less simple, but useful ideas:

• Marking with staggered feet–a bit controversial perhaps, but Wiggins insists it has situational value. Going on the notion of “blocking back,” the side which your foot is back on will have a slightly larger window with which to react to a throw on that side (so one generally wants the foot back on the side of the throw that’s a bigger threat). It also should help with movement toward or away from the thrower to avoid potential fouls.
• A moving start out of a stoppage–instead of standing passively when tapping the disc in on the mark, while the O makes play calls, etc, Wiggins suggests a mark that is moving from one side to the other as the disc is tapped in–supposedly this takes away certain options and forces the O to adjust immediately as the disc comes in, but I’m not so sure of its efficacy. Something to try.
• The notion of “baiting,” where a mark will show one look (say, with hands held as though to stop a high-release, allowing the under) for a few marks/a full point, and then when they know how the handler will throw against this mark, make an adjustment and go for the point block. Definitely a risky proposition in some cases, but against high-level O, a chance like this for a point block is as golden a chance as any you’ll see.
• The idea of always covering the space on field with the mark, instead of the sideline (i.e., having your butt facing the sideline, stopping a backhand when the backhand would be OB anyways): this is common sense to a point, but Wiggins advocates for it to the point where the upline throw, while difficult, is (I think) unacceptably easy to get off. Again, how you implement this would depend on the level of offense you’re trying to D up.

Team D strategies: you’d be better served looking at Wiggins’ materials on the UCPC downloads than my explanation here (UPDATE: note that the link is now broken, with no apparent replacement elsewhere on the internet–my apologies). It’s definitely worth noting that a tall, athletic team like Ego designed their D to force deep throws and use their athletes to their advantage, while a team like the Drizzle implemented a team D strategy that focused more on creating havoc and poach opportunities since they were playing a team that was clearly above their heads. Something to consider when thinking about one’s own team D.

Improving individual/team marks: nothing too revolutionary here, I think. Obviously a fitter mark is a better one. Wiggins suggests keeping stats to assess the quality of marks (yardage allowed), as well as using video. Pickup is a great time to implement new strategies or work to incorporate more elements to your game. It’s important to scheme one’s defense to play to one’s strengths (and/or to dumb down your opponents’ strength). Realize that the best defenders are not always the best markers, and vice-versa. Know who excels at what so you don’t put a line out that’s overmatched on the mark, and realize that good marks invariably contribute to errant or rushed throws that result in D’s downfield.

This was probably the lightest seminar, in terms of relative amount of stuff I might take with me and incorporate. That said, it was still definitely some valuable stuff.

Still in the reviewing queue:

• Keynote by Dr. Goldberg
• Applying Mental Toughness Strategies by Tiina Booth (ARHS coach)
• A Season of High-Level Ultimate by Nathan Wicks (former Brown men’s coach, ’00-’05 (note they won championships in his first and last years coaching them))
• Perhaps a brief bit on the Panel Discussion.

Probably in that order. (UPDATE: check the UCPC label for the other recaps)

Some links to other UCPC reviews:
Lean and Hungry FitnessGeorge Cooke
Jim Parinella

Related posts:

1. Marking Thought: Spacing
2. UCPC Review, Part 3 (Keynote Speech, Dr. Alan Goldberg)
3. UCPC review: Part 1 ("Fitness and Training for Ultimate," Bryan Doo, Dan Cogan-Drew)
4. Marking Thought: Be Mobile
5. UCPC Review, Part 5 (the final: "A Season of High-level College Ultimate," Nathan Wicks)