Defensive Thought: Enter Their Spirit
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Loading ...First, two comments, both related to Parinella’s latest post:
1) There will be at least three (3) ultimate bloggers at Kaimana, as I’m picking up with a Philly-based squad with Dusty, whom you might recognize. Really itching to get back on an ultimate field again, got to run and throw a little in the snow on a visit back to Dartmouth and it was blissful.
2) I’d just like to point out that I was talking about Hard vs. Efficient (in slightly different terms) a good while back.
Along those lines (particularly with regards to “efficient” D), a component of good defense that is rarely talked about, perhaps due in large part to a difficulty with putting it in words, is…well. For lack of a better way to put it, entering your (wo)man’s spirit.
What do I mean? I mean, if you understand your opponent, you can shut them down with ease. If you understand your opponent’s offensive schemes and structures, getting the turn becomes a matter of when, not if.
At a very basic level, you have to understand your quarry’s wants and desires, and to some extent, we all do. We understand that generally speaking, a cutter wants to cut in or deep on the open side, that a handler wants to make an easy pass to the break side but will take the open side cutter, etc etc etc. This dictates the way we teach and execute “normal” defense.
You have to move beyond that simple understanding, however, and learn more specifically if you’re to get the best of good teams. In a sport like (American) football, you call this good scouting, realizing that, for instance, a QB cannot complete passes with any regularity in the wind, and with pressure can be forced into myriad errors by a strong Eagles defense. (I’m not that heartbroken. But oh, Eli.)
In ultimate, this comes across more as “He loves the huck,” “All they want to do is chuck it to headband,” “Not a thrower,” and other simple but effective realizations.
This is useful information. When you recognize what a team’s offense and individuals want to do, at the very least you can force them to their second (less comfortable/consistent) option. That’s the first level. It’s something we attempted to institutionalize in part on Dartmouth last year with some success–dedicating minds on the sideline (more on sidelines at a later time–but know this: they are your best asset as a team) almost exclusively to “scouting” the other team, and we found a decent degree of success with it.
At a deeper level, though, what I mean is dynamically altering the defense you present such that it always aligns against your opponent’s desires. Recognizing that, while your man loves to cut deep, if you’re still with him after a few steps he will plant to come under, and adjusting your defense right as he gets to that point–temporarily conceding the deep you were just taking away, knowing that your opponent has shifted his attention elsewhere–you will be able to be everywhere he wants to be and a VERY frustrating defender.
In a larger sense, having a feel for where your teammates are and what your opponent’s offense is looking for allows you to do similar things–you can concede that deep option temporarily when the O is looking dump, or if you know that the first few stalls of each new possession are dedicated to stopping the continuation huck. That is part and parcel of good defense.
However, the epitome, in my mind at least, is integrating that information along with a reading of your opponent’s desires. If you recognize the lack of a viable deep option, you don’t respect the deep cut. When she realizes this, what will she do? You need to anticipate her looking to cut to the break side, or you need to anticipate her using the threat of the break side in your mind to try and get what she REALLY wants–the open side under.
The Sicilian reasoning game runs deep at times. Strive to always be a step ahead of your opponent mentally, and it will translate into similar margins on the field. At the very least, keep yourself from the blank, following mentality that all halfway decent cutters can exploit. Anyone can take away the first option–it’s recognizing how those options change as the disc and your man moves that allow you to move from a good defender to a stellar one.
Defensive Thought: Peripheral Vision
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...Good defense is a lot more than reacting to your opponent.
Body position, reading your opponent’s hips, staying on your toes, these are all important to enable good D, but perhaps the single most useful piece of information a defender can have is where the disc is and where it’s likely to go next (where the thrower is looking/capable of throwing to).
Shutting down that big deep cut is great, but if you knew in advance that the thrower was looking at the dump, or that the thrower was panicking with the disc in his hands, you can conserve your energy and let your opponent get deep on you a bit without consequence–and better yet, when he realizes his error, you’ll be in prime position to deny a cut that actually IS a threat.
It’s important to try and “check in” on the disc periodically as a defender–this is not hard if you’re covering a passive cutter, who neither engages you when she isn’t cutting nor looks to exploit your shift in attention, but good cutters will punish you for looking away, or simply give you no chance to take a breather and look in the first place.
Generally speaking, I try to balance the need to keep tabs on my man while simultaneously following the disc by using my peripheral vision, or in some cases, my hearing (the “clap” of a disc being caught is as good an indication as any that the disc has moved, not to mention the stall count).
In a situation where you are backing your man, it’s pretty easy to just glance past your opponent. But even when fronting you can position yourself in such a way as to track the disc and your man simultaneously. Fix you gaze halfway between your opponent and the disc. In a downfield situation, this might mean turning your head or body in a way you’re not used to doing (instead of “engaging” your man with your hips you take a slightly more open position). Hopefully the return of the crappy MS paint schematic helps clear it up a little bit–I’ve denoted the defender’s head position with a second line (defense in red, offense in blue).
The sort of position I’m talking about (on the right, compared to basic fronting on the left) is pretty clearly playing a different type of defense than manned-up body D, but it can be just as effective and potentially more so–it does, however, require a greater degree of awareness and proactivity to deny options rather than simply reacting.
My main point is thus: by fixing your gaze between your man and the disc, you keep any drastic change in either’s state in your attention register without too big a sacrifice in the quality of details you receive (assuming you know what details to key in on to play good defense). You won’t see where the thrower is looking, but you should get a sense of the mark’s positioning and if the thrower is pivoted over to look at the dump. You won’t necessarily see where your man is looking, but you’ll still notice his first step. And, you can incrementally shift your attention to one or the other by shifting your eyes much more easily and less obviously than if you turn your head from fronting your man.
Where this really shines, I think, is playing dump defense–being able to see when the throw is coming is a HUGE advantage for the receiver over the dump (when the defender is fronting), and often the defender has to choose between staying close to the target or knowing when the throw is coming. With practice, I’ve found a suitable balance between the two by leveraging my peripheral vision–it’s not 100% effective, you’ll necessarily shift your attention back to your man if he cuts very aggressively and forces you to change your head position, but it does prove useful.
Have you found other good ways to balance your man and the disc? Uses for peripheral vision above and beyond what I’ve described here? Tried it and didn’t like it? Leave some comments and let me know.
Marking Thought: Stay Balanced
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...I alluded to the importance of not reaching (by which I mean “over-extending.” Certainly you will use your hands and arms while marking) when I wrote about being mobile. The opposite of reaching is balance.
Balance originates from your core.
Balance means not overextending yourself (don’t get caught reaching!).
Balance means being poised to respond to anything the thrower will, well, throw at you. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security–stay poised to deny the thrower’s options. (An awareness of where the threats are behind you–dump? streaking cutter deep?–help significantly to this end).
It’s a challenge to develop the mobility, and particularly the discipline to avoid reaching on the mark and to strive for balance. But really, how many point blocks have you seen come from a guy leaning over and reaching? How many pictures have you seen of a thrower breaking a mark who is practically falling over, she’s reaching so hard?
Of course, rules are made to be broken, and you’ll find that the big reach (the layout on the mark, the foot-block attempt) will occasionally work at causing a turn, if for no reason other than the sheer surprise of the thing. Sometimes David Ortiz can steal second because the catcher isn’t expecting the 230(+)-pound DH to be fleet enough to try in the first place. Doesn’t mean it should be your standard. Discipline yourself. Learn by the conventional wisdom so you can cast it aside in the instants where it is most effective.
More on mobility and balance on Thursday.
Marking Thought: Spacing
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...There’s a time and a place for near and far spacing.
Incidentally, the spacing and location of your mark can and should be changing over time. Jackson makes some good points about the utility of spacing between yourself and your mark, so start there:
Are you looking to prevent the break throw? If so, back up. You’re right that you can easily get your arm past a close mark, and by being farther away you’ll have more time to react to pivots, fakes and throws.
However, if you’re looking to put pressure on hucks, then get close. Yes, you might get broken sometimes, but if your defensive strategy is to pressure hucks, while still keeping substantial pressure on break throws, then I think close is the way to go.
Most throwers today will be able to break marks regardless of how you mark. I think that (in general) marking to prevent break-throws is a losing battle. The better approach is to realize that break throws will go off, but by pressuring them, you can increase the chance of a non-perfect throw going off, which gives the downfield defender a chance at a block. Similarly, if you are pressuring hucks, then defenders (who will inevitably be a step or two behind) will have a greater chance at blocking a non-perfect throw. A far mark puts very little pressure on hucks, which makes it very difficult for downfield defense against any team with good throwers
In short:
I’m of the opinion that the best marks apply both techniques throughout the duration of a single mark. As I’ve already said, be active. Even if you’re bouncing around, if you’re not fundamentally altering your approach to marking dynamically, the thrower is sizing up how to beat what you’re showing him–you’re playing his game. Showing the thrower different looks through a point and through a stall count can force them to play your game, assuming you leverage your margin intelligently. I’m also of the opinion that while trying to prevent ALL break throws can be a losing battle, intelligent use of the mark to take away the biggest threat dynamically as the count shifts can be extremely effective. Similar to how you might look to poach off of a cutter who is sitting pat in the stack without threatening to move, if the mark’s position allows breaks that the thrower isn’t currently looking for, you’ll be able to more effectively pressure the throws she is. A very simple example of this is shifting the mark around to take away the dump at a high stall count. When it’s clear that the thrower only wants to hit the backfield for the dump, a mark can find success in conceding easier throws upfield in order to apply more pressure to the backfield option. If you extend that approach to include not only dumps but hucks, inside vs. outside breaks (hint: it’s nearly impossible to throw an IO break past a mark that is a step off), even high vs. low throws, you can present a very dynamic and effective mark. If your entire defense (including your sidelines) is cued in to this as a defensive strategy, the potential applicability skyrockets as downfield can adjust to what the mark is dynamically taking away–if the mark shifts to protect the dump, the defender at the front of the stack can shade to take away the IO option, if pressuring hucks, defenders can front their men more confidently, etc. This extends to more than simply how close or how far you are from your man (how you angle your mark and how aggressive you are are also key), but one of the easier ways to leverage the mark is by simply looking to take an extra step in or out on the mark as the count shifts–perhaps you stay tight on the first couple counts to pressure a huck in flow, and then back off a half-step to contain more conventional break/dump looks and avoid drawing a foul at a high count (I guarantee you your high-level club teams teach this very adjustment as a fact of life–or at least did before the advent of the disc space rule [XIV.B.3] as an additional deterrent). Maybe you start off with a loose mark trap on the sideline of a zone to prevent a quick swing back across the field, and inch in closer to pressure the over-the-top throw attempts after a few seconds. Incidentally, Stephen Hubbard adds some great points about fouling in a comment on the last post, and also brings up the important question (among others): aren’t we just talking about fouling routinely on the close mark? When I say “close mark” I absolutely DO NOT mean foul the thrower. If you’re capable of being mobile, you shouldn’t need to foul. If you have any kind of intelligent defense behind you, you shouldn’t need to foul. If you’re getting hosed by the other team making hucks in flow with no mark and feel the need to foul to stop it…try playing smarter defense and taking away those opportunities in the first place (or make adjustments downfield if you can’t). There’s a wealth of strategic options you can employ on the mark and in concert with the mark, and fouling is really never appropriate. Incidentially, I also find a mark that plays THAT close to be far less effective at stopping any throws (but I also didn’t practice it terribly much–there was a time when we had a “coach” for all of one tournament that encouraged more physical marking and it didn’t sit well with me then). Fouling might win you a few battles, but in the context of the larger war of the game, it is usually not sufficient (teams and players adjust). Experiment with spacing. Think about what might serve you best in various field positions, stall counts, matchups, weather conditions, etc. If you’re a team strategist, consider the vast potential of a team-wide dynamic mark for shutting down a team’s preferred offensive options. For bonus points, consider employing a marking tactic suggested by Ben Wiggins back in Winter ’06: stagger your feet one slightly forward, one slightly back) to facilitate better motion forwards and backwards, as well as to provide a bit more cushioning on a close mark to shield against the IO. This is hard to explain, and the UCPC site is apparently down now, so I can’t link any original materials either. I’ll try and flesh it out a bit more in a later post.
Marking Thought: Be Mobile
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...I’ve touched upon this with my post about staying on your toes, but I didn’t really discuss how this applies to marking then.
The same basic idea applies though: when you’re shifting positions, in all likelihood you’re getting up onto your toes before you get off the ground, am I right?
A reminder: when I say “toes” I mean the balls of your feet, not the toes themselves. Common misconception that running on your ACTUAL toes works–you’ll wind up hurt and you’re hamstringing yourself, pun intended. It’s the balls–your heels might touch down slightly depending on how hard you’re running, but you’re never resting nor really pushing off your heels so long as you’re accelerating (stopping is a different story).
Take a second and visualize yourself on the mark. The thrower takes a big step to the backhand side, pretty clear windup, she puts her head down…
…and then throws a convincing fake before pivoting back over to the forehand side.
My question: how were you attempting to stop the huck? Is it a hand, an arm, your body that’s in the way? Yes yes, minutate will vary depending on situation and team defensive strategy. We’re talking generic you, no filters applied.
Are you standing still? Please tell me you’re not standing still. PLEASE tell me you’re not the person that makes me slap my forehead on the other side of the tourney complex standing there with a half squat, your butt stuck out, and your arms outstretched. Not to call out a whole demographic, but…rookie women’s ultimate players, I’m looking at you. Get on your toes!
Back to the throw. Are you reaching? Are you leaning? If you’re reaching, you’re toast. If I get a mark to reach on a fake like that I have a field day jacking it to the other half of the field.
Are you jumping over? If you’re jumping, you might be toast here too.
WHEN are you jumping over? If you’re waiting until her head is down and the throw is coming, you’re probably too late. You’ll be in time to force a bad throw, for certain, but to touch down quickly enough and with enough presence of mind to respond to the next throwing attempt?
Here’s what I think:
You move with the step. (Feel free to chime in if you feel differently).
Generally speaking, the only way a thrower is going to get the disc directly past you is if they can throw around you (they can throw through you if you’ve got holes in your mark, which is a topic for another post). The number one way to get around you is with use of the pivot (over-the-tops notwithstanding).
Great throwers don’t pivot needlessly, they just pivot when they know they’ve caught you over committed to the side you’re currently on and can freely pass the other way. You have to counter the motion of the thrower by being mobile yourself, and more often than not this means being proactive with your motion, rather than passively waiting for the thrower to exploit your vulnerabilities.
It’s a fine line to walk between being proactive, being overly aggressive (biting on a little pivot pump-fake makes the thrower’s job even easier than throwing off of one pivot), and getting beaten ’cause you’re too slow. Better still, this dynamic will shift depending on your tools and your thrower’s tools (more than anything short of perhaps the jump discs, size and reach disparities can make a big difference here). Your tall/long-armed wonders generally need to shift less than your shorter types, which tends to work out given that most of us littler guys tend to be a little lower to the ground and more responsive as a result.
Timing on when you move on the mark is crucial, but so is the margin by which you move when you choose to do so. How far over do you need to go to pressure the throw?
For big throw(er)s, you want to use your body to discourage the throw(insert caveat about situation and the consequences of over committing vs. allowing the big huck here). For most other situations, unless you have a clear read on your man or have the ape index advantage of an orangutan vs. a T-rex, I think you want to get your body to around the same alignment as your thrower’s hips. From there, your arms can cover at least enough to make an average thrower think twice (but don’t get caught reaching!).
Let’s look at the difference of this margin in crappy MS-paint schematic form:
This is more of what I’d recommend for a “normal” range of mobility. Blue player is obviously the thrower–I’m giving him something approximating normal pivot range for a good thrower. Red player is on the mark, and is just looking to match up with the hips here. Orange block is Red player’s hands, held close to the body. From this position, there’s some potential for the reach–I’m not saying don’t reach, I’m just saying don’t rely on it and definitely don’t over commit to stopping a throw with it–and that reach is within bounds to pressure your normal throws, stop an IO, etc. Your faster hucks, however, are likely to be deterred a bit less by the threat of simply the reach (again, assuming you’re dealing with a good thrower), and the general trajectory this permits tends to be pretty much what O and D would expect–a fairly decent leading throw with some float and some tilt, which generally goes the O’s way if they’re making good decisions.
That said, if you can move this far and move this far proactively, you’ve got a mark that’s good enough quality to play high-level collegiate ultimate, assuming your marking skills aren’t severely lacking elsewhere.
Now the huck-stopper mark. In this particular iteration I’ve got the mark going out to about elbow position, which is arbitrary but not without merit. You can very clearly see that this cuts off a much larger swath of trajectory–especially if this is a sideline marking position (more on that at some much later point), a throw that has to go this wide and arc that much is far more likely to fall the defense’s way, particularly when you consider that these types of throws tend to be forced into their paths due to last-second adjustment (anathema to successful hucks in particular).
The downside? As I alluded to at the beginning of this post, this generally leaves you overextended. You don’t often see a mark in this sort of position, and when you do, it’s only for a second or a half second (generally aided by a “strike!” call or similar help), just enough to discourage the huck. You can tell with a simple look that the distance to cover both ends of that spectrum easily double the more conservative range–this is why it is important to get to a position like that early, and to be ready to quickly move back to respond to the other side. Be mobile. Don’t even attempt to do this if you’re not mobile enough to get back and do your primary job of not getting (heinously) broken. Chances are, you’re not mobile enough to get in the way quickly enough to pressure the huck, either.
This is the sort of marking capability that gets you an assignment against the other team’s no. 1 throwing threat, that allows your mark to be a lynchpin of the defense rather than simply a very large piece of the puzzle. In short, a game-changer.
With good mobility on the mark, you can take away a much larger swath of the field than a stationary mark can, and perhaps even take away a bit more of the field than the other team anticipates–otherwise known as good defense. Using your mobility as a weapon is the pinnacle, but the base is being mobile enough to avoid getting fooled and used by the thrower in front of you.
Start by getting on your toes. The last thing you should do on an ultimate field is take a break on the mark (pun intended! That might be my favorite one yet. I’m filing it away for future coaching use, it’s so good). (It’s too important to take a break and risk letting down your teammates) Through practice, learn how and where and when to be proactive. With diligence, learn how and where and when you can get away with being aggressive(ly proactive). There’s very little that substitutes for experience here–I can’t give a ton of specific advice here because body types and game situations really can make a significant difference. That said, more basics to come.
UPDATE: Gwen adds some more great pointers on marking in the comments.
Want to throw more effectively? Use chopsticks.
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...Having trouble gripping your forehand? Have you ever used chopsticks? Did you know that you can hold them in such a way–with your thumb pinching the bottom stick against your ring and pinkie–as to closely simulate holding a strong forehand?
The school ID you use to swipe for your meals? Ever consider the similarity of an ID card to a frisbee when gripping and throwing backhand fakes while you’re waiting in line? I have. I do it all the time. I do it subconsciously with all manner of object–put something in my hands, stand me up, and make me wait, and within 20 seconds I’ll be throwing fakes. They’ll have more or less exaggeration depending on context–if I’m standing in front of my class of 20+ Japanese students while they work on the latest English paper, I forego the object and disguise the steps in my pivot as pacing around the room and keep my shoulder motions subtle, but with intention and a little bit of visualization.
These motions are as natural to me as anything else I do.
You can go to practice and throw for half an hour before warmups, you can toss on the green every day for an hour…I’ll take that, and add on all those odd idle minutes throughout the day. If I can move, I’ll practice the fakes. If in class, I’ll make cutting schematics when the lecture gets boring.
Walking to class? Going up or down stairs? Throw a little attention towards your footwork when you change direction on your turns. Think about planting and stopping quickly at the bottom if you like to hurry down the stairs. If you’re really into it, carry a disc with you. Get to know your frisbee, become its friend, and it’ll treat you well in turn.
Opportunities are endless. A little creativity and you’ll find them everywhere. Incremental actions in aggregate will make a profound difference in your game.
Throwing Thought: Throw Off-Handed
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...I know what just leapt to mind.
“The lefty backhand, huh? I’ve never thought it was very useful./What a useful throw!”
I’m not going to write on the merits of such a throw (haven’t had much chance to test it myself–though it is ready, should the appropriate situation for its use ever emerge…).
This is simply a suggestion. If you’ve ever hurt your throwing arm or dislocated a finger on your throwing hand and hurriedly rushed to learn how to throw off-handed because NE ’07 Regionals was only a week away (before finally resolving to grit it out with the right, because you could make due with the pinky in a splint), then you might appreciate what I’m getting at here.
Teaching yourself how to throw off-handed is like teaching a rookie how to throw, but with the slight leg-up of your extra experience with the other limb. Through the lens of what you’ve already learned, can you apply your knowledge and discern what the real keys in throwing are?
It’s hard to teach any skill, especially if you’re far enough along in your learning that you’ve forgotten how you learned in the first place…with throwing, however, you have the luxury of another novice–your off hand. If you can teach your off-hand, you can teach a rookie.
Perhaps more importantly, if you can teach your off-hand, you can learn how to improve the consistency of your dominant hand. How is it, exactly, that you’re able to determine where your forehand goes when you let it go? Is there something in the grip that lets you keep your backhand flat?
It’s also a good way to keep casual throwing interesting. In addition to throwing some game-time visualization into these situations, you can take a step back and re-examine the fundamentals through use of your off-hand. If you’re looking for a slightly more practical carryover, you can do a lot worse than having an off-handed backhand in your arsenal (particularly the high release, which is to date the most consistent advantage for the lefty backhand vs. the righty flick I’ve seen).
Try it. Re-learn how to learn.
(And then teach)
UPDATE: Check the comments for some more thoughts about in-game applications of off-hand throwing.
Throwing Thought: Fake with an Upward Trajectory
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...What the hell does that mean?
I mean, when you pivot from forehand to backhand (or vice versa), you should:
A) Throw a fake to initiate the pivot and
B) Make the fake on an upwards trajectory, using the fake’s momentum to kickstart your pivot over to the other side.
Think about it. Try it. The trick is to make your fakes still look convincing. The “upward trjectory” refers more to your body than your arm.
The next step (or perhaps concurrent step) is learning to throw with those same motions. Convincing fakes are ones that you can actually throw from.
