Once was the Youth Nationals final in 07. Any word called out starting with 'J' meant an up the line dump cut, usually to score. The other time was at league, where the line call was set so the person I was guarding downfield was only ever trying to cut openside then breakside, never deep.
This is one of the easiest times in ultimate there ever is to get a D. And it's not because knowing what they want to do you can shut it down completely- the opposite in fact. Once you've figured out a set play and it is called, your defence is in the unique position of knowing exactly what the offence is going to do for the next disc movement or two.
For the first example (the up the line dump cut) you could bait the up-the-line through body positioning, but be prepared to sprint at a dime up the line because you know that's what they are looking for. If all goes according to plan, the thrower is left on a high stall count with his dump taken away from him. If it was a dump cut to score, you now have a defender right in the cutting lane taking away most of the openside options.
In the second example (recognising the line-call/the pattern your mark is cutting at) some things I experimented with:
- guarding the openside cut completely but leaving the breakside cut relatively open - this caused a turnover because the person with the disc was a weaker thrower who cannot consistently break the mark but attempted it anyway because that was the set play.
- guarding the cutter openside and poaching in the lane - disrupted a fair amount of flow.
- sticking with the cutter openside, positioning myself behind him by a few inches so he still has to run at 100% and could not slow down onto the disc. For the defence, this is a good situation: a thrower who would not normally throw to a semi-guarded cutter has a much greater chance of throwing to him now, even if he's guarded well, just because that's what the line call was. Doing this I caused two turns.
There is a lot of known unknowns in the game for a defender. Recognising a set play is one of the few times that you will know beyond a reasonable doubt what the offence is going to do and, rather than defend against exactly that possibility and return to the world of unknown factors (where is my person cutting, where does the thrower want to throw) I think it could be helpful to instead insert yourself into their set play as the dude who gets the D because somehow, miraculously? he knew what the offence wanted and denied it.
2 comments:
When a smart defender has only interfered with a set play twice in several years... it seems set plays are rarely stopped intentionally!
If you are co-ordinating the offence for a team, make sure you clearly tell everyone on the field what you are about to run. The advantages of your team running the play that they know and that works to their strengths clearly outweighs the rare occassions when a smart defender might interfere with it.
No more codes! Tell your opponents how you are going to beat them, and then do it! Once you reach a certain calibre of ultimate, the throwers won't throw to baited cutters - they'll have the skills to punish a poach.
I managed to unsettle a few teams at AUG by recognising predetermined endzone cuts, simply by knowing the names of most people I was playing against. I didn't generate many Ds out of it (2 or 3) but quite often most teams didn't have a secondary/backup plan, and an otherwise well rehearsed O descended into chaos when two or three defenders ran in to spoil the party.
You can also often tell who the primary target is in an endzone play by their body language. They'll be making constant eye contact with the thrower in the seconds before the check (as they should be), are often crouching a bit (ready to sprint) and often face the back corner on the open side.
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