USA Ultimate

Addressing Zone Questions

by Chris Ashbrook

From your experience, what zone configuration do you feel most confident in? 

In general I prefer a three man cup mainly because it can be used to disguise other types of defensive schemes teams may use, such as a zone to man. The specific setup I prefer for the three man cup is with the short deep playing very close to the cup, if not actually part of the cup, working as a unit to trap the disc on the sideline. Ideally the short deep will float into the cup as offensive players crash the cup, and falls out further when offensive players try to extend the cup. 

Why do you like this kind of zone? Specifically, what kinds of turnovers or blocks are you hoping to create? 

I like the zone because, and expect the turnovers to result due to: 

1. Causing the offensive team to throw and catch the disc as many times as possible. The more throws and catches the zone can cause, the more likely an errant throw or a drop becomes.

2. Disallowing any and all throws threw the cup.

3. Allowing, but make very difficult, around break mark throws from the handler. This causes the disc to go backwards which will allow the cup to recover.

4. Trapping the disc on the sideline to cause a low percentage throw, and hopefully a turnover.

5. Making the offensive team throw over the top of the cup as they are generally low percentage throws. 

In Your Favorite Zone, what are the weak points of the zone that they are likely exploiting? 

1. They are probably throwing hammers over the top and completing them. If so, it fits into the strategy and sometimes you have to tip your cap.

2. They might be getting a continuation throw off when a handler breaks the mark with an around throw. 

What adjustments, from a team-wide standpoint, can you make? 

1. Start taking the around away and make the handler beat you on a different type of throw.

2. Possibly drop the short deep a bit further outside of the cup.

3. Bring the deep in closer.

4. Bring the weakside wing closer to the middle of the field. 

If you had only enough time in one time-out to talk to a single player in your zone D, which position would that be? What might you tell them to adjust? 

To me, the sideline is the most important player in a zone D point. Remind everyone that they need to be talking (not yelling) to a specific player in the zone. Everyone should pick out a player to talk to so that the player is not receiving conflicting instructions. 

The on field player that I talk to most is the short-deep. He has to be very vocal to the wings and to the cup. He should be looking around, directing the cup as to threats so they can position themselves appropriately. He also must pass players off to the wings and deep, so the communication has to be excellent. I would remind him to be very active in vocalizing what he sees. 

The second person I would talk to would be the deep. The deep needs to be vocal to identify the threats to the short deep and the wings they can't see as the offensive player slips in back of the short deep and/or wings.