USA Ultimate

Understanding Offensive Priorities

by Greg Husak

As a defender this is one of the most uncomfortable positions to defend if the stack is well-spaced and with just the right depth to make both the deep cut and the underneath cut a viable option. If the disc is in the middle of the field (say at the brickmark), and your cutter is on the open side of the horizontal stack, there is a lot of space to cover. Unlike with a vertical stack, where two of the four diagonal direction cuts take the cutter behind the mark, in this situation even the cuts towards the closed side of the field are on the open side early in the cut. This forces the defender to have prioritize between all four diagonals, knowing that the mark doesn't have responsibility for any of them. 

In this situation, well-coordinated movement between the stack positions will inevitably leave a defender vulnerable to a not-too-challenging pass. In this situation the defender has to prioritize the cuts to stop based on his own strengths, the receiver's strengths, wind, team defensive priorities. 

My priorities, given that I'm a bit above average in height, would usually focus on stopping the underneath pass with my positioning, while knowing that I have to go hard if my guy commits to the deep cut and I have to hope that the pass isn't on the money or that I can get some help on a deep throw. This strategy might change if I know that the receiver is a big target for the other team, or has relatively weaker throws, or if our team has been beat by the long ball repeatedly in the game. 

Even though this is an especially vulnerable position for the defense to be in, it also requires some coordinated movement and excellent spacing from the offense to make all options viable. After the first movement it will be come more clear where the hotspots of the offense are, and where my receiver is trying to go. Recognizing these positions early can help you defend more effectively. Also, having defenders in different positions focus on defending different cuts (for instance, the outsides help deep, the insides front) can give the defender some priorities where his help is more defined and his positioning pre-determined.