More on defense

I feel I need to clarify my post on switching defense.

What I am advocating is a shift towards more responsibility on defense, not less. Each person not only has to cover her person, but also be able to pay enough attention to the disc and the other people on the field to be able to help each other effectively. I want to make explicit that if you happen to be the last back, and don't pick up on someone streaking deep, then you are responsible. If you are getting beat, and you don't communicate with your teammates to help you out, then you haven't done your job. If the person you are defending at the time is not a threat, and you don't pick up on someone who is, or you don't take that time to talk to the mark about the cuts developing, you haven't done your job. We are a team, and have responsibilities that go beyond "I need to shutdown my man" such that we as a team can play effective defense.

And that is also why I am not planning on running clam, per se. I feel that is a decent starting point in order to build the basis for a more fluid defense, but that it is limited by its structure and makes it too easy for any one person to say that she was doing her job as 0/1/2/3/4/5/6 and therefore did not need to look at the bigger picture. I want every person on the field to be able to fall into a help defense without needing to worry about what structured role she's supposed to be playing, and to adjust and evaluate such that the team as a whole can neutralize the biggest threats.

What this does, too, is take away the offensive advantage of knowing when/where they're going to cut or throw to. When a switch occurs, it takes the offense time to figure out what happened and if/where there is an open person. Throwers are used to seeing 1v1 matchups, and having that change mid-stride means that they hesitate, or the stall keeps getting higher as they try to find their next best option. This defense is meant to befuddle and stifle the offense, and there's nothing better for defense than a confused and panicking offense.