Traditional man defense is 1-on-1. You've got your person to defend, and there's no real expectation that you will help or be helped out. And that is its flaw.
1-on-1 defense inherently gives the advantage to the offense - they know when and where to cut. The defenders can only dictate as best as possible, and then react. Sure, if your team is full of uber-athletes who can beat someone to the disc even if they began 5 yards behind, then man defense was made for you. But most teams aren't built like that.
I believe in a better way.
I believe that better, more efficient defense is one that relies on communication between teammates and an understanding of the relative threat level of each cut, and not solely on athleticism. I envision a team that can switch without hesitation, where defenders talk to the mark to take away open cuts, where as a unit they eliminate the best options until the opponent is left with a risky, low percentage throw.
1-on-1 defense inherently gives the advantage to the offense - they know when and where to cut. The defenders can only dictate as best as possible, and then react. Sure, if your team is full of uber-athletes who can beat someone to the disc even if they began 5 yards behind, then man defense was made for you. But most teams aren't built like that.
I believe in a better way.
I believe that better, more efficient defense is one that relies on communication between teammates and an understanding of the relative threat level of each cut, and not solely on athleticism. I envision a team that can switch without hesitation, where defenders talk to the mark to take away open cuts, where as a unit they eliminate the best options until the opponent is left with a risky, low percentage throw.
Clam is a defense that tries to structure this type of switching. It has a bad reputation - most people think of it as a junk defense that may create a few turns, but is fundamentally unsound. I think it hasn't been given a fair shake - think of how many practices you spend working on man defense. And compare that to the, maybe 1? practice that you had on clam. No wonder teams can't run it well!
Furthermore, clam/switching defense is harder than regular man defense to learn. It requires true teamwork, and therefore develops more slowly as the team gels. In the beginning, teams attempting this will likely be scored on a lot because the communication and field sense just isn't ready yet. In order to play it well, takes a commitment that most teams have thus far been unwilling to make.
But with Hatch, I have a certain freedom. We've got no reputation to uphold - we can lose a few games as we work on our defense and no one will be upset. They're also mostly young players who are more flexible in their ways and hopefully more open to trying something non-traditional.
I think it will likely take a season to gain a grounding in this defense, and at least another season after to hone it. But I believe that the rewards of this defense are worthy of the investment for both individuals and teams, and that the current imbalance between offense and defense will be lessened.
Furthermore, clam/switching defense is harder than regular man defense to learn. It requires true teamwork, and therefore develops more slowly as the team gels. In the beginning, teams attempting this will likely be scored on a lot because the communication and field sense just isn't ready yet. In order to play it well, takes a commitment that most teams have thus far been unwilling to make.
But with Hatch, I have a certain freedom. We've got no reputation to uphold - we can lose a few games as we work on our defense and no one will be upset. They're also mostly young players who are more flexible in their ways and hopefully more open to trying something non-traditional.
I think it will likely take a season to gain a grounding in this defense, and at least another season after to hone it. But I believe that the rewards of this defense are worthy of the investment for both individuals and teams, and that the current imbalance between offense and defense will be lessened.
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agree. not with all the wording (just semantics), but with the idea that 1v1 d is not great. it seems to me that most teams realize the flaw, and try to have help defense; the issue is that the field size makes defensive rotation very hard. what are your thoughts on rotations? I have a few ideas, but they're all pretty standard, and haven't been practiced/implemented enough to prove their worth.
ReplyDeletei LOVE clam. i don't think i can emphasize how much i LOVE clam. and i agree with the idea that 1v1 inherently gives the offense an advantage. it's too bad that on the O line, we probably won't set the clam much on the transition :(.
ReplyDeletealternatively, you could play D-line :D
ReplyDeleteyang: i think clam is a good way to envision defensive rotation against a vertical stack - it may not necessarily be exactly how we end up switching, but it's a good starting point. against a horizontal or spread offense, we will run into more trouble because those do a very good job of spreading the field and creating 1-on-1 matchups. but my current thoughts are to poach off of handlers and get help deep from the far side of the field, and aim to push the disc toward the sidelines to diminish the field size. i haven't really formally tried this yet, so it'll be a work in progress.
ReplyDeletedodo: it's not that i want to play clam, per se, but that i want to bridge the gap between strict man defense and zone, and use a more switchy/team-oriented defense as our standard defense. so both O and D lines would learn to communicate and switch and recognize the biggest threats on the field and work as a team to cover those options.
karen: uh... i think doris would keel over if she had to play d line. she's staying O :)
my only problem with clam is that there's not as much accountability. i like playing man d b/c i know when i've done something good (or bad) (like shutting down my girl or getting taken deep). i can also experiment more with individual people (based on their tendencies).
ReplyDeletei guess with clam you adjust on a more macro scale...and maybe i just don't like clam b/c i'm ALWAYS in the cup...so i'm running around like a chicken responding to calls of "left" or "right" but not really having a sense of whether things are going well in the backfield. and then if we get a turn, it's like, oh great, thanks guys, i'll just sit here and rest (puff puff puff).