Wednesday was review day. With so many people at practices, it's been difficult getting enough playing time for everyone, and I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page going into the tournament. I'd sent out a summary prior to practice, which I hoped would help decrease confusion on the field, and also catch up those who had missed some practices. Furthermore, I started putting people on O/D lines so that we could start building some chemistry between players.
We first worked on horizontal defense again - it'd been a while and I also wanted to try formalizing it a bit more. We tried straight-up to trap on the mark, and bracketing under/away, and I think the biggest difficulty was figuring out where we should be in the spectrum between strict man and zone. Wednesday was a little more zone-ish than I would prefer, with people guarding spaces rather than taking a person, and then switching. The mark I think was also too much for us at this point - to have to think about switching, and then also have to deal with a non-constant force... well let's just say we let a lot go. For this weekend I'll probably do one or the other, but not likely both together unless we're getting really comfortable at it.
Clam was the other defense we worked on since about 5 people weren't there for Sunday's practice. I was impressed by how much faster we were able to review it. I am also bemused by how many people had never even heard of it - not just not been taught clam, but just did not know about it as a defense. Well, the revolution is a-brewing. I think we'll start seeing it more in the college teams around here, b/c it's a great D at the college level.
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For the Invite this weekend, we'll have 26 players. I'll be calling O/D lines, though the lines are definitely not yet set, and I'm sure I'll be moving some people around. We'll be working on all the things we've been practicing thus far, and probably some tweaks as well.
Schedule: http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=36&id=6536 Seeded 12th overall.
1st round vs Salty, 2nd round bye, 3rd round vs Virago, 4th round vs MissCONNduct. Then crossovers.
Weather may be foul, but if you're around, you should come out and check out the ultimate anyway!
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has been interesting reading these posts. one day i'd like to try my hand at coaching. maybe when my daughters are old enough to play. a couple thoughts:
ReplyDelete"The mark I think was also too much for us at this point - to have to think about switching, and then also have to deal with a non-constant force..."
Connecting to your point some posts ago about getting players on the sideline more involved, how about assigning a couple on each sideline to focus on updating people on the changing mark? "Home! Home! Home! Home!", "Away! Away! Away! Away!", or "Straight! Straight! Straight! Straight!"
"I am also bemused by how many people had never even heard of [clam defense]."
Interesting. We played clam occasionally even 15 years ago at MIT, but when I lived in Toronto, it seemed like no one there seemed to have heard of it either. Maybe it never made it out of the Boston area, except at the most elite levels?
Hi Leon!
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you.
I like your idea about assigning the marking calls to certain people - theoretically the entire sideline should know to do that, but putting the responsibility on 1-2 people makes it more likely that it's actually going to be done.
I was more talking about how those downfield would have to play the cutters differently whether the force is straight up or trap, but I think that would certainly come more naturally if they're getting auditory reminders of the force.
Clam is definitely not just a Boston thing - I first learned it in college at UVA. But maybe not West coast? I dunno - I think it's just fallen out of favor because most club teams prioritize man defense.
yeah, i actually meant for 1-2 to be responsible for letting the downfield defenders know what the mark is, like you said. if some defenders are new to playing a switching D -- which seems to be the situation you have -- they'll have enough to keep track of without having to peek and see where the force is. plus, if you know the mark was straight up and now is home, then without even looking, you have a pretty decent idea where the disc is.
ReplyDeletealso, less experienced players often have no idea what to say when on the sideline. ("what advice am i supposed to give the superstar?") giving them something concrete gets them started down the path of being an active part of the sideline.