Tryouts Days 5 and 6

Saturday's practice was zone defense. We went over a basic 3-man cup zone, both force middle and trap, against a 3-handler set and a 2-handler set.

Most players have a background that they could use to allow them to play within this zone D, which was probably a welcome break from all the communication and switching work that we've been doing recently. However, I did want them to use the skills we've been working on and apply it to zone as well - you should always be thinking about who the threats are, and working together with your teammates to contain the offense. There is a lot of talk that needs to happen between the different positions, and I feel that was the part that was lacking most on the field.

Responsibilities:

- Deep should be talking and switching with the short deep and the wings (and vice versa).

- Short deep talks to the middle of the cup and the wings.

- Wings talk to the deep deep, short deep, and cup

- Sideline should be talking to everyone on their side of the field, especially the deep and the mark.

On offense, we have to adapt to the type of zone that is being played. For instance, with a tight cup, it makes more sense to try to swing the disc wide across the field in order to have an open look up field before the cup manages to catch up. For looser cups / 1-3-3s, we do better when the handlers crash the cup and break through the middle.

For trap situations, well, we'd ideally not get into that position to begin with. Handlers want to stay off the sideline and should keep targeting the break side to avoid the trap. If the disc does go to the sideline, we need to look to the middle quickly to move the disc before the trap sets up, and have people set up as options in the holes of the cup.