Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Zone O

I did not write this! I think Jim Parinella wrote it for the UPA newsletter. He sent it to me unreferenced, but I assume it is his work.

Also found this in the article "Offensive Thoughts" which appeared in UPA Newsletter in August 1999:
ZONE O:

Take advantage of temporary 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 mismatches. Unless you’re playing against an extremely focused and practiced defense, you will have many short-lived opportunities to exploit this power play. Anticipation and immediate reaction, as with man to man offense, are important. It’s a rare defense that will simultaneously have one player making a bid for a block while another adjusts to cover. For example, if two poppers are on either side of the middle middle, who bites on a fake left, the other popper is open UNLESS the wing or point adjusts at the same time. If the offense doesn’t know this, then the defense will be able to recover in time to prevent the pass. Just about any 2 nearby O players have a potential mismatch situation. The poppers exploit the middle middle. A popper and a wing work on the side middle. A wing and a deep work on the deep. The off-handler and a wing or popper split the off-point. A good defense will constantly be making adjustments to prevent someone from being open for too long, but it takes a great one to make that time window almost non-existent.

I think most downfield O players run too hard when the disc is still in the cup. When the cup gets broken, that is the time for an all-out fast break. But when the disc is stationary, too much movement merely alerts the defenders as to their whereabouts.

And use the overhead to spread out the cup and side middles.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Sports Illustrated

Oregon ultimate in SI this month. It makes me a little nervous; I'm not sure its ever good to draw the scrutiny of a giant. Still, Nij (Weatherhead) does a nice job of representing the positives of club sports without at all bashing the varsity athletic department.