BY: Gwen Ambler
April 12, 2008

Good defensive positioning is one of the most important skills to teach young players.  It is also one of the toughest skills to master as it combines good footwork with constant vigilance, focus, and spatial awareness.  Most defensive drills focus on the footwork aspect of defense.  Here is one drill that emphasizes good footwork but also allows players to practice recognizing where they are on the field and how that affects adjustments they need to make to their position relative to the player they are covering.  I call this drill “The Checklist” since the defender has to go through a checklist of different types of positioning and situations.

Diagram A

Set-up:

See Diagram A for the set-up to this drill.  Have a stack of discs near the sideline and have a line of throwers and markers waiting behind it.  Place five cones around the field such that Cone 1 is where a handler would set up flush with the disc in a trap scenario, Cone 2 is where a handler cutting upline might catch the disc, Cone 3 is where someone clearing to the far sideline would set-up (assuming the offense is playing a horizontal stack or spread offense), Cone 4 is where the thrower would make her decision to either hit a cutter deep or pump fake her to cut underneath, and Cone 5 is where a cutter would catch the disc on an in-cut to the strong side.  A line of cutters and defenders sets-up behind Cone 1. 

Action:

A defender sets-up to guard a cutter at Cone 1 and tries to take away the various options as that cutter cuts from cone to cone in sequence.  Diagram B indicates in blue the path the defender is likely to take.  The thrower can deliver a pass to the cutter if she is open up-the-line (Cone 2), deep (Cone 4), or underneath (Cone 5).  There is no stall count on the thrower for this drill.  Note that the cones are rough guidelines for where the cutter should turn, but she is not obligated to turn exactly at the cone while making her cuts. 

Focus:

When the cutter is at Cone 1, the defender needs to position herself upfield of the cutter so that her body is in the cutting lane that the cutter would need to cut up-the-line.  As the cutter makes this upfield cut, the defender uses her body to block that lane as much as possible and maintain her position on the force-side (open side/strong side) of the field.  The defender is protecting the space marked by the gray circle near Cone 2 in Diagram B.  If the defender gets beat to this space, the thrower should throw the disc and reward the cutter for getting open.  Focus on physical, blocking D here.

Diagram B

Assuming the defender shuts down this first cut and forces the cutter to clear wide, the defender needs to think about maintaining her positioning on the strong-side.  As the cutter clears into the dead space on the weak-side of the field, the defender should increase her buffer (the distance between a defender and the woman she is covering) so that she is prepared to shut down any future cuts back to the strong-side.  By the time the cutter gets to the far side of the field at Cone 3, the defender should be in a position to check back with the disc and scan the field for an opportunity to provide deep-help to a teammate.  Focus on maintaining a buffer and checking back with the disc.

 As the cutter begins her deep cut from Cone 3 towards Cone 4, the defender needs to work hard to stay get deeper of her player and on the strong-side of the field.  At the very least the defender is even with her player, but ideally she is fighting for position deeper of the receiver.  The defender thinks about being able to beat her woman to any disc that comes to the deep space, marked by the gray circle near Cone 4 in Diagram B.  If the thrower feels that the defender is not protecting this area, she should deliver a deep pass out to space for her cutter.  Players waiting in line need to call “up” for the defender to turn to the strong side and find the disc quickly to get a block.  Focus on beating the cutter to the deep space to force her to cut underneath.

If the deep cut is not open, the thrower will pump-fake her cutter, initiating the receiver to plant and cut in.  Shutting down this in-cut takes anticipation and good footwork on the part of the defender.  If the defense has effectively used her body to take away the deep cut, she needs to expect that the cutter will change direction and make an in-cut.  Being ready for this turn is critical to reducing the reaction time necessary for the defense to change direction herself.  When turning, the defense needs to make sure that she employs a drop-step move so that she never loses sight of the cutter while changing direction.  When the disc is being forced forehand, this means the defender will plant on her right foot to come in.  As soon as she turns, the defender needs to work hard to protect her inside-hip and not let the cutter blow by her into the open space on the sideline (represented by the gray circle near Cone 5 in Diagram B).  If she gets beat, the thrower should deliver an open-side pass to the receiver.  Focus on turning with the cutter and protecting the inside hip.

Scoring:

If your team likes to have an extra competitive element in its drills, there are a couple ways to mete out rewards and punishments with the drill.  One method is that a defender can be required to do push-ups on the sideline if the cutter she is guarding gets open for a completion.  Another system would be that the entire team is split into two while running through the drill, with each team getting a certain number of attempts on offense and defense.  Each team gets points for defensive blocks and shutting down a player completely while on D or catching completions while on O. 

Variations:

There are a myriad of variations to this drill to help recreate different scenarios on the field.  Here are a few effective options:

1. Instead of having the disc start with a static thrower, the disc can start with the cutter at Cone 1.  The defender’s mark forces the throw to the sideline where a receiver is standing (open) waiting for the pass.  As soon as the thrower throws the pass, she can cut up-line towards Cone 2 to begin the drill as described above.  In this variation, the defender gets to work on immediately re-positioning herself on the strong side after a pass, using her body to try and take away the cutting lane, and taking a different angle from the cutter to quickly interfere with the passing lane up the line. 

2. Move Cone 3 to the center of the field where a vertical stack cutter might clear and pause before cutting again.  This move might also necessitate moving Cone 4 slightly more into the strong-side of the field to simulate vertical stack cutting.  Alternatively, Cone 3 can be removed altogether, allowing the cutter to clear where ever she wants after cutting up-the-line and before making her next cut deep.

3. Add a Cone 2.5 that the cutter goes to in between Cones 2 and 3.  The extra cone should be positioned in the inside-out space for a little break mark throw after the up-the-line cut is shut down.  The defender needs to stay close to the cutter for this cut, turning without losing sight of the cutter, and ideally positioned so that she can see both cutter and the disc when the cutter plants to go to the inside-out space. 

4. Have cutter/defender pairs start simultaneously at both Cone 1 and Cone 3 and have a continuous cycle of cutters and defenders going through the drill so that the thrower has to practice going through a progression of looks downfield.  This also makes the drill cycle through faster.