Machine - Post Season Thoughts

I was afraid I would never have fun playing competitive frisbee again until this season of Machine. All the competitive Ultimate that I played between graduation and this season was disappointing in terms of enjoyment to say the least.
This includes Madison Club, and Black Market club teams as well as two seasons of Wildfire in the AUDL.

Machine was finally a team that had everything I had been missing since leaving NUT.
Buy in, organization, competitive goals, teammates to push me (accountability), coaching/leadership to inspire, and friends to play with.

Nationals was a ton of fun but also very disappointing. We played poorly as a team.
Alex said something that really resonated with me. Great teams don't get super pumped up when someone makes a great play because that is par for the course and they expect it based on the work they know they put in and the type of players they are.
Don't get me wrong, it's still important to cheer for your teammates, but he's right. It doesn't make sense to make such a big deal out of something if you knew it was bound to happen because your team is filled with great players who make plays.

I need to work harder. My personal goal this year was to work my way onto D1. I played some D1 points here and there, but those were mostly because of injuries to guys ahead of me. I need to be better. I will be better.
I did meet my Nationals specific goals which was great, though I still felt unfulfilled with my play so I need to work on my goal-setting. But I also realize that I hold myself to a very high standard so I'm trying to stay positive.

I asked Walden to cut this year and I am mostly happy with this decision. I think I might want to transition back to handling in the future, but I think it was a fantastic way to push myself harder to learn a new role. At the beginning of the season, Walden was very hesitant and said he didn't think it was a good idea, but leadership ended up having me do it anyway. Midway through the season, Walden said it was working out better than he expected but that wasn't saying much based on his initial expectations. I need to ask him about it now at the end of the season and see what he thinks. I think it was pretty successful. I definitely felt out of place for a while at the beginning of the season on offense, but I felt very comfortable by the end of the season cutting and felt like I was often making threatening cuts and generating good space on the field.

The work never ends.

ARC

Styles of Defense - Shutdown

I see a few different types of person defense in my head. These can each be used at any point during play, and switched between within even the same possession.

Shutdown
Poachy
Baiting
Help
Lazy

This post will examine the shutdown style of defense and how to execute it. Let me start by saying that I think everyone at the college level should strive for this style of defense before any of the others.

Your job in this style of defense is to prevent your mark from getting the disc. This can directly lead to blocks, but does not more often than not. Preventing your mark from ever being targeted can be just as good as actually generating a block and is how this defensive style manifests most often.

Shutdown defense can work in all situations.

The biggest factor, in my experience, in determining success at this style of defense is your footwork and athleticism. A good way to play this style of defense is to always stay on your mark's hip. This requires great footwork in order to stay with your mark through juke moves or hard driving cuts as well as speed and quickness to adjust to changes in their path.

You need to always be able to beat your mark to the disc. If you are closer to the disc, that means closer to your mark. A good rule of thumb is if you are within 1 pass, always be touching your mark.

Examples:
Your mark is cutting under and you stay right on their hip such that the thrower sees they are not open and therefore holsters the throw.
Your mark is cutting in the handler space and you force the thrower to look elsewhere for a reset.
Your mark is cutting out and you stay in position such that if a throw goes up, you will have the best path to the disc.

Probably video examples to come.

Styles of Defense - Help

I see a few different types of person defense in my head. These can each be used at any point during play, and switched between within even the same possession.

Shutdown
Poachy
Baiting
Help
Lazy

This post will examine the help style of defense and how to execute it. Let me start by saying that I think everyone on the field should be looking to help most all of the time. But playing help defense is not always possible.

Your job in this style of defense is to leave your mark and help a teammate in order to make their mark's job harder and or generate blocks.

A key difference between poachy and help styles lies in when you leave your mark. When attempting to poach, you are leaving your mark preemptively to try to get a block or prevent a throw. When attempting to help, you are leaving your mark after a throw has gone up and you realize you may be able to make a play or make the offender's job harder by being there. 

Here is the most prevalent example situation in which a help style is likely to work.
An opponent is going deep and you see that your teammate is beat. 

The biggest factor, in my experience, in determining success at this style of defense is your field awareness. You must have you head up and on a swivel. You need to be able to see things developing and be ready to leave your mark when the time comes.

Examples:
Leaving too early -
I anticipated that the throw would go up, but the thrower pumped it for one reason or another, and my mark got a free under because of it.
https://gfycat.com/ExemplaryCaringIrishwaterspaniel

Leaving too late -
Couldn't end up making a play.
https://gfycat.com/FearlessKindlyCopperbutterfly

Leaving on time -
End up giving up the inside position trying not to get skied, but I made his job harder than it would have been.
https://gfycat.com/HeftyFlawedCaudata

The throw ends up being poor and would've been a turnover anyway, but my teammate was beat and would've needed help had the throw been accurate.
https://gfycat.com/SeriousWarmFallowdeer

Styles of Defense - Poachy

I see a few different types of person defense in my head. These can each be used at any point during play, and switched between within even the same possession.

Shutdown
Poachy
Baiting
Help
Lazy

This post will examine the poachy style of defense and how to execute it. Let me start by saying that I think a poachy style of defense is best used VERY sparingly. At the elite club level, you will absolutely get burned if you are poaching more than a few seconds here and there. Poaching can also be dangerous if done poorly or by someone with poor field awareness, so please be careful if trying this out. Always be mindful of the field, your body, and other players' bodies. 

Your job in this style of defense is to generate blocks or junk up a space by jumping into a lane or space that a thrower expected to be wide open. I think the most natural first iteration of poaching doesn't generally generate blocks but prevents throws upfield by doing the following. Imagine that you have just covered an open-side under cut and your mark is clearing/cutting back to the stack. Your mark is not a threat so you can stay in the lane and force the thrower to turn to look at their dump.

A key difference between poachy and help (post still to come) styles lies in when you leave your mark. When attempting to poach, you are leaving your mark preemptively to try to get a block or prevent a throw. When attempting to help, you are leaving your mark after a throw has gone up and you realize you may be able to make a play or make the offender's job harder by being there. 

Here are a few example situations in which a poaching style is likely to work.
The above example when your mark isn't a threat.
You are marking someone (not currently a threat) in the vert stack and someone else is cutting down either the open or breakside lane and you see that you can jump in front of them and intercept the disc. This example is most likely to cause injuries if you just run or bid sideways out of the stack/deadspace. Don't do this. Look around and make sure you can make the play safely first.
You are hidden from the thrower's view.

The biggest factor, in my experience, in determining success at this style of defense is your mark not currently being a threat. This state can change on a dime. Offenses everywhere stress the importance of recognizing when you are poached and what to do in that situation. So you must stay aware of your mark's threat level and this is why it is best used sparingly. If you do it too much, your mark will take advantage and your risk will no longer be worth it. You must be able to recognize your mark's threat level accurately to successfully poach (assuming a competent opponent).

Examples:
From the 2016 World Games Final between USA and Japan. Alan Kolick jumps into this space that he sees is open and that someone is cutting into and then finds the disc. The thrower had no chance of seeing this. This demonstrates an incredibly high field awareness and game IQ to realize in that split second that the space is open, the cut is open, his mark is not a threat, the thrower can't see him, and that he can beat the opponent to the spot safely.
https://gfycat.com/QueasyCapitalBlesbok

Styles of Defense - Lazy

I see a few different types of person defense in my head. These can each be used at any point during play, and switched between within even the same possession.

Shutdown
Poachy
Baiting
Help
Lazy

This post will examine the lazy style of defense and how to execute it. It's more of a 'fun' style of defense, not a serious style, and therefore will be a much shorter post.
Let me start by saying that this should really only be used in league play (summer/fall etc) or 'for fun/drinking' tournaments. 

Your job in this style of defense is to get cheap blocks or else hope your team generates blocks so that you can then play offense. There are a few strategies for this, but I'm partial to one in particular - The Tiger Trap.

Here are a few example situations in which a lazy style is likely to work.
You are playing a very weak team. Your other defenders are capable of generating blocks.
You trick the other team into thinking there is a free receiver open near the endzone.

How to execute the tiger trap. Many people think that you have to lie down on the endzone line for this, but I've found that success more often follows when you have a teammate standing near you, and you stand right by the corner and just pretend to be talking to them. (This usually happens, either way, right after the pull, but can be done during a point if you try hard enough)
The rest of your team needs to know that they are supposed to let someone go deep, otherwise they will just dink and dunk it up the field and your tiger trap will be wasted.
Then wait for the thrower to chuck it deep and go play spoiler.

How to execute lazy person defense. Just make sure your person catches unders (rather than deeps) until someone else forces a turnover, and then play offense.

Examples:
I couldn't believe when this actually happened in competitive play!