Homepage / Intermediate
Search The Handbook
Topics
The Stack
Cutting
Catching
Marking the Thrower
How To Read The Disc
Defense
...Player
...Zone
Offense
...Flow
...Player
...Zone
...Endzone
...Berkeley
Set Plays
...Standard Play
...Coffee Break
...The P Play
...The Weave
...The Looper
...Fast Break
...The Pull Play
Endzone Plays
...The Basics
...Mob
...Jailbreak
...Foreplay
...Endzone Soup
Drills
...The Basics
...3 Player Weave
...Square Drill
...Box Drill
...Breakaway
...Seattle Drill
...Second Huck
...Basic Weave
...D Score
...Swank Drill
...Go-To Drill
...Big Box

Drill - D Score

Skill Level:

- All levels
- As close to 14 players as possible
- Full ultimate field

Skills Taught:

Offense - full range of offensive skills, especially consistency

Defense - full range of defensive skills, especially intensity

Background:

Defense is the focus of this controlled scrimmage. Defense gets to score, and defense dominates the flow of the action. This drill usually serves to increase intensity at practice, and should be used prior to a scrimmage to raise the level of play.

Rules:

1. A normal-sized ultimate field should be used, though one of the end-zones will not be needed.

2. Play is 7 v 7. The nature of this exercise makes it counter-productive to substitute players between points. Try to keep teams to 7 or 8.

3. Play starts with one team pulling to the other and play proceeding as in a normal ultimate game.

4. Every time the offense turns the disc, play stops and the defense gets a point. The O retreats to its goal line and puts the disc back in play after a check.

5. No points are awarded when the offense scores. It simply becomes the offense's turn to play D. Teams switch sides and restart after a pull.

6. Games are played to 10 points (or more, depending on skill level). Make sure that at least one of the teams settles into a groove (offensive or defensive) before the end of the game.

7. If the team that started on defense is the first to 10, the other team is granted one additional defensive opportunity (this statement may seem confusing, but it will become clear once you play).

Suggestions:

- Create teams of offensive and defensive specialists. Let each squad develop its own strategies for O and D.

- Use this drill to try out new defenses: zones, force-middle, clam, etc. Be patient. Learning a new defense takes time.

- Practice upwind or downwind offense (both can be tricky) by orienting your field appropriately

Takeaways:

- Everyone agrees that achieving tournament-level play at practice is a worthwhile goal. But how can you make this happen? In my experience, the easiest way to start is to increase the intensity of your defense. By directly rewarding good D, this drill compells players to work towrd this goal.

- One of the hardest things about ultimate is the mental adjustment necesary to go from offense to defnese, or vice-versa. This drill can allow you to work on O or D for prolonged periods of time, giving your team the chance to improve through repitition. Depending on what you think needs most work, alter the drill slightly so that O or D has an advantage (try 6 on offense versus a 7-man zone, for example).

- This drill can be a bit negative in that one team will usually go into a tailspin and create a bunch of turns in a row. It is definitely a game of runs. This has two implications for practice:

1) Make sure to do something fun with the entire team afterwards. A scrimmage works well, but you should mix up the teams so that none of the negativity bleeds over.

2) There is a premium placed on mental toughness. Use this drill to teach your players to rebound from mistakes.

References

Written by: David Young
Has played for over ten years, first at Williams, then UC San Diego, and then with San Diego Open. Has coached college men, college women, and open men.