Marking

Marking will become the cornerstone of our defense. Read this. Read this again. Understand it. Understand it again?

I've pieced this together from PJ's old blog. Thanks to PJ and Kirk for their wisdom.

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Remember the key elements to a great mark are: 1) move your feet vs. lunging; 2) keep arms fully extended; 3) be dynamic- start close and aggressive, back off as the stall count increases. We can also be yelling "stall 8" when we get there so our team-mates know a) they only have 2 seconds of crazy D left; b) there is likely to be a wild throw made.

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FOUL!!

There is an increasing trend towards very aggressive, physical (read: fouls galore) marking these days. A less experienced player can become very flustered by this, and he will usually throw as a result of the pressure. Even worse, a lot of times these players don't know to call "foul". Against a more experienced thrower, however, fouling marks are sweets treats, indeed. Why? Because it gives you a free throw. a foul upon releasing the throw is either completed (in which case you "play on") or it is incomplete and the disc comes back to the thrower-- ie, it's a free throw). Here are a few scenarios to consider...

1. you receive a pass and your marker decides to bodycheck you as he initiates stall couting .in this case, i'll generally NOT call the foul. why? because calling a foul here stops the play and can ruin any flow that the cutters may have (this is often the reason that some players bump into their marks- because it kills the offensive flow). there is also no benefit to calling "foul" in terms of lowering the stall count, as it is only at 1 or 2 by this point. if you fall from the contact, or the contact ruins your chances of throwing for the next 2 or 3 seconds, then call the foul so you can reset. otherwise, ignore the contact and continue looking for the best throw.

2. your marker is grinding you like an axe (ie, there is either consistent or repeated points of contact between you and your marker).when your mark is doing this, you should try and take the free throw by throwing through the contact and call "foul" upon releasing the disc (if complete, say "play on"-- if not, it comes back to you). *caveat* if you call the foul before you initiate the throw, then don't throw it. if you do throw after calling foul, then (if completed) it comes back to you -or- (if incomplete) it is a turn-over.

3. your marker chops your hand when you are releasing the disc (ie, before the disc has left your hand).this is easy. call a foul everytime you feel contact on the release.calling "foul" is something that doesn't come naturally. oftentimes the thrower may not realize he has been fouled until after the play has finished (ie, when pumped up, contact often goes unnoticed). as such, it is important to incorporate fouls (over-aggressive marks) into some of your drills so players can practice making the foul call.

kirk.

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3 Types of Marks:

1. Basic Mark - Active hands a feet. Stay tight for the first 4-5 stalls and then back off to avoid drawing a 'foul' call at high stalls. This mark is great for overwhelming inexperienced handlers. This is mostly appropriate when the disc is FAR from your endzone.

2. Endzone Mark - When the disc nears the endzone it is especially important that the mark not get broken. If you don't understand what it means to be broken, speak up now. This is important because defenders are especially amped up in the endzone and need to be confident that they don't have to worry about the break side. If a defender thinks that the mark will be broken, then he will over commit to the break side and give up easy open side cuts. This will kill us.

So, in order to not get broken, your mark should be big and active, but NOT TIGHT to the handler. Don't lunge for a hand block if it means that you will lose balance and get broken as the handler pivots and goes the other way. DON'T GET BROKEN.

3. Straight-Up Mark - This is very usefull against a hucking handler. The mark should be huge, with arms stretched wide. Many handlers can only huck from a certain position (ie low release, high release) so do what you can to take this away. Don't try to foot or hand block. Let him dump or swing it to other handlers. This is what we want.

Taylor