Week 3: Tournament Recap

Multiple things to go over briefly, which will probably be covered in more detail in later blog posts. All of these things were discussed this weekend at the tournament.
-Zone offense and defense
-Marking violations (specifically double team, disc space, foul, stall)
-Double turnovers
-'Best perspective', in/out of bounds, what happens if two teams cannot agree on the outcome of a play (in general)

Zone: 
Man defense is relatively simple for newbies to learn; all you have to do is stay with your man and stay on the force side. Zone defense on the other hand is a little trickier and involves covering a specific area rather than a specific person.

How does zone defense work?
There are multiple ways of running a zone defense. The cup (typically consisting of three or four defenders) is responsible for following the disc and preventing any throws up-field. The down-field defense is responsible for the rest of the field and typically consist of an up-deep (also called middle-middle), wings, and a deep-deep (also called monster on WUWU). The middle-middle's zone is the middle of the field right behind the cup, the wings' zone is the area right by the sidelines, and the deep-deep is responsible for any longer throws.

How does zone offense work?
A zone offense looks very similar to a horizontal stack - there are 3 handles back, 2 wings on the sidelines, and 2 poppers in the middle. The main goal of a zone offense is to keep the disc moving. The cup has to follow the disc, and a constantly moving disc means a constantly moving cup, which means a very tired cup. A very tired cup creates holes in the cup which allows the offense to take advantage and move the disc up-field. Because there is less defense than offense once the disc gets moved up field, the cutters have a 'nice pasture to prance and play in' (to roughly quote Ross) and quickly move the disc before the cup can catch up and reset. However, most of the time in zone offense, the handles will merely be swinging the disc back and forth across the field. 

When do you want to use zone defense as opposed to man defense?
Zone defense is very effective when the opposing team will have difficulty completing many, many throws. Zone defense is typically used in bad weather - windy, rainy, snowy, cold, muddy etc. conditions. Zone defense can also be effective against a team with weaker handlers for the same reason.

Stall Count/Marking violations:

Brief terminology break:
After a call is made, the two players affected by the call have a conversation about the call. The person who committed the infraction may respond with a  'contest' or 'no contest'. 'Contest' can refer to many different scenarios, but basically it means that the player does not agree with the call made, either they think that it did not happen or that it did not affect the play. 'No contest' means that yes, the infraction occurred and probably affected play, whoops! The outcomes of a contested vs. uncontested call are different.

Section XIV.
The marker is the defender guarding the person with the disc. They are responsible for defending half of the field, but they are also responsible for stalling. The stall count starts at 0 and goes up to 10. You must stall OUT LOUD, loud enough for the the thrower to hear.

What is a stall/What happens when a stall is called?
Once the marker first utters the 't' in the word 'ten', then it is a "stall." If stall is uncontested, it is a turnover at the thrower's pivot point. If the thrower contests the stall, a few things may happen. If the thrower did not attempt a throw, the thrower maintains possession and the stall count starts at 8. If the thrower attempts a throw which was completed, the disc reverts to the original thrower and the stall count starts at 8. If the thrower attempts a throw which was incomplete, then the turnover stands where the disc landed after the throw.

What are marking violations?
There are several violations that can be called against the marker as well. These include fast count, double-team, disc-space, and vision blocking. These can only be called by the thrower.
-Fast count may be called when:

• The staller does not give a full second between counts
• The staller skips a number (if more than one number is skipped, then you can immediately call 'violation')
• The staller does not initiate or resume the stall count with 'stalling'
• If the thrower does not have time to call 'fast count' before getting stalled out, it is treated as a contested stall.
• If a contested stall has been called and then fast count is called, then the stall count resumes at SIX.

-Double-team may be called if there is more than one defensive player guarding (see 'Week 1: Pick Review) the thrower within 10 feet of the thrower.
However! If there are two offensive players and two defensive players (one guarding each offensive player) within the 10 foot radius of the thrower's pivot, then it is NOT a double team.
-Disc-space allows the thrower one disc's worth of space between them and the marker. Any line between two points on the marker must be at least one disc diameter away from the torso/pivot of the thrower. Movement by the thrower does not create a disc-space violation.
-Vision blocking. Precisely what it sounds like. The marker purposefully blocks the vision of the thrower.

What happens when one of these marking violations is called?
Play does NOT stop the first time a violations is called. The marker or violating players must correct their positioning before resuming the stall count (e.g. players double teaming must move back). The stall also must drop by two (i.e. Stalling one, two, three, fast count, two, three... Because the staller was about to say 'four', they drop two counts so stall resumes at 'two'). If the marker does not correct the violation and/or the stall count does not drop by two, then "violation" may be called. Violation DOES stop play, the defense must correct the violation, and the stall count resets to zero.

Double turnovers:
Section XII, C.
What happens if a defender catches their D, but then drops the disc? Is this a double turnover?
If the defender intercepts a disc (i.e. catches their D and stops rotation, which is what you should try to do!), but accidentally loses possession before or during ground contact related to the catch, the defender's team still gains possession of the disc. This does not count as a 'double turnover'.

'Best perspective', in/out of bounds, what happens if two teams cannot agree on the outcome of a play:
We had a few points this weekend when the two teams could not decide whether or not someone was in or out of bounds.

For 'best perspective', see Week 2: Definitions.

Section III, Playing Field
The outside perimeter lines of the field are considered OUT-OF-BOUNDS, while the endzone lines are considered IN-BOUNDS, but not in the endzone. If the player gains possession of the disc out of bounds, it is considered a turnover. 'Check feet' is not an actual call in the rulebook.

Section XVI, D
For any call, if the two teams cannot come to an agreement and no one had best perspective, then play stops, the disc reverts back to the thrower, and play resumes with a check and the stall count resumes at the count reached plus one, or six if over five. However, the player with best perspective (typically the receiver of the disc) can make the final call.