Playing Deep - on Offense and Defense

The deep game should be an important part of any offense, and the defense should consider ways to counter it. Too many teams misuse it by throwing into crowds or allowing an unfavorable mismatch to occur. Although there's no substitute for raw talent, you can improve your deep game without getting faster or taller or developing better throws.

Defensive tip: Poach deep. It is every defensive player's responsibility to prevent the easy long goal. If you are covering the deepest offensive player on the field, also be aware of any other offensive players cutting deep. If they are beating their defender, you should drop your man and pick up the long cutter. Additionally, the defenders near the back of the stack should also be aware, because the "last man back" frequently changes.

Offensive tip: Clear the deep area. A long cut should originate from not more than 20 yards downfield from the thrower. Every other offensive player has the responsibility to keep their defender from poaching deep. Obviously, you can't have everybody bunched within 10 yards of the disc. What I mean is that if you are last in the stack and see a teammate start to cut deep, you should cut in, either away from the disc to get your man out of the way, or towards the disc to get the open pass as your man poaches deep. In any event, when you are moving, your defender thinks you are a threat to get the disc and has to pay attention to you, but if you hang out because it's not your cut, a smart defender will be able to help out his teammate. NYNY always did a tremendous job with this, at keeping large chunks of the field free from defenders.

Warning: Some of this flies against "conventional wisdom", so do it in moderation. "Switching" is considered evil in some parts.

Q. Should one yell "switch" on such a deep cut switch play? Is it better to have two people chasing the deep cut and no one watching the short cut?
A. Well, ideally, it should be automatic. It works best if both defenders are looking for this switch. The "last man back" also can keep an eye on the disc and can tell whether the long throw is possible and if he needs to switch. I guess it isn't an automatic switch, then, in that the last man back should determine whether he is helping the team by preventing the easy goal at the expense of leaving his man temporarily open. At first, then, he probably should yell "switch". Later, only eye contact will be needed, until eventually everyone is of the same mind. As I said before, though, many people are vehemently against the idea of switching, because it's something different and doesn't always work. And yes, it's probably better to have two men deep if it's a viable throw otherwise, but it's better even still to have the poacher deep and the other defender taking the poacher's man. It's a timing thing, and takes a while to develop this skill, so there will be some awkward moments if not everyone is comfortable with it. But I've caught way too many long goals after running past three defenders who were stationary in the stack "covering their man".

Q. Should I poach off my man if my man has made an unsuccessful short cut and is now returning to the stack when I see a second cutter coming near my side of the field (towards the disc, towards me)?
A. This is also a good question. There are two types of poaches, one to prevent a pass and one to make the defensive play. How you poach depends on your motive.

1. Immediately flare out into his cutting lane, trying to dissuade him from continuing his cut, but with the full intention of returning to your man after a couple steps. Unless your man might be clearing deep for a huck, you might want to do this a lot. Guy cuts in, you shut him down, he clears along the sideline, spend a couple seconds facing the disk while you're backpedaling as he's clearing. It clogs their passing lanes and you might get an easy block. And, it usually costs you absolutely nothing (but be careful of the deep clear).
2. Wait until the last possible second, face upfield (away from the thrower), then sprint to where you are anticipating the throw, arriving just before the offensive guy. This is probably more effective against less experienced throwers, since you learn to avoid throwing into poaches.
   

Poaching is a timing thing, and it takes practice. It's habit forming, though. In casual games, it's rare when I'm not covering at least three different people over the course of a point (unless, of course, I get a block on the first pass). It should probably be used in moderation, lest you get labelled a "lazy fat ass poacher."

Q. If you poach deep, and the person you're covering has read this, will it still work?
A. If he's read this, he will have cut out of the way as he saw his teammate sprinting deep. If he's a little slow and forgets that he read this until his man poaches, then he can cut toward the disc on the same side as the thrower. However, the defender on the long cutter originally has also read this and will be looking to switch to the poacher's man, or, barring that, a third man on the defense sees the poachee breaking in and takes him, and someone else takes his guy, who then cuts, is picked up by a different poacher, so on, until stall 10. All this assumes the thrower hasn't already thrown into a poach or dumped it off because no one is open. A good, experienced thrower will usually wait an extra second for the receiver to get to the open, unpoachable space.

So, yes, it will still work. The idea behind poaching and switching is that normally, a defender has to chase the offensive player around the field, but with poaching/switching, the defender has a better chance. You can view a cut as a race between two players to any spot on the field, but the offensive guy gets to say "go", he determines where the race is to, and he can change his mind about the location of the finish line for the first half of the race. Is it any wonder then that it's impossible to cover a good receiver one-on-one? With switching possible, the defenders can say, "We'll race you, but if you cut to this place, player A will race you. If you cut to that place, player B will race you. If you cut back there, C will race you." With this option, the defense regains a bit of the head start. Of course, there are up to 6 races going on simultaneously, so it takes a bit of coordinating to have an entrant in every important race. As you get more comfortable with the idea of poaching and switching, you develop a better feel for which races you should jump in and which you should allow your teammate to win or lose on his own. Some may consider this an individual glory-seeking defense, but I think it's more of a team defense than any other man on man, requiring timing, cooperation, and heads up play.

Keep in mind, though, that as fun as it may be, poaching every pass probably won't work, and the lazy poach is just an excuse not to run. But if the proper places are chosen, and you exert the effort, poaching can be tremendously effective.