Stall 9

This is a post relating to a bit of coaching advice I recently read. It talks about the force. Now some players will be very active on the mark. The jump side to side, they jostle the thrower but are easy to make over commit due to their eagerness. At the other end of the spectrum there is the player who never moves, they are static and have a solid start position and hold fast on this. On small thrower movement and the mark is broken.

The idea is a middle zone where you not trying to get huge lunge blocks but your just trying to hold the force to stall 9. This doesn’t sound impressive when you read about it. But just think every offence player is only getting the disc out at a high stall. Will it be a high percentage high yard gain throw? No. Is it going to be a hard reset or a big punt to nowhere? Yes.

So if the rest. Stall 9 starts again. They reset back again. You keep stalling high till they dump back to their endzone or there’s a turn over.

The idea is a team principle. Much like help defence. Think about if ever play holds their force till a high stall count one of a few things have happened;

1. You’ve pushed them back as mentioned above

2. You’ve been beaten up the line (you can work on a defence force role to help)

3. They’ve bucked it deep and your defence has picked it up

So if every player is sticking to the plan. Taking away one or two things (taking away everything is near impossible against top level players) then you end up being the tram that others hate the defensive pressure you put in other teams.

Watch rugby teams when their forwards create a turnover or win a penalty. They get huge back slaps and congratulations from their team mates. Same in the NFL. A player cuts down the quarterback before they can get the ball moving there’s huge jumping around and backslapping.

Defence in ultimate is a lot of one on one, but it’s a team effort. You follow the principles you’ve set in motion and as a team you can become an imposing defensive force. Stall 9 might just set you on the road to it.