Theory: Zone Offence by Lloyd Cheesman

Zone defence is a complex part of Ultimate, and the methods for playing offence against zones vary based on many factors.

why might a team use a zone defence?

• Stop the offence from doing what they want: person to person defences often fall into the trap of letting the offence dictate the game. Using a zone makes it very difficult for an offence to play exactly the way they might want to (for instance, isolating a cutter for a deep throw), therefore giving control back to the defence
• Stifle a pull play: some teams are virtually unstoppable once they string together a few passes and build momentum. Using a zone to break that initial flow and force the offence to break out of their plan. This is why zone transitions are very popular
• Slow things down: if you’re outmatched athletically, zones can be very useful. Teams that are unstoppable given space & time might make more mistakes when space is restricted and their ability to create momentum is hindered
• Set up situations to get blocks: the most common example of this would be using a cup to trap the disc on the sideline. Essentially, the objective is to make it as hard as possible for your opponent to complete a pass
• Utilise bad weather: bad weather can make it very challenging to complete certain throws. Putting lots more defenders near the disc can increase the chances of generating a turnover

Playing offence against a zone can be challenging too; if executed correctly, a zone can demand highly skilled throws, high risk plays and eek out miscommunications in the offence. Even after an offence has beaten a zone and scored the point, it can be difficult to pinpoint what the offence did well, this is because there are numerous micro-solutions or “principles” to playing against a zone defence. Fundamentally, these “principles” can challenge the defence by providing too many threats to cover at once, creating threats too quickly for the defence to react to or exploiting a weakness in the zone structure.

Zone Offence Strategies

Broadly speaking, there are three ways to beat a zone:

• Around the Zone. Use quick movement, dump, swings and throws to space to go around the zone

Working the disc around a zone is often the safest approach

• Through the Zone. Use break mark throws, quick movement and precision to go through the zone

Quick, decisive throwing allows the offence to move through a zone

• Over the zone Go over the zone. Use overheads to find the holes left by the zone

Going over the top of the defenders can be risky, but also challenging for the defence to recover from

Usually, a good zone offence will utilise a combination of these three approaches. Zones are often designed specifically to tempt difficult throws (like overheads), so it is wise to have multiple methods that your team are comfortable with; this adaptability is particularly useful in strong wind, rain, or when facing a zone look that is unfamiliar to your team.

Some zones lend themselves to specific offensive tactics. Zones that put lots of bodies around the disc – like a cup – leave huge areas of the field undefended. If you can escape the cup – with an over head, break mark throws, or just by avoiding the cup entirely – then you can try to keep the disc ahead of the defence using swings and fast disc movement. Other zones might cover more space, but leave more gaps which can be exploited by going through the middle using fakes and break throws. Your team will therefore need a variety of tools to beat a variety of defensive zones.

Zone offence techniques

Many of the techniques used to beat zones are common to all offensive strategies. Here are a collection of commonly seen methods used in zone offence:

• Convincing Fakes: the use of fakes to move defenders
• Dump & Swing: moving the disc backwards and laterally to out-flank the defence
• Fast disc movement: moving the disc quickly before the defence can re-adjust their positions
• Give & Go through a zone: two players passing the disc between them to gain yards or change the angles of attack
• Crashing the cup: the act of moving an offensive player into the defensive cup
• Popping: offensive movement behind the cup or wall
• Overload: temporarily having more offensive players than defensive players in the area around the disc