¶ Drill 41: Defending a region
Skill Focussed:
- OFFENSE: Zone (5.4)
Concepts to know before doing the drill:
- Basic Catching and Throwing
- Basic Zone offense and defense structure
Drill Focus:
- How to move upfield in zone offense
Set-up:
- Players: 7 to 13
- Field: Divide with cones into 5×10 meter rectangles (final rectangle is the endzone).
- Teams: 3 offensive players start at one end.
- All others pair up, each pair defending one rectangle.
Drill-Flow:
- RULES:
- Defenders must stay inside their rectangle.
- Offense tries to advance through rectangles and score.
- Offense has 3 lives (turnover = lose a life & fall back one rectangle).
- Stall count is 6.
- FLOW:
- Offense starts moving the disc through rectangles using short, easy passes.
- Defenders work as a unit to block within their assigned region.
- When a turnover occurs, offense retreats 5m (one rectangle) and loses a life.
- Rotation after a score or when all lives are lost:
- Defenders move up one rectangle.
- Former offense becomes endzone defense.
- One offensive player plays twice to balance numbers.
Coaching Points:
- Make sure the theory behind the drill is well understood (offense has numerical advantage over the defense which is guarding different zones mid and upfield. Instead of forcing passes and cluttering, offense should try to stay open and go for easy passes).
- Zone offense is not about relentless running. Players should occupy free spaces and be ready for quick catches.
- Defense can strategize (e.g., forcing toward each other) to make throws tougher.
Progression/regression:
- Make rectangles bigger → easier for offense, harder for defense.
- Reduce offense to 2 players → increases difficulty, forces creative movement