¶ Drill 23: Endzone Cutter Defense
Skills Focussed:
- MARKING (CUTTER): Person to Person for Cutters (4.2.2.1), Body Defence for Cutters (4.2.2.2)
Other skills for which it can be used: CUTTER: Timing (3.3)
Concepts to know before doing the drill:
- Basic marking technique
- Concept of force
- Basic Cutting technique
- Basic catching and throwing
Drill Focus:
Marking cutter: - Trust the marker. The marker will stop throws to one side of the field, while you block the other half of the field.
- Tell the defender of the cutter to experiment with what he looks at.
Set-up:
- Create an endzone: 10 × 15 meters.
- Place: Thrower with a marker 5–10 meters outside the endzone.
Offensive cutter and defender inside the endzone.
- Objective: Offense scores in one pass. Defense prevents the score.
Drill-Flow:
- Offense tries to create space and score quickly.
- Defense focuses on: Trusting the marker’s force. Staying tight but always in a position to stop the open-side cut.
- After four attempts, rotate players so everyone experiences different roles.
Coaching Points:
- Avoid overcommitting to the closed side—allow the cutter to go there, but follow in a way that preserves open-side coverage.
- Trust the force set by the marker; your job is to lock down your half.
- Encourage defenders to stay low, balanced, and ready to react to a cut back.
- Offensive players should vary their cutting strategies to give defenders realistic practice.
Progression/regression:
- Introduce timed stall counts to make the drill more game-like.
- Have defenders experiment with visual focus: Looking only at the cutter. Trying a split view (only if the cutter is less of a threat). Briefly checking the disc only on an “up” call.
- ENDZONE SET PLAY
Source: Page 39 & 40 Ultimate Trainers Manual