[posted to rsd, January 2004}
>someone else wrote"
>scoring in the endzone is easy. just break the mark.
Yes, this will probably work, most of the time. I think that the intrinsic
difficulty in End Zone O is the pressure on the offense to score; the
idea that "most of the time" isn't good enough. If you
throw a huck out the back, you don't sit there and mope, but for some
reason there is a dissapointment in coming away from the goalline without
a point.
We notice end zone turnovers more: this is why End Zone O seems difficult.
About the "Just Break the Mark" strategy:
If I am on D, I WANT you to have to break a mark to score. If I didn't
think my team's mark could stop you, I wouldn't be playing a forcing
strategy. I would be zoning, or playing a straight-up mark, or something
where I didn't have to trust my teammate. But I am forcing for a reason- I
think my team's mark will get a block, or create a bad throw, enough of
the time that my team will score more.
Let's go ahead and make a break-mark score a neutral play- anytime
the offense scores without having to break a mark it is shifting the
percentages in the O's favor, and anytime the D forces a particularly
difficult break mark, or a difficult throw, or (of course) a turnover,
they have won the percentages.
You have to think about the endzone in terms of percentage,
because in such a short distance, good plays can go unrewarded, and bad
plays often work. If your opponent comes out of a goalline timeout, and
all they can get is a stall-9 backline layout- you don't want to change
how you defended to stop that play. Will that work the other 5 times per
game you are in a goalline situation? No, and it probably won't work
more than twice. The defense is winning. If you play a team that makes
that play 6 out of 6 in a game, you can either adjust your defense to
defending a new style of offense that is doing the hardest thing possible,
or you can shake their hands and get ready to beat them next time, when
those lucky plays don't work.
Offensively, you want to score. That means making most of your
plays easy, and making up for your mistakes with some talent. A method of
doing this is to find ways to move the disc a short
distance WITHOUT having to break a full mark. Here are 4 ideas.
1) Establish Doubt in the Downfield Defender
If you could get a downfield defender to bite on a break mark
throw, the result would be a very easy score on the countering live-side
cut. One way to do this is to scare a defender by making the break throw
look easier than normal. Many offenses have "spread" endzone formations,
where most of the players are around the outside of the endzone, drawing
their defenders away to create a large open space behind one featured
offensive player, who is less than 10 yards away from the thrower and
centrally located in the field.
With so much space behind the reciever, the defender gets anxious
about a short hammer or high release. Thrower fakes some such throw, and
the defender bites. Results? easy, live side goal. Without breaking a
mark.
2) Make Break Mark Cuts to the Open Side
Sounds weird. Here's how it works. Disc on the goalline, cutter
goes hard to the cone. Defender is there, but can't stay right on the
cutter as they turn to the dead side. If the thrower waits to
break with a throw into space, they have to beat both the cutter and the
mark. But, if they can throw it to the cutter before they are on the live
side, there is a window that is a live side throw, but a break mark cut,
with the defender out of position. This inside lane allows a score without
having to break a mark. If the defender can shut it down, they have likely
overpursued the cut, and the cutter can simply go back to the cone, where
they will likely be open. Offense wins, without needing to go right at the
strength of the D.
Incidentally, this is usually why "Moses" plays (splitting the
stack and running a cutter up the middle) usually work- the inside lane is
tough to mark without giving up a break, and tough to cover if you are
more worried about the cone cut.
3) Get Away From a Mark
a) Throw into space on the dump.
Moving the disc quickly can get you away from the mark,
opening up break side throws without a defender. A simple one:
throw a leading throw for your dump into the dead side. The dump runs onto it,
and catches it with about 3/4 of a second before the mark gets there. Throw
into space on the dead side. Goal. No mark.
If the mark did get there, they likely have had to overrun
the play, and the inside out lane should be open as they fly by. Goal
(although this has the added requirement that cutters have the patience to
wait for the throw to space to cut.
b) Throw the dump to a cutter moving into space.
Picture it like this: Thrower outside the endzone, forced
forehand, with a straight stack. Dump is 2 yards behind, 5 yards wide in
the live side. Once the disc gets checked in, simply run the dump to the
dead side, flat behind the thrower. Any easy throw to the dump will result
in an open second to the deadside. This is exactly like the thrower had
taken two steps back away from the mark, and thrown the easy backhand.
Goal.
There, your team has scored it's first 4 goals of the game, without
breaking a mark, and without anyone having to really work hard to get
open. At some point, you are going to need a reciever to get open, or a
thrower to make a throw- or you likely will not score the other 11 goals
you need (check out the Parinella article on the same subject for
more fundamental ways to score). But making 3 or 4 plays easy on you might
up your percentages, both on those plays, and on plays where the D has to
adjust to stop something tricky you have already done, and weakens their own ability to
stop 'normal' offensive plays.
Endzone Offense SHOULD be easy, and that is exactly why it seems so difficult.
