Coed week, part IV, strategies
I have never played anything approaching the level of coed that will be played at the world games (I am assuming that the US and Canadian teams at the World Games would dstroy the current Mixed National Champs). I can only talk about what we've done at the summer league level, but I'm sure it would be applicable at most levels.
Basically, if two teams are evenly matched in terms of talent, the team that wins will be the one that is better at doing two things. 1) Taking advantage of your opponents weaknesses, and 2) Protecting/minimizing your own weaknesses.
And the most glaring weakness of most coed teams is their women players. Yes, there are women players that are better than many of the men playing out there, but as usual, I'm talking about the majority. And as you move higher up the food chain, the more pronounced the difference will become, as there is a deeper pool of good males players to pick from than there are female players. To get sufficient numbers, some coed teams have to compromise to get enough women players.
Just to share one strategy that Dennis McCarthy devised during our GE Corporate days when we were playing 5-2, we played something we called the Tea Cup (in honor of the Tea Party, whose history is described here. Basically, it was a cup and 3. Jim and Dennis would be floaters, playing short and deep deep. I would cover the best handler, the other two guys would cover the next 2 best players, and the 2 women would be in the cup. If one of the 3 people who were being covered man got the disk, their defender would mark and the two women would play middle middle and off mark, in a cup. If one of the undefended people got the disk, then one of the women would take the mark and force into the other one, a 2 person cup. This defense was phenomenally effective in its day.
Depending on the talent of your men and women, another key tactic is when to go 3-4 (men to women). This can be for 2 reasons. You have a huge advantage in female talent compared to the other team, so why not take advantage of it. Or, the converse, you are top-heavy in male talent, with 3 superstuds, and you don't want to give the other team another guy to help out on D.
Actually, the main reason for this post was to unveil the Tea Cup. The rest of this is just idle speculation, but I would be interested to see what other people think are key coed strategies that do not apply to unisex ultimate.
Coed week, part V, Spirit (if I can think of enough for this topic)
Basically, if two teams are evenly matched in terms of talent, the team that wins will be the one that is better at doing two things. 1) Taking advantage of your opponents weaknesses, and 2) Protecting/minimizing your own weaknesses.
And the most glaring weakness of most coed teams is their women players. Yes, there are women players that are better than many of the men playing out there, but as usual, I'm talking about the majority. And as you move higher up the food chain, the more pronounced the difference will become, as there is a deeper pool of good males players to pick from than there are female players. To get sufficient numbers, some coed teams have to compromise to get enough women players.
Just to share one strategy that Dennis McCarthy devised during our GE Corporate days when we were playing 5-2, we played something we called the Tea Cup (in honor of the Tea Party, whose history is described here. Basically, it was a cup and 3. Jim and Dennis would be floaters, playing short and deep deep. I would cover the best handler, the other two guys would cover the next 2 best players, and the 2 women would be in the cup. If one of the 3 people who were being covered man got the disk, their defender would mark and the two women would play middle middle and off mark, in a cup. If one of the undefended people got the disk, then one of the women would take the mark and force into the other one, a 2 person cup. This defense was phenomenally effective in its day.
Depending on the talent of your men and women, another key tactic is when to go 3-4 (men to women). This can be for 2 reasons. You have a huge advantage in female talent compared to the other team, so why not take advantage of it. Or, the converse, you are top-heavy in male talent, with 3 superstuds, and you don't want to give the other team another guy to help out on D.
Actually, the main reason for this post was to unveil the Tea Cup. The rest of this is just idle speculation, but I would be interested to see what other people think are key coed strategies that do not apply to unisex ultimate.
Coed week, part V, Spirit (if I can think of enough for this topic)
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 6:26 PM
3 Comments:
Well put, Dix.
The Tea Cup is interesting!
There are all sorts of things going on with various spreads and iso's, etc. I do not claim to be an expert or have any kind of comprehensive knowledge. I do think that we need to give the div some time to develop. If one considers the number of years that Mixed has been a division in the UPA series, it is probably, developmentally speaking, around where Open was in 1984.
So here are just a few examples of some things teams have done over the past 3-5 years:
-Donner Party ran an interesting O in the 02 finals. They played 4 women. Their 3 throwers lined up horizontally, 2 males on the "wings", and a woman dump. The 4 cutters (1 man, 3 women) ran in a vertical stack. This created a difficult 1 on 1 match up on the single guy.
-Hang Time ran an unapologetically male-oriented offense for a few years (played against Donner in the finals in 02). They caught a lot shit for not using their women (why do we not hold men's teams accountable for not using all their players? Makes me want to carry a sign during men's games that says "Throw it to your bitches". I think the problem for many Mixed teams is that they do not develop an inventory of their strengths and weaknesses, and thus rely on habitual behavior. Maybe I give Hang Time too much credit, but I interpret them as having a very clear sense of worked well for them). They ran a spread (kind of a 1-3-3 in reverse...the 1 is behind the disc) that featured a 6'6" receiver that created match-up problems. It is interesting to note as, perhaps, an affirmation of what Al has been saying, that the Hang Time guys formed an Open team in 04 and didn't make Nationals.
-Red Fish Blue Fish has been running a very "soft" cup zone for years. It featured big Greg on the mark with the freedom to mark in any direction. If the O gets it to a weak thrower on the line...turnover.
Thanks, G
The 'teacup' defense has been fairly common in Atlanta summer league for quite a while. I also played on a team that ran a variation where we only covered the two best handlers (sometimes a woman) and then had two wings instead of a short. We'd even cover them with our women sometimes.
My mixed team, Rival, plays a bunch of different zones, and tried both of the above defenses. We found that as the level of competition increased, the effectiveness of these zones decreased. Enough so that we basically scrapped them completely. The better teams have enough good players to make you pay.
They are both great summer league defenses though.
Thank you for wwriting this
Post a Comment
<< Home