Team Defense

Team defense takes time and patience. I define team defense as every person actively defending the biggest threat on the field first, and then taking care of your individual match-ups. Team defense prioritizes the biggest threat over your individual match-up. If every defender on the field was able to shut down their man, then I don't think you would need team defense. In my opinion, team defense is not just shutting down your man. It requires you to be actively looking for the threat, constant communication from the sidelines and others on the field, helping out other players who get in bad positions, and temporarily getting out of position to stop a play from happening all while keeping your man from getting the disc or making a big play. Here's an element to team defense:

Poaching - Poaching can delay or stop the offense from doing their called play. You can poach by standing in the open lane, or you can be sneaky about it and dart out when the cutter is making an open-side cut. Here are some tips on team poaching:

• In general, the defenders in the front of the vertical stack should look to poach. They should keep an eye on the cutters in the back of the stack. If you are guarding a non-threat, clog the open-side by standing in it early in the count.
• If you see someone poaching, watch his guy. For every poach, there MUST be someone watching his back. The defenders in the back of the stack should always be looking for this. The poacher's guy can become the largest threat to the defense quickly. If he makes a move for the end zone, communicate the switch and start getting in position.
• On an open-side in cut, if the man you are guarding does not get the disc, poach the lane for a couple of seconds. Look to see if there are any other in cuts happening or about to happen.
  
• In H stack, poach the lane if you are guarding a handler without the disc. I will always do this unless the guy I'm guarding is an "every other" kind of player (a player that gets the disc every other throw). Poaching will most likely result in a throw to the handler you are guarding. By then, the primary cut will no longer be open in the middle of the field and may likely get the disc near the sidelines.
• The danger or poaching is obvious - you are no longer guarding a person, but a dangerous option. You can get caught if the handler and the dump work together quickly to dump and swing the disc. Earlier in the season, you may get caught more because your team is looking to help you out. However, the more the defensive team plays together, the more likely they will look for opportunities to poach and help out.