Putting your whole offense in the endzone is bad, actually

More space is good for the offense

Less clogged spaces are advantageous for the offense in pretty much every sport:

• It's easier to score in basketball playing 2v2 than playing 5v5.

• It's easier to sink a billiards shot when there are fewer other balls on the table.

• It can be hard to pass from near the goal line in American football since the defense only has to guard a space that's 10 yards deep.

• In baseball, clogging the side of the field that the hitter preferred hitting to ("the shift") was such a strong strategy that the MLB banned it.

• Many ultimate fans say the AUDL isn't fun to watch—because the bigger field makes it too easy for the offense.

Aside from the shift in baseball, many other sports rules either restrict the offense from spreading out (offsides in soccer or hockey) or restrict the defense from clogging up important areas (defensive 3 seconds rules in basketball).

It drives me crazy that frisbee players often ignore this basic strategy when trying to score.

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An example

I've seen this happen so many times, but a recent play reminded me to write about it. It seems I can’t embed Twitch links the same way I can with YouTube, so click here to watch Raretode’s stream from the recent Pro Championships mixed final.

BFG turns the disc over near their own endzone, and the Drag'n Thrust players choose to wait for their offense to get set in the endzone before picking up the disc. Of course, that means they're also giving the defense time to get set in the endzone. They could've had this 2-on-2 in the endzone:

Instead, they wait for the endzone to get more clogged before starting play.

There's a delicious irony in the result of this possession. Yes, Drag'n Thrust eventually score, but take a look at how it happens. They go 20 yards backwards when their options in the endzone aren't available, and end up here (the disc is all the way over on the left edge of the screen):

Losing yards is fine, that's not what this is about. Immediately after the moment I screenshotted, they make two forwards passes for a score. But here's the thing: the endzone is unclogged when they score. When they finally make forward progress into the endzone, it's because a long forward pass has left four defenders behind the disc:

They had an endzone 2-on-2 after the turnover—but they reject it, only to manufacture a new 2-on-2 through the process of losing 20 yards and gaining them back. But they could've had a 2-on-2 in the first place, without the added risk of throwing 5 passes and losing 20 yards!

(Similarly, it's ironic that, after putting all the cutters in the endzone, their strategy is to...isolate one cutter at the front of the stack. They already had a ready-made isolation if they'd just picked the disc up before clogging the endzone!)

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What the defense should do

To be clear, this strategy is only available because, frankly, frisbee defenses are often not very good. Defense is for stopping the other *team*. When a turnover happens, defenders that are now "behind" the disc shouldn't be reacting to their assignment—they should be hustling to stop the other team from gaining yards and scoring. Only once they've slowed the offense's fast break should they worry about their assignment who is behind the disc.

Let's take a look at how basketball teams play transition defense. In basketball, I was taught that to defend a fast break, the first step is hustling back on defense. Only after that do you match up. Watch the fast break defenders in the clip below—as the coach explains, they're focused on stopping the other team first, not on staying near their assignment.

In frisbee, sadly, many people feel that they're playing good transition defense as long as they're staying near their person. But this is not good enough! If your person is not making themselves a threat, you need to go and help stop a more threatening option. An offensive player 10 yards behind the disc is not a threat worth worrying about when the other team has a chance to score.

But defenses do play this way. And offenses, given this opportunity, need to take better advantage of it. Don't clog up the endzone space until the defense forces you to. If your person is guarding you tightly ten yards behind the disc, you are playing great offense by standing exactly where you are. You're creating tons of space for the players in the endzone to take advantage of.

If you watched the basketball drill closely, you may have noticed an apparent contradiction—I say it's good to hang out behind the disc, but the offensive team in the drill sprinted down the court. The key is good offenses react to the opportunities the defense gives them. In that drill, the offense had to hustle because the defense is smart—they were focusing on getting back on defense first, and only matching up later. If the offense didn't hustle they'd lose their opportunity to play 5-on-3.

But if the defense is playing the way frisbee players often do, the offense should take advantage of it by not hustling down. Think of it this way:

If the defenders hustle back but you and some fellow teammates don't, the offense would be playing 3-on-7. If the choices are playing 3-on-7 or playing 7-on-7, of course you should choose 7-on-7—hustle down the field yourself.

But if you have a choice between your team playing 7-on-7 or playing 3-on-3 (because defenders are staying close to their assignments), you should let the rest of your offense play 3-on-3. Any good offense should love all that space.

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Guess who does it right

I've seen a few teams pick the disc up to fast break after a turnover, but one example stands above the rest for taking advantage of defense that focuses on defending the person and not the endzone. To the surprise of probably no one (especially not Felix), that example is provided to us by Medellin Revolution. In my post Defense is for stopping the other *team* I included this clip:

Raleigh Radiance turn the disc over near their own endzone, and instead of clogging the endzone, Revolution send four players to the side of the field. The Radiance defenders follow them, leaving a wide open endzone for the Revolution cutters to take advantage of.

Again, this is mainly poor defense—but offenses need to take advantage of poor defense, and not play into the defense's weakness. Until defenses learn how to play intelligently, offenses should punish them by leaving the endzone unclogged.

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Though it's not exactly the same situation, I'd also like to give some "doing it right" credit to Alex Barnett for understanding the general concept—watch the end of her Callahan video here. She did the perfect thing for her offense in this situation: instead of trying to get the disc, she simply dragged a defender to somewhere they were completely useless, creating more space on the rest of the field.

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Final thoughts

In this article I've focused on turnovers near the endzone; the other common situation where this is relevant is when the offense completes a longer pass to get the disc near the endzone. It's obviously important that enough offensive players hustle downfield so that the thrower has someone to throw to. But they don't all need to. Here too, it can be helpful to hang back (only if your defender is hanging back with you!) so there's more open space in the endzone.

In these examples, there are two strategic factors happening in parallel:

• Playing quickly/picking up the disc quickly (i.e., running a "fast break") and

• Regardless of speed, encouraging cutters to stand in the endzone

I'm a big fan of fast breaking, but today's article is about the second factor. As the Medellin Revolution example shows, even if you're not fast breaking, there's no need to force the entire offense into the endzone. Take a breath before picking up the disc if you need to, but don't wait until all the cutters are in the endzone—it's only making it harder to score.

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[Update 2025-04-24]: The Singapore U24 team used an “empty endzone offense” in their 2023 world championship final against the USA. Here’s an example possession where we can see three players behind the disc who are just standing around behind the brick mark, not trying to get into the endzone (You can see a similar offense at around 6:50, as well):

I’ve also written more about this topic in "Endzone!" doesn't need to mean "vert stack", and if you haven’t already seen it on YouTube I highly recommend Ulti Von’s Frisbee Teams Should Steal PoNY's Endzone Strat! for a related approach.

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