"The Mark"



What is The Mark? Basically, when the weather is nice ultimate is played using man-to-man defense. One defender is responsible for guarding one offensive player. If this was the only constraint then the defensive player would be at a large disadvantage. The field is large and only the offensive player knows where he plans to run.

This is where the Mark comes into play. There are three main points to the Mark.

  1. Force the player to throw in one consistent direction.
  2. Allow the defense to guard half the field.
  3. Gradually direct the disc towards the sideline to trap the offense.

The first point is the one that is most important for beginners. We generally call "force flick" or "force forehand". This is always in reference to the right handed player, meaning if a left handed player gets the disc the force stays the same direction. Lefties get off easy. To help stop the confusion I recommend calling "force uphill" or "force downhill" when playing at the Fort. Then all defenders know that when the player they are guarding gets the disc they should try to force them to throw either "uphill" or "downhill" regardless of which hand they throw with.

Why? In the beginner game most people can throw the backhand ok but have either a weak or no forehand. By putting a good hard Mark on that forces the opposing team to throw forehands you put them at a huge disadvantage. They throw a bad pass and you get the disc. Sweet.

How? This is a little harder to explain in text. Basically you want to think two things when putting on the Mark. First and most important, dont let them throw against your Mark! If the force is "uphill" then whatever you do dont let them throw downhill. Second, let them throw the forced direction. Never get so excited about knocking down the other players pass that you jump over to the force side and allow him to then "break you". If the force is "uphill" and he gets off a pass in the uphill direction, good for him. You did your job. If you jump over and try to block that uphill throw and it turns out it was a fake and he then throws the disc downhill. Bad boy. You have been "broken". This is what we mean when we are yelling "HOLD THE FORCE" on the field. We are trying to remind the player applying the Mark to not get broken.


In the picture the red offensive player trying to work the disc up the screen. The yellow defensive player is trying to "force forehand". The position of the defender is about as far towards the forehand as you should ever let yourself go. Notice that the offensive player can throw a backhand (to the left) if he throws directly in that direction. If you, as the defender, sees this getting ready to happen then you need to bounce around more in that direction. Never, ever, bounce more to the forehand side though. Looking at the picture you can see that the offensive player has a pretty easy throw to the right, the forehand. Fine, we are forcing that. He maybe can throw straight up screen but only if he can throw through your arm. He cannot throw up screen and to the left and that is what we want.

If you learn nothing else, point one from above is that. Keep them throwing in one direction and they will run out of field or throw the disc away. Nice.

Ok, point two. This is a little more advanced but for those of you sucking a little wind yesterday here is your conservation of energy opportunity. If the force is "held" all point then you as a down field defender can shade to the force side of the man you are defending. This is also called "cheating" to the force side. If you are Jim then we call it "poaching" and it isnt recommended!

Another illustration:


Again the offense is trying to move the disc up the screen and the force is forehand. The shaded player has the disc and he is being marked by yellow. I placed three random players across the field to show how having a good mark on the disc can help the defenders off the disc. First, look at the offensive player "a". He has no chance over there. Since the mark is to the right the defender can "cheat" off his man to the right. Further, since the disc is to the right of the defender he can cheat off even further and help clog up more space (in case someone else on offense came bolting into the picture). We basically dont believe player "a" can get the disc where he is so we dont have to guard him very tightly. Player "b" is closer to being in play. He could be considered someone in "the stack". Where he is right now he would have a tough time getting the disc but he could run to the right at any moment (sorry, no animations). The defender knows that if "b" runs left he is safe and so the only thing he has to worry about is if "b" runs down screen or to the right. The defender takes advantage of this knowledge and shades down and to the right. Now the offense player "b" must not only out run the defender he must catch up to him as well! Now, player "c". He is in a good place (assuming he ran to that position). The mark is letting the player throw the disc that way and so it is now the responsibility of "c"'s defender to not allow that pass. In effect, the mark is guarding half the field and each down field defender is guarding the other half.

Just as when you mark the thrower you dont want him to fake you into a bad position where he can "break" you, the down field defenders want to maintain proper positioning as well. For instance, the defender guarding "b" is in super position. If "b" starts to run to the left the defender should not kick into high gear after him. Maintain your positioning. If "b" were to run to the left a couple steps, the defender runs up to him, and then "b" turns around and goes to the right, the defender has been beaten and "b" will be open on the side we are letting the throw go to. Whoops. Unlike the mark this is a lot harder to prevent. People get beat, it happens, just try to keep good positioning to minimize it.

This all raises a very important point. If the down field defenders are cheating to one side then it is very VERY important that the mark not get broken. Take a look at this picture.


If a throw to the left in the picture to "a" is made because the mark got "broken" then look at what is set up. The rest of the offensive players are wide open. Any one of them can shoot to the left and get the disc. The whole defense is forced to run very hard to try to get the mark back on the disc before the offense scores. Again, this is why people on the field never say "hold the force" they YELL "HOLD THE FORCE!"

You still reading this? GREAT! The final point of the mark is trapping the offense against the sideline. As I said above, the mark is letting the offensive team throw the forehand. The downfield defense tries to not allow any receptions but some will be made. As each catch is made that players defender immediately puts a mark on the offensive player that caught the disc. Slowly but surely the offense marches more and more towards the sideline. Eventually they catch a disc right along the out of bounds line. Great! What does the thrower have left to him? He cant throw left because the mark is standing there. He cant throw right because that is out of bounds. He can only try to throw the difficult straight up the line throw that must go through the marks arm and where every down field defender knows to be standing. That is what you want and you will force a turnover rather often from this.

And thats about it!

I hope this has helped a little. I know I answered a lot of questions about both "how" to mark and "why" to mark on the field yesterday. Hopefully this little post will give you the confidence to believe the mark is, as Martha Stewart would say, "A Good Thing" and stick to it. Defense wins Intramural Games!

enjoy the game.


tom (aka soup).