Archive for category: News

[–]felix37 1 point 2 days ago

Hey Mario, thanks for the thorough response! Also keen for some back and forth and potential collab in the future.

I’d say Flex is more like a junk transition to smart man, than a zone. Recently when explaining it I’ve been playing down the 2-3-2 structure as it’s not applicable in the majority of situations – positions are entirely dependant upon how the offense are positioned. Flex is like hard person-D where you’re also heads-up and constantly looking for switches and sandwiches – all of your team is, all the time – and communicating about it non-stop. I feel this type of defence hasn’t been explored anywhere near as much it could be, or as much as it deserves to be – so even elite players picking it up would have to train ‘the basics’: dynamic sandwiching, pre-emptive switching, verbal & non-verbal communication – before they could start to reach their potential as a team. Perhaps players and coaches shy away from principle-based strategies because they are less black & white than rule-based strategies (don’t get broken, don’t get beaten open side), so harder to break down & give definitive analysis/feedback? Or perhaps they simply haven’t been explored yet because the time hasn’t come.

What if an elite team was playing (well-trained) Flex against an elite offence? Switches and sandwiches, when done right, advantage the defence and disadvantage the offence. The elite O would need to position and move in such a way that doesn’t allow the elite Flex D to switch or sandwich, so that they keep sente / the advantage. This is where I believe Mex offence comes in – the answer to the question nobody asked (yet)! If both teams are elite/ideal, then offence always wins.

At a high level, Mex isn’t needed, as I agree stack offences work out fine against person-D or junk transition, and zones can be picked apart if the teams are balanced – so my focus has switched to defence in recent months. For beginners and developing players though, the maximised options and opportunities in Mex open up far more of the game than stack offences. Being presented with so many options means players decision-making, knowledge of their own skillset, field vision and far more are constantly tested, and they have a greater number of opportunities, both on and off-disc, to get involved & make a difference in the game on their own terms – so they learn & develop much faster.

Anyway, Mex is currently a nice theory but kinda unprovable, so I try to avoid going on about it too much. The ‘rhythm distractions’ and ‘flash poaches’ you speak of sound a lot like Flex – how a defence should change throughout the course of the stall count is another area I’m exploring (dictating the tempo), and when defenders should choose to switch unexpectedly (could be ‘flash poaching’). Interested to hear your thoughts about any/all of this!