I love defending against an iso stack. As long as defenders know their plan and play team D, the defense should be able to knock the offense back onto its heels.

Here I’ll talk about how I like to defend against it, not necessarily how Rhino intends to do so, but I’ll use the video above as a demonstration.

Step 1: force into the stack

The Rhino defender in this video has a very loose and active mark, and manages to seal off a very large area, disallowing the throw to the open iso cutter.

A common mistake that defenders make here is to mark the handler too tightly, allowing easy break throws. The marker here has just the right amount of spacing and the footwork to prevent the throw to space.

A defense that can successfully force towards the stack takes away the offense’s first option and forces the disc into a crowded area where it’s difficult to execute properly.

Step 2: deny the front of the stack

The defender marked in orange has taken a good position for defending a middle cutter in the stack, but he is too loose against the front cutter of the stack. He should be able to rely on the help of his teammates should his guy break out towards the middle or deep areas of the field.

When all four offensive players are stacked on the side, I like to have the front stack defender guard all in cuts, the middle two defenders to guard cuts into the lane and also help out on the isolation, and the last back to handle the deep cuts.

Although these players will start in semi-zone positions, they should be picking up the first man that makes a cut towards their area and handling that player in a normal man D from that point on.

Step 3: Fall back into regular man D

Rhino at this point has done a pretty good job defending the pull play. They stopped Sockeye’s first option into the cutting space with an excellent mark, and forced them into a crowded area. As a result, Sockeye ends up in an awkward position with 5 players behind the disc.

Sockeye does have Skip Sewell isolated in a bunch of space (offscreen to the left), but it’s an awkward position, and a miscommunication between him and the handler results in a turn.

Rhino didn’t play the point perfectly, but they did manage to apply enough pressure to Sockeye to generate a turn.

Addendum

A few plays later, Rhino comes out in an iso stack, and Sockeye tries to defend using something similar to the scheme I described above.

Unfortunately, here their execution is lacking. The first cut is OK for Sockeye, it doesn’t gain Rhino any yards or position. The second cut, however, catches the middle defenders napping.

Note the last back trying to signal his teammates to pick up the in cut, but nobody does, and Rhino offense begins to flow.

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