The Thrower's Responsibility In Dealing with Poachers April 5 2010

In Ultimate, sometimes a D player will move off his guy and try to poach - looking to get a D on a throw to someone else besides his man.

When this happens, I think it is, in large part, the responsibility of the thrower to deal with the poachers. The poached cutter must get to a space where the thrower can throw the disc - perhaps he yells "Poach!" or waves his hands over his head to notify the thrower, but ultimately, the responsibility lies with the thrower to see the situation and figure out what to do. Yes, sometimes this is a hard throw but getting the disc to a completely open guy is a huge advantage - this is the gambit the defense takes.

I like when defenders poach when I have the disc - I see it as a puzzle. Can I recognize the situation quick enough and come up with a solution before 10 seconds?

If you cannot recognize and solve these "poach-puzzles", you are a big liability to the offense and the D knows it. A good poacher will not let his man run right next to the thrower for an easy reset. That's the point! Getting the disc to a poached guy is necessarily hard for the thrower (if the defender is a smart one). Poach situations are not the time to freak out, but the time for using those Sudoku-solving skills.