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| An offensive player tries to play through a three-man cup defense during an informal game. |
The cup involves three players, arranged in a semi-circular
cup-shaped formation, one in the middle and back, the other two on the
sides and forward. One of the side players marks the handler with a
force, while the other two guard the open side. Therefore the handler
will normally have to throw into the cup, allowing the defenders to more
easily make blocks. With a cup, usually the center cup blocks the
up-field lane to cutters, while the side cup blocks the cross-field
swing pass to other handlers. The center cup usually also has the
responsibility to call out which of the two sides should mark the
thrower, usually the defender closest to the sideline of the field. The
idea of the cup is to force the offense into making many short passes
behind and around the cup. The more times the offense is forced to throw
the greater the chance that the handlers will make a bad throw, or a
defender will intercept the disc. The other four defenders traditionally
play as two wings, who each cover a sideline, a middle sometimes
referred to as a "middle-mid", "popper d", or "mid-deep" who covers
directly behind the cup for any short throws through or over the cup,
and a deep, who covers any long throws by out of order the offense.
