One of my favorite fakes is really quite quick (maybe a quarter of a second of motion), and from the waist up looks exactly like I am going to move my pivot foot for an around break, but I immediately step out for an inside break. My head and torso kind of lunge to one side, and I move the disc quite quickly in the same direction, but my lower body remains stationary. Essentially, I move just enough for the defender to commit to the big around, giving me a quick and easy inside break.
What is most important in teaching young players to break the mark?
Practice. Good mechanics and confidence should be the result of endless practice. Various studies and sources I’ve run across throw around some pretty large numbers when in comes to how many times you need to repeat a task before becoming truly proficient, and ten thousand is on the low side. If a young player thinks they’ve thrown enough, they haven’t.
Which do you feel is more important: Having a lot of players that can break the mark, or having some players on the field that can break the mark very well?
Both situations have their advantages, but if I had my choice I would prefer everybody on my team be able to break the mark, as opposed to have a couple people break the mark well. Apart from the complications the latter situation might produce in trying to create an offensive scheme, any time you have a predictable situation presented to the defense, if it can be stopped, it will eventually be stopped. If every time player X gets the disc they look to break the mark (because nobody else on the field can), the defense will eventually key in and plug that hole.
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