While watching the Boston Night Riders vs. New York City Titans film on Youtube, the player movement on a single play stuck out.
In this play the Boston chasers exhibit strong off-ball movement, creating a key pass opening in the New York defense. Let’s introduce the five zone pitch concept to describe this movement.
The Five Zones
What are the zones?
Traditionally, dunking the quaffle through the hoops is easier than attempting a shot. Most defensive schemes will prioritize a tight to the hoops formation to keep offensive players away. On offense, the four quaffle players will spread out around the hoops, attempting to pull the defensive players away from their hoops. These players will fill four of five zones, depending on which zone the quaffle is currently in and the quaffle’s previous zone.
When starting a set offensive possession, distributors will either position themselves centered to the hoops or flat with another, with different layouts for each, shown below.
Centered Top, Two Flat Back Formation
Centered Back, Two Flat Top
Player Movement
A quaffle player must always be in the zones adjacent to the quaffle zone.
If the quaffle is in (A), (B) and (C) should be occupied.
The non-adjacent quaffle player should favor the direction the quaffle moved. If the quaffle keeps moving in the same direction, the next two passes are always prepared.
Player Movement – Centered Top Formation:
Player Movement – Flat Top Formation:
Boston using the Five Zones
In the play, New York uses a man-to-man defense scheme. New York’s keeper stays at their hoops and their chasers cover the two Boston chasers and the Boston Keeper, leaving the third Boston chaser unmanned.
Boston uses four passes to pull the New York defense to the left and position their unmanned chaser next to the unguarded right hoop. The four passes are diagrammed below with the unmanned chaser denoted with a star. All direction will be from the offensive perspective, looking at the hoops from the midfield line.
Pass I
The chaser in zone (B) begins moving to zone (E).
The (B) to (E) run crosses from the left side of the hoops to the right side of the hoops; and crosses from in front of the hoops to behind them. If New York was running a zone based defense, this run would likely pass through multiple zones.
This run applies more stress on the defense than two chasers moving one zone each, (D) to (E) and (B) to (D).
Pass II
As the moving chaser gets to (E), the (C) chaser passes the quaffle to the keeper in (A).
This pass reverses the direction of quaffle movement back to clockwise. The prepared pass is now (A) to (B).
With the quaffle now in (A), a chaser moves from (D) to (B) to fill the adjacent zone.
After Pass I, (A) to (C), the chaser in (B) ran to (E). It would follow that this pass, (C) to (A), would trigger the chaser in (E) to run back to (B). However, since the pass occurs while the (B) to (E) run is finishing, meaning that same chaser would have to double-back on their run.
The (D) to (B) shift is a better decision because it gives the chaser finishing their run a chance to pause to decide their next move and it quickly gives the new quaffle carrier in (A) a clockwise pass.
The back chaser then moves from (E) to (D), expecting the quaffle to pass to (B).
Pass III
After the pass is caught, the (C) chaser runs to (D) with their man-to-man defender following. The chaser already in (D) sees their teammate moving to (D), so they slide to zone (E).
The New York keeper sees that there are three Boston chasers on the left side of the hoops so they shift to the left, leaving the right hoop undefended.
Like in Pass I, a chaser is shifting two zones to fill the adjacent zone. Again, this puts stress on the defensive formation.
Pass IV
Analysis
The chaser who scores is unguarded the entire play.
New York used a strict man-to-man defense. Their keeper defended the hoops leaving their three chasers to cover three Boston quaffle players. New York needed their beaters to help cover the Boston’s fourth quaffle player, but they were distracted by Boston’s beaters, leaving the fourth player undefended.
Play behind the hoops
Despite the quaffle staying in front of the hoops for the whole play, each of Boston’s chasers were behind them at some point. New York keeper stayed in front of the hoops to defend against shots but needed to be ready to turn around if the quaffle were passed behind the hoops. The three Boston chasers weaving behind the hoops confused the New York keeper enough to miss the Boston chaser next to the right hoop.
Switching pattern diagnoses defense
Boston switched the positioning of their three chasers in the play. New York never changed the man-to-man assignments to react to the chasers moving. The only time a New York player changed their man-to-man assignment was after a bludger knock-out.
As the Boston chasers crossed their runs, they could notice that the same player was always unguarded. Therefore, when that player was next to the hoop, the quaffle-carrier knew that a pass was likely to result in a goal. A simpler zone switching plan may not have made the New York defensive strategy as clear.
Takeaways
Quidditch uniquely features the ability to score from all angles of the goal and the five zones are a tool to teach behind the hoops positioning. Having a player movement and rotation plan helps players anticipate where their teammates will be.
Using a more complicated movement pattern can get players open and help diagnose the defensive plan of an opponent.
Switching scheme
Two different switching patterns are diagrammed below using a centered top formation. A flat top formation would also use these concepts.
Prepared Pass
In a simple scheme, a pass to (C) would trigger the (B) player to run to (D).
In Boston’s scheme, a pass to (C) would trigger the (B) player to run to (E) and the (E) player to run to (D).
Reverse Pass
In a simple scheme, a pass to (B) would trigger the (E) player to run to (D).
In Boston’s scheme, a pass to (B) would trigger the (C) player to run to (D).
Zone Notation
Lastly, the zone notation described has the following properties in either centered or flat top formations.
- Zone (A) will always be centered over the middle hoop.
- Zones (B) and (C) are always wing positions.
- Zones (D) and (E) are always flat shooting positions.
- Zones (B) and (D) are always on the left side of the hoops.
- Zones (C) and (E) are always on the right side of the hoops.
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