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How many times have you found yourself saying, "I don't care if they score, just don't let HER get the disc." This is usually uttered because she's the one that makes the team go. The Eliminator is designed to deny that special opponent the disc by playing man on the offensive person you wish to eliminate and zone with the remaining six defenders on the field. The version of the eliminator described here is much like a 2-3-1 (or 2-2-2 for you Americans) and fish combined.
The set-up is designed to trap the disc on one sideline. In the
pictures shown, the trapping sideline is on the defenders' left.
The offensive player being eliminated and the defender covering
him/her or not shown.
Initially, the short right will mark the disc towards the left
sideline. If the disc is near the right sideline, the force is
almost straight up. As the disc gets closer to the left sideline,
the mark shifts so that he/she is forcing more and more left. The
short left plays like a top of the cup. Communication between the
middle middle and short left is vital. Usually, two offensive players
will be in the middle of the field. The middle middle will cover the
deeper one and postion the short left to take away the shorter receiver.
The left middle has the most ground to cover and has to be on his/her
toes. The right middle will be called back in case the deep needs
help.
As soon as the offensive team gets to the left sideline, a trap set will be formed as shown above. If it was a long pass that got the team to the sideline, the short left will quickly set up the mark first taking away the lane from which he/she came and then taking away the dump as the short right gets in position. If it was a short pass that put the team on the sideline, then the short right will continue to mark and the positions of the two shorts in the picture need to be reversed. The left middle forms the third person in the trap set, but is positioned about 15-20 feet from the disc. The deep needs to cheat towards the left sideline. The middle middle lets the shorts know where to go as offensive players come through.
However, if the person you're trying to eliminate is in the dump
position, it makes no sense to both cover him/her and take away the
dump with the mark. In this case, you will force the person with
the disc straight up with one of the shorts and take away the swing
pass with the other short. This relaxes the strain that's on the
left middle as seen in the following picutre.
Unfortunately, the person you're trying to eliminate will still
probably get the disc.
If the person you're trying to eliminate catches the disc on the
sideline, then you should set up a trap set just like with the
fish as shown below.
If the person you are trying to eliminate gets the disc away from the
sideline, then the eliminator can mark straight up, with the shorts off to
the sides, allowing the offensive player to dump the disc or move
it laterally as shown in the picture below.
There are other alternatives, of course. One effective solution is for the eliminator only to play person-on when the person you want to eliminate is in a handling position against the zone. As soon as that person goes into a mid or deep spot (deep especially), you might want to have the eliminator stay in and become a third member of a traditional cup or take up a position so that the team can fall into the fish zone.
I have diagrams explaining a further possible elimination, but do not have the time to describe the situation in full as of yet. For those curious, see Eliminator II and try to piece things together for yourself. Rather than trapping, the goal with this zone is to always force middle.