Gwen Ambler
As others have mentioned, it’s highly important to catch the pull whenever
possible. In the Women’s game, far too many players let the pull hit the
ground if it comes in at a hard angle. As a puller, I’ve learned to take
advantage of this by working on big outside-in pulls to gain an extra second
or two while the player stops a roll and picks up the disc, possibly gain
field position if the player misreads how the disc will roll, and give the
offense a wet disc to work with if there’s dew on the grass. All of that is
negated if the offense simply catches the pull.
When running a horizontal stack offense, teams I’ve played on will call three
handlers and designate one as the person to receive the first pass in the
center of the field. Either of the other two handlers will field the pull,
depending on which side of the field the pull heads towards. The two side
handlers need to communicate as soon as they get a read on the pull who will
catch it. If I’m one of these side handlers catching the pull, I like to count
down my catch “3…2…1” so that other players on the field know exactly when
our offense gains possession and is off to the races. The handler who gets the
disc centered to her should read how fast the defense is coming down and
position herself such that she can gain as many easy, uncontested yards as
possible with the first pass.
“Amy, Betty, Claire handling. Center to Claire to Dora to Emily. Francis
fill.”
Gwen Ambler
There are a lot of marking tidbits I’ve heard and dispensed over the years. I
find myself repeatedly coming back to four in particular. Two of these pieces
of wisdom have come from amazing coaches, one is from a legendary point-block
machine, and one is from observations of what makes the biggest difference in
my own marking.
From Jennifer “JD” Donnelly (while coaching Stanford Superfly): Your mark
should take into account body mechanics and reaction time. Keeping your
center of gravity low (bending at the knees, not the waist) helps you stay
balanced on the mark. You can move your feet quicker if your weight is on the
balls of your feet rather than your heels. It is quicker to move your arms
upwards than downwards. It is easier to move your arms quickly from a neutral,
relaxed position than from a fully extended, outstretched position. You can’t
take away a throw from below your knees with your hands while still staying
balanced (use your feet instead). You’ll have more time to react to a throw if
your hands are in the same plane as your body rather than in-front of your
torso.
From Matty Tsang (while coaching Fury): A good mark “sets the table” for
your teammates to get blocks downfield. Actually, as a very team-D-oriented
thinker, he emphasizes that playing good D anywhere on the field can help your
teammates get blocks. As it applies to marking, setting the table for your
teammates means holding the force (or at least making break throws very hard)
at a minimum and ideally also pressuring big open-side throws to influence the
thrower into throwing a pass that was not what she initially envisioned. If
you do your job on the mark, you allow your teammates the opportunity to make
plays downfield on passes that are less than perfectly executed or are thrown
somewhere the D is anticipating. You don’t need to get a point-block to
generate a turnover.
From Mike Whitaker (during a clinic with Team USA): Move your feet according
to a “marking triangle” to best hold the force. Whit is an excellent marker,
partly because of amazing reflexes, but more importantly because he moves his
feet well to the positions that are most likely to help him shut down the
break side. The marking positions that can best stop breaks are NOT along a
straight line, in one plane with the marker’s initial body positioning.
Instead of exclusively shuffling back and forth along a straight line, the
best markers vary the distance between themselves and the thrower (often
dependent on the stall count). In order to stop yard-gaining breaks, Whit
advocates using a drop-step shuffle to hit the corners of an imaginary
triangle behind the mark. By dropping back and out to the side, the marker
prevents a good thrower from simply stepping through the mark for a break and
also allows the marker time to react to any break-mark throw that is
attempted. I only wish I’d started practicing this marking triangle technique
earlier. My personal marking mantra: Work your hardest while on the mark.
There is never a time for resting while you’re on the mark and the disc is in
play.
Sometimes working hard on the mark is physical and sometimes it’s mental, but
it should always be intense. You should have your most fierce focus of the
point while marking. You should be constantly ready to adjust and readjust the
positioning of your body and limbs. You should be ready to move your feet with
quick agility and engage your core to maintain balance whether you’re marking
the first pass of a point or a pass after twenty minutes of a point. My best
marking has always been after reminding myself that marking should be hard
work.
Each of these pieces of advice can be tweaked according to the angle of the
force and other specific situations, like a particular thrower. For instance,
when marking a thrower like Kath Ratcliff, who has a quick high release
backhand, you would want to keep your right hand higher than usual (slightly
higher than shoulder level). But you would still want to keep your arm in a
relaxed position and you’d still want to drop-step back while trying to cut
off that throw. Alternatively, if you’re guarding a thrower like Julie Baker,
who has a ridiculously low-release flick, you might take a general step off to
prevent her from stepping past you, and you would need to be prepared to flash
your left foot to stop her signature throw. But you would still need to stay
balanced and move your feet. On the other hand, if you’re trapping an insecure
thrower on the forehand sideline, you might eschew drop-stepping against the
unlikely threat of a yard-gaining backhand break and instead shuffle to the
right, parallel to the sideline to make even a yard-losing backhand break less
easily executed. But you would still need to maintain your intense focus and
readiness for any break throw she might attempt. Paying attention to the
preferred breaks of throwers can certainly help prepare you for setting a
killer mark.
Gwen Ambler
In my experience, the toughest match-ups on receivers are against those
players that are as big a threat going deep as they are coming under. Playing
defense against a player like this, it is not obvious how you should play
them. If you force them away, they’ll burn you deep and/or sky you for the
score, but if you force them in, they’ll have a chance to use their throws to
put the disc into the endzone.
Leslie Calder in her prime is the perfect example of this type of player. As
an incredible athlete, she had a great top speed, could turn on a dime, jumped
well, had amazing hands, and could lay-out for passes that were well out of
range for most players. Her throws were also superb, and she could break the
mark and huck with pin-point accuracy. Being a lefty also helped her team as
she could open up the field in different ways from her teammates. Miranda Roth
and Georgia Bosscher both earned Callahan awards for this type of double-
threat play.
Against players that have only one clear superpower, it’s easier to plan ahead
to take that threat away, even if they are really, really good at that one
thing.
For this reason, I think that receivers with big aspirations should make sure
and not focus exclusively on the skills that get them open (speed, turning,
explosiveness, juking, timing) or that secure the disc in their hands
(catching technique, reading the disc, lay-outs, hops), but also need to make
sure that they can be potent once they have possession (fakes, breaks, hucks,
field vision, decision making).
It takes time to develop into that type of well-rounded player, so first a
receiver would need to make sure and become at least a single-threat by being
able to get open reliably. In my opinion, the easiest way to do this is
through working on timing and learning how to get a defender on her heels. If
you could work on one physical aspect, I would suggest focusing on top speed.
Gwen Ambler
Cutting from the middle of the flat stack requires good field sense. In my
mind, good field sense involves the ability to accurately read three things
simultaneously: reading the defense, reading the thrower, and reading the
spaces on the field.
I’m sure everyone has heard the phrase “take what the defense gives you.” This
important concept necessitates knowing what your defender is trying to take
away at any given moment. At its most basic level, you have to recognize the
force and figure out which direction your D is trying to push your cut (e.g.
towards or away from the disc). The next level is understanding whether your
defender is really taking away what her positioning indicates she is. If a
defender is caught flat-footed, you can blow by her in a direction, even if
she has an initial “headstart” by positioning herself with a buffer in that
direction. Good cutters have developed a series of jukes or moves to help
freeze their defenders into the dreaded flat-footed position. An especially
easy one to master is driving directly towards your defense to close the
distance between you two, making her have to react to small movements like a
shoulder fake or stutter step. If you can’t get a defender on her heels, you
have to get her to commit her hips and momentum in one direction so that you
can change directions and gain separtion.
Against even the best defenders, it is important to remember that from any
position in the middle of the field there are always at least three different
directions to cut and get the disc. To be positioned correctly, there will
always be space for in-cuts to both the open and break side as well as deep.
Mediocre defenders may take away one of these options and good to great
defenders can take away two, but no one can take away everything. Your job as
a cutter is to recognize which of your three options is open, position
yourself and set-up your cut to maximize the throwing window in that space,
and then attack.
Reading the thrower involves both knowing your teammates’ comfort level with
various throws and recognizing the clues from your thrower that communicate
when to change direction. Knowing that your thrower doesn’t have a long
forehand doesn’t mean that you can’t cut to that space, but it does mean that
you have to consciously sell that cut (possibly by starting out closer to the
disc to make the deep space seem more dangerous) in order to set up another
cut underneath. If you are able to set up cuts for the pass the thrower most
wants to throw, you are instantly increasing the odds you’ll get hit as soon
as you are open.
At some point or another, everyone has probably seen a thrower point to a
direction she wants her receiver to cut to. That’s one way for a thrower to
communicate with a cutter, although not the most effective. I am a big
proponent of using disc fakes to simultaneously move the mark and communicate
for a cutter to change direction. As a cutter in the middle of the horizontal
stack, if I’m cutting in one direction and see the thrower fake that throw, I
know she wants me to change direction and she will hit me on my new cut. A
cutter needs to work hard to get open on her cuts, but ultimately you are at
the mercy of the thrower and if she doesn’t want to hit you on a certain cut,
you need to change direction to offer up a new angle. Note that some people
are not in favor of backhand fakes that require you to pivot. A thrower can
still communicate to her cutter with shoulder fakes and wrist snaps without
fully pivoting.
Last, but not least, a cutter needs to read the spaces available on the field
based on where her teammates and their defenders are positioned and/or moving.
Often the best cut a primary middle cutter can make is to clear space for her
teammate to get the disc uncontested. Additionally, often the worse cut
someone can make is one where she’s gotten open on her defender right into the
space where her teammate is also open–rendering neither of them hit-able. I
think that cutting in a vertical stack offense puts a premimum on timing while
cutting in a horizontal offense puts a premium on spacing. Know what space you
are expected to use for your cuts (likely the middle lane on the field) and
know which of your teammates is also expecting to be cutting in to empty parts
of that lane as well.
The horizontal stack offense allows for a lot of improvisation and creativity
on the part of the downfield cutters. Just like in theatrical improv, to be
good at it you have to be able to use the cues available to you. On the
ultimate field, that includes clues from your defender, the thrower, and your
fellow cutters.
Gwen Ambler
I think a lot of people focus too much on how to throw the disc far rather
than on how to complete their hucks. A lot of time, players will spend hours
practicing throwing the disc really far, but then they don’t make disciplined
decisions during a game about when to use those hucks. There are three
questions to ask yourself before unleashing any bomb if you want to increase
the chances of completing that huck:
1. Does the cutter have separation? I am a proponent of throwing to
separation rather than throwing to match-ups. Sure, how much separation a
player needs to be considered “open” will vary from person to person based on
their speed, height, and hops relative to their defender. But the bottom line
is that any cutter needs some steps deep on their defender for it to be a good
decision to put up a bomb to them. That separation is a cushion that will
allow them to get position for any less-than-perfect throw, increasing the
chances of completing your huck even if you don’t execute your pass quite the
way you envisioned it.
2. Are you adhering to the “rule of thirds” with this huck? As a cutter,
it is easiest to read and catch a huck when you can approach the disc from a
different angle than the flight path of the disc. As such, the teams I’ve been
a part of have emphasized the “rule of thirds” for setting up hucks.
Basically, if you divide the field lengthwise into thirds, for any deep shot
either the cutting path of the receiver or the flightpath of the disc needs to
cross from one third into another third of the field. If you stick to this
rule, you will avoid the temptation of throwing a huck down the sideline to an
“open” cutter who is also cutting down that sideline with a narrow window of
opportunity to complete the pass. You will also throw to space more often and
give the receiver the maximum time to read the disc, out-maneuver her
defender, and attack the frisbee—especially important if the pass wasn’t
perfectly thrown.
3. Is the point where the receiver can catch a pass in-stride within your
throwing range? Notice, I said, “Where the receiver can catch a pass in-
stride” not, “Where the receiver is.” Hucks often get underthrown when the
thrower misgauges how far away the receiver will be when they’ll be making the
catch. Just like you want to lead cutters on shorter cuts, you want to be able
to lead deep receivers as well. Obviously, increasing the distance you can
consistently throw the disc will increase the number of hucking opportunities
for which you can answer “yes” to this question. Ideally, you want to work on
your long throws such that you can put more distance on the disc without
needing to think “I have to throw this pass really far.” Often players'
throwing form falls apart when they think they have to do something different
to throw the disc farther. When you only throw within your range, you are more
likely to be able to execute the pass the way you wanted.
Drills to practice long throws should be set up in a way to allow the throwers
to also practice answering these three questions quickly and accurately, which
includes having a defender present on the deep cut.
When working on your throws by yourself in a big open field, practice your
throwing mechanics: gripping the disc tightly, staying balanced on your throw,
generating torque through twisting your torso and hips, and snapping your
wrist as hard as possible. You should imagine a cutter running for each huck
as you put it up and then evaluate whether the disc took the flight path and
landed where you envisioned.
Gwen Ambler
Sub-calling is probably the least rewarding aspect of Ultimate. Not only will
you rarely be recognized for good sub-calling, but instead sub-calling is the
easiest thing for many people to blame for problems on the field.
Additionally, problems (real or perceived) with playing time and sub-calling
are often the number one issue affecting team dynamics and player
satisfaction. In my experience, the easiest way to avoid issues with
subcalling is to have a plan ahead of time and to communicate as best as
possible to individuals where their role fits into that plan. A good plan can
then be passed along to someone else who needs to fill in for sub-calling in a
pinch (like losing your voice in a freak scenario). Here’s a basic checklist
of questions you can answer when devising your plan:
-
Which handlers do you want playing primarily offensive points and which do you want playing defensive points? Who do you want to be able to go both ways?
-
Which downfield cutters offer a competitive advantage on O lines or D lines?
-
Which defenders primarily guard handlers? Which are especially good at covering downfielders?
Who fills special niche defensive roles on the team? For example, an
especially tall defender to neutralize the deep threat or an especially good
marker to put on a big thrower.
-
Divide your handlers up into groups of those who generate offense with their throws (big breaks and/or big hucks) and those who generate offense with their legs (effectively get the disc up-the-line and are always open for resets). You’ll want some players from each category on every line.
-
Divide your downfielders into groups of those who can get open with jukes off of a stopped-disc and those who are great at getting open in flow with timing and filling spaces. Again, you’ll want some players from each category on every line.
-
Are there players who have especially good chemistry on the team together?
-
Who are on your special teams? Who are your top zone D players, zone O players, clam defenders, and so on.
-
Who are your clutch players? Who do you put in for critical points that are must-score situations on O and/or on D?
-
What are the situations that your bottom of the roster performs best in? Being able to utilize your bench players effectively is often the difference between winning and losing in the long run.
Obviously, there are a number of different questions you can ask yourself
about your team and its players. The important part is that you are creating
an accurate assessment of your players and how they fit together in various
different situations, so you can create a subbing structure around that and
communicate it to the team. Subbing structures don’t need to be super
sophisticated, but having guidelines on how to choose players for each line
will greatly speed up the process for your subcallers, enable them to call
better lines under time pressure, and allow players to better expect when they
are likely to go in or remain on the sideline.
Gwen Ambler
I am a firm believer that anticipation and focus are the most important
elements for successful catching. I’ll leave it to others to discuss the finer
points of catching techniques.
For anticipation, not only do you want to anticipate where the disc is headed,
but you have to prepare your body for an anticipated catch. Anticipating the
disc’s path is basically reading the disc. You need to be able to judge
accurately how fast the disc is traveling and along what trajectory so that
you can meet it at the best point possible, which is usually the earliest
point possible.
One tip that has proved invaluable time and time again for reading a high disc
is to position yourself so you can see an edge along the side of the disc. The
plane that the edge of the disc is on will determine where it lands once you
factor in how fast it’s moving, so make sure you can see the line the edge
forms so you can predict where it will travel.
It’s important to practice reading a disc so that you know when to jump to
catch a huck at your higest point possible. Even more important (because it
applies to more catches during a game) is to practice reading the speed of low
passes so that you can change the angle of your cut while the disc is in mid-
air so you meet every pass as soon as you can. Attacking the disc by taking
the shortest path will enable you to keep your defender on your back and
shield the disc from D bids.
Preparing your body for a catch is an often overlooked element of catching.
I’ve seen a number of players drop passes because they were concentrating so
hard on running to the disc as fast as they can (which involves pumping your
arms to your side) that they hadn’t prepared their hands for a catch (which
involves your hands out in front of you) by the time they reached the disc.
You have to anticipate when and where you’re going to reach the disc and
already be ready to catch the disc when that time/space arrives.
This does not mean stopping to wait for the disc to get to you. Instead, it
often means propelling yourself through the air with your last step so that
you have time in the air to concentrate on the watching the disc into your
hands. I am always a fan of catching the disc with both feet off the ground,
mid-stride whenever possible. This gives your body, hands, and eyes the
appropriate time to prepare for the catch.
Focus as it applies to catching is simple. Watch the disc all the way into
your hands. All the way. And never try to assess where you’re going to throw
your next pass before you have the disc firmly in your hand(s).
Gwen Ambler
This week’s question is essentially asking what do you do if your original
game plan and strategy for how to play a certain player doesn’t seem to be
working. In this case, I would consider coming up with multiple different
strategies for minimizing that players’ apparent strengths. Here are four
possible strategies (and in the order I would attempt them) for dealing with a
player with dominant throws:
1. Front her to try and deny her the disc on any easy pass, forcing her to
make plays in a way that is not her preference (i.e. going deep to try and
catch goals instead of throw them). This strategy is what I would always try
first, but in the scenario outlined, it didn’t seem to be working. While you
might abandon this strategy for awhile, don’t forget to try it again later in
the game.
2. Guard her on her inside hip so that you can always see both your woman
and the disc and try and push her out wide to the open side. This is a
containment-type defense where you concede certain passes but try to take away
the player’s most damaging un-marked throws. This positioning should make a
handler stay near the disc because she would seem more open cutting in than
away, but the defender is close enough to make a play on a bad pass, or put on
a mark if she does catch it. A good marker is vital for this defense. By
positioning yourself in the inside-out space, you ensure that she is less
likely to catch a pass on the break-side and get off a huck. When she catches
the disc, the sideline should yell, “Thrower!” to alert the downfield D that a
huck might be coming. The defense’s priority is to only have her throw open
side hucks so that the downfield D can anticipate where the deep looks are
coming from.
3. If the downfield defense is still getting burned by her long throws, I
would then set up a clam defense where the player in question and the other
two handlers are marked person-on, while the four remaining players play more
of a zone downfield, covering players only when they cut into their space.
This should ensure that there is always a defender last back ready to defend
any deep pass that gets put up. Even if this defense is only used as a
transition D, forcing the offense to adjust to multiple defensive looks during
a point can be effective.
4. The last specific defense I would consider is a box-and-one. Even if it
is not windy, this defense can be effective if your opponent is used to
relying on its main thrower to run its zone offense. Set up a 3-2-1 zone where
the extra person guards the target handler person-on, fronting her and trying
to deny any easy reset. If the handler goes deep, the defense will have help
from the zone’s deep deep defender.
How many different defensive looks your team will need to use in a game to
shut down a specific player really depends on how good she is and how much her
team relies on her. The better the player and the more well-rounded the team,
the more quickly they will adjust to a specific defense. That’s why it’s
important to have numerous defenses to alternate between so you keep your
opponent guessing and you can narrow down what sort of defensive options seem
most effective.
Gwen Ambler
Any offense is difficult in the wind, so when conditions are windy a team
should play the offense that it has practiced the most. Both vertical and
horizontal stack offenses have advantages and disadvantages in the wind and
the decision to play one over the other depends on how well your team can be
on the same page while running it’s O.
When my team first made the transition from vertical stack to horizontal stack
back in 2005, we struggled in the wind and often would switch back to the vert
stack when it was windy and we were having difficulty scoring. However, that
was comparing a vertical stack offense at which we were very experienced to a
horizontal offense that we were just learning. At the time, I was convinced
that a vertical stack was better in the wind because the emphasis on the
lateral disc movement of dumping and swinging made it hard for the defense to
overplay the open side, allowing opportunities for cutters to get open with
timing and handlers to generate movement with break mark throws. It seemed to
me that defenses were able to easily front cutters in our horizontal stack
when it was windy and handlers were often left without many options.
As my team’s horizontal stack has matured and become more dynamic, I now think
that it offers more possibilities to advance the disc confidently in windy
conditions than the vertical stack. A horizontal offense allows more
flexibility for handlers to aggressively attack and get the disc upfield. This
not only serves to catch downfield defenders out of position, but it also
provides an easy way to advance the disc down the field as the short throws
and dishy passes to handlers remain largely unaffected by wind. Additionally,
lots of handler motion combined with the coordinated movement of four cutters
filling and vacating multiple cutting lanes can find holes in a poaching
defense and isolate defenders without help deep. I have found vertical stack
offenses to be less effective at breaking down the poachy and clammy defenses
that wind invites.
While I would rather play a horizontal offense now, I recognize that its
strength lies in the complex combination of coordination and improvisation. I
think this may actually take longer for a team to practice before it can
effectively execute the offense in any condition than it does for a vertical
stack. However, the rewards are greater.