Lindsey Hack
First of all, I would be very intrigued to hear the Open authors’ answers on
this question because, for the most part, Women’s pulls do not involve a
ridiculous amount of rocket science to field (or maybe I have been missing out
on something for years).
Typically, we will call a pull play where one person on the left side of the
field fields the pull if it goes left and one person on the right side of the
field fields the pull if it goes right. Therefore, within a second or two
after the puller releases the disc, the appropriate player calls out that they
will field the pull and feed it into a player that is in the center.
If at all possible, it is pretty advantageous to catch the pull. When it is
windy — especially in Women’s Ultimate — it may even be necessary to
sprint forward once the pull is thrown to try and catch it before it hits
the ground. That also means that your whole offensive line needs to be
sprinting forward as well. Also, it is smart to practice fielding rollers and
stopping rollers from obviously advancing in a direction to your disadvantage
— whether that be to the trap sideline or back towards your endzone.
Lindsey Hack
Really, honestly, how can anyone possibly not believe that this is a worthy
philosophy to embrace? The only thing that kills me is the the name: “Spirit
of the Game.” The word spirit is not synomynous with common words and
expressions I associate with sports: Grit - Battle - Fair - Integrity -
Determination - Motivation - Guts - Glory - Respect. “Spirit” is a word that I
would associate with yoga class, folklore, or a Bible Group. It is not a bad
word, just the wrong word for this particular audience.
The definition of SOG plays a relatively large role for me. When I first
started playing this game, I thought it was ridiculous. I thought playing
games without officials was silly and I thought it took away from the quality
of the sport. Now, after years of careful observation and experiences as a
player, captain, coach, and administrator, I think it is what could be our
ticket to the next level. It could be our ticket to the next level because it
could be the ticket to the next level in the youth division. Youth Ultimate is
the key to the growth of our sport and if you can get that to grow, Ultimate
will grow at all levels.
Spirit of the Game, and what it stands for, what it really, really means, can
be a huge selling point when presenting this sport to those you want to buy
in. It teaches kids to place respect and fairness first. It teaches them
conflict resolution. That is huge. I was blown away by the premise of Ultimate
Peace (the foundation that led the charge to teach kids in the Middle East
Ultimate frisbee in hopes to teach SotG and conflict resolution). I mean, if
we could all be a little bit better at conflict resolution, how much better of
a world would we be living in?? If you knew you would not get caught, or not
be penalized, would you still steal? Ultimate not only reveals character, but
builds it. A sport that builds character. How great is that?
Therefore it means a lot to me. I am the President of the Triangle Youth
Ultimate League and the coach of the UNC-Ch Women’s Ultimate frisbee team. My
character, whether playing for Backhoe or coaching, or playing at winter
league, is on display at all times and I want to represent well. I participate
in this sport on many levels and I want to do so with a sense of pride. And,
if no one is looking, I would still want to act within the definition of SotG,
because it is the right thing to do.
But, that does not mean I am not human. I will make mistakes. I will lose my
cool. It isn’t so much about me having these fallacies but my ability to
reflect on them and make myself a better player, a better person by learning
from my mistakes.
What does it mean for my team? I would like to think that we play fair and we
play within the rules. I would like to think we respect the definition of
spirit of the game and conduct ourselves accordingly. We do not condone
taunting, we do not condone bad calls. We will tell a player on our team to
shut it if necessary. We will tell a player on our team that they were out, or
it was down, or it was a foul, or it was not a foul - even it does not have
our best interests in mind (best interests = winning). Why? Because we want to
win a game outright because we were the better team within the rules of the
game. We won (or lost) fair and square. No excuses.
Why would you want to win any other way besides playing completely within the
rules of the game? And, win with grace, respect, and honor? So, you win a big
game and act like an ass to the other team. Do you really feel good about
yourself? Win with grace. Win with honor. Even if the opponent was a jerk to
you. The Golden Rule": Treat others as you would like to be treated. How can
you possibly argue against that philosophy? The challenge is to do that when
the other person is treating you really badly or cheating you.
How do you prepare for an opponent that might not make calls in good faith?
Ask for observers. Forewarn them of the behavior. Go get observers. Keep your
cool. Never, ever lower yourself to their level. Play with integrity.
A teammate that may do the same: First of all , an apology can go a long way.
Even if it is after the game. Even if it is not from that player, but just
from you on behalf of your team. Second of all, control your teammates. Stand
up for something that is bigger than any individual on your team, including
yourself. Do it because it is the right thing to do. Even if no one is
watching.
Lindsey Hack
In order to catch a 50/50 disc a player needs to be able to do a number of
things correctly to win the battle.
1. Reading
The player must be able to read the disc and understand how the wind and the
way the disc was thrown is going to affect its flight path.
2. Positioning
Once that player has a good grasp of where that disc is going to float down to
earth, that player must establish that position firmly. This, establishing and
maintaining your position, does take strength, and if a player thinks that
they can continue to compete at high levels without weight training, they are
out of their minds.
3. Jump
The player must be able to jump higher than the other people in this group who
are also trying to do #1 and #2. If you do number one and number two
perfectly, but do not have as high of a vertical as someone else in this
cluster, there is still a chance you will come down with that disc. If you
want to ensure that it is you that is going to catch that disc, get yourself
on a plyometric program and increase your vertical. With jumping also comes
timing your jump. Timing your jump is also a skill that can be worked on.
Every time you go tossing, practice timing your catch with reaching the peak
of your vertical. he more you are able to catch discs at the peak of your
vertical in practice, the more likely you will be able to do this in a game
situation. This takes timing and knowing when the disc is at the right height
for you.
4. Catching The Disc
You have read the disc right, you got the position, you can jump higher than
anyone else, and you have perfect timing on your jump. Now, catch that piece
of plastic! Snatch it out of the air! Grab it! Do not gently try to pull it
out of the air. Catch with authority. Practice catching with one hand.
Practice catching with your left. Practice catching with your right. Practice
catching. Do not let yourself casually drop it even when tossing. Remember,
perfect practice makes perfect.
Lindsey Hack
What makes a great play great is simplicity and creativity. It should be
designed to have a main cut, but also a bail out. It should be taught on
paper, on a whiteboard, with walk-throughs and at full speed. In the past, we
have relied more on designing our own plays. My women’s club team has minimal
to no plays, but the college team I coach has a playbook that they rely on
probably 20% of the time off a dead disc situation. They are usually called by
the handler picking up the disc or by a coach from the sideline. Personally, I
would love to use them more, but there are only so many hours in the day.
One play that I have found to work at the women’s college level pretty
successfully over and over again is a ‘double or single with cheese’. Vertical
stack, player with disc being forced a direction (or they can be forced
straight up). Player on front of stack curls break and takes off deep. Last
person back or last two players back cut in hard open side. Huck goes to
streaking deep player. Now, if it is a straight up mark, the player with the
disc will yell out the play and the side they want to throw to. So, let’s say
the play call is “Worthy” and the player loves their flick huck against a
straight up mark. Flick huck would go to the home side. So, the player with
the disc would yell out “Worthy, home!”
Lindsey Hack
As a coach, I feel it is necessary to take some risks defensively and call a
few different defensive looks that may create enough confusion and lead to a
quick turnover by the offense. If you have been playing man the entire game,
try a little zone. If you have been forcing one way the entire time, try some
middle or straight up. At that point, you must try something different to get
the other team out of their comfort zone because clearly, they are comfortable
right now in the driver’s seat.
As a player, I say it is all about games to 3. Forget about the big score and
know that you have to start dominating games to 3. If you win the next game
3-0, the score is now 11-10. If you go 3-1, the score is now 12-10—totally
winable. If you think that you have to win a game to 5 or four, that suddenly
becomes a much higher mountain to climb.
Calling lines will depend on what defenses you decide to run. Although it
would be ideal to put a lot of defense out on the field every defensive point,
it may be more intelligent to go with smart defenders with some offensive
talent as your D line must score or it is game over. Therefore, there is going
to have to be a healthy mix of D line players and O line players who can play
smart D and help you score efficiently once you get the D.
Lindsey Hack
A zone defense is usually designed to only give the offense options that do
not play to their strengths (i.e. working it laterally, taking away speed, or
breaking the mark into the wind). I have been on women’s teams before that
have had a very difficult time with the four person cup in a moderately windy
(cross wind) situation. Typically, the defense would trap the downwind
sideline making it difficult for the thrower to break the cup not only because
there are four big defensive players near them, but also because there is a
wind in their face. Therefore, it was advantageous for us to practice this
particular situation whenever there was a strong cross wind. Each player would
get the disc on the sideline, we would place a four person cup on that person,
and they would get five chances to break the cup successfully. Also, since
most four person cups double team (either intentionally or unintentionally),
we would deliberately practice being double teamed when trapped on that
sideline. If it is a four person, two main handlers with two wings would be
ideal but it can be accomplished with a three person formation as well.
The Piedmont of North Carolina is fairly mild as far as wind goes. I began
playing ultimate in the midwest and I swear I was much less intimidated by the
wind when I lived in Michigan playing club women’s ultimate than I was after a
couple of years of living in NC. It is not just that your team can not
practice in the wind, but you do not throw in the wind, you do not play league
in the wind, you do not play pickup in the wind. So much lost practice time in
the wind. To make up for it, we have routinely had beach weekends hoping for
strong winds to practice in and there has even been talk about going to
Sarasota at another time of the year besides the end of Oct to get more
experience in less than ideal weather conditions. Finally, it is important to
emphasize throwing, throwing a lot, and throwing with a lot of spin no matter
what the conditions are. Therefore, even though there may be a 5 mph wind in
NC, one can not get lazy with their throws and begin throwing with no spin,
and no legs. You must pretend there is a strong wind at all times.
How should we attack the zone? Try and do exactly what the zone d does not
want you to do. BREAK THE CUP. This can be done numerous ways.
- Poppers could place themselves in good positions for handlers to hit them through the cup.
- Handlers could move it quickly side to side and then hit wings/popper to gain yardage.
- Handlers could move it side to side gaining yards with each swing. The cut will have to pay less attention to those sideline handlers getting yardage if the poppers remain a threat.
- Handlers going over the cup using an arsenal of throws to wings and poppers.
- Once the disc is past the cup, do not let the cup catch up. It is the wings and poppers’ responsibility to make sure they are making real cuts for each other and really attempt to keep the disc moving.
Deep players, or wings, generally have the hardest time finding a way to be
effective out there in the zone O. In a four person cup situation, one way the
deeps can be effective is to have one of them completely drag the other team’s
deep defender out of the play. Now, you have 6 on 6 with four of those six
around one of your players. If that one player significantly breaks the cup it
is a two on five situation. Another way the deeps can be effective is by
working together as a pulley system. As one goes in, the other can pull out
and make a legit deep cut. As the other goes in, the one that just went deep
can come in for a huge gainer.
How do you deal with a trap zone? What kind of players should you put in
positions (like the downwind wing) that are likely to be trapped? As mentioned
earlier, this needs to be practiced. If the disc gets to the trap sideline,
you have a handful of options as that person with the disc.
- Break the mark backwards for the dump. The dump must immediately swing it to keep it off that sideline.
- Have your other handler set up to the right or left of the middle-middle in the cup. Use your fakes and pivots like you are going to hit the behind dump, but then hit your swing handler almost completely lateral.
- Use your fakes and pivots to hit a popper. A popper can also provide a decoy cut or crash to make it easier for you to hit either handler mentioned in #1 or #2.
- Have the handler that is lined up somewhat behind you come through and crash the cup. From there you would either use that cut as a decoy and either hit handler #2 through a hole created by handler #1 or hit a popper through the same hole. Or, you could give a quick shovel pass to that crashing handler. Now, that handler has the disc very close to the cup. The cup is not in formation anymore as they are no where close to 10 feet away from the person with the disc. It becomes much easier for the handler to go through the cup here.
- Go over the top. Easiest way, but maybe the most difficult way once some wind has been thrown into the equation.
If the disc gets trapped on the sideline with a non handler (i.e. wing), that
wing must not sit and hold the disc waiting for the cup to form perfectly
around them. It is the popper’s responsibility to formulate a continue cut
which, if hit, will put the disc more in the center of the field. It is the
wing’s responsibility to catch the disc and IMMEDIATELY look to the center of
the field, NOT DOWN THE LINE, for this continuation cut. If this cut is not
hit, and the wing gets trapped on the sideline, more times than not, it is
best to go with option #4 above. If that does not work, hopefully the practice
the wing got at breaking the cup at practice was enough to successfully get it
out of there.
Lindsey Hack
To rotate or not to rotate? That is the question. Well, that depends on what
type of game we are talking about. If we are talking about semis at Nationals,
and I have a great downfield defender and the other team has a great downfield
offensive player, then my defender is going to be on that offensive player for
as long as they are effective. If this is pool play at Nationals, than I feel
like it is somewhat necessary to share the load for fear that you may wear out
your best defensive player during Day One.
If a team scores twice pretty effortlessly, I am inclined to call a defensive
strategy switch. There are times when I may let it go to the third point
depending on circumstances.
Superstar matchups depend on a few things:
- Does the superstar defender get lots of Ds on down-fielders who do not touch the disc as much as your token handler?
- Does the superstar defender get lots of Ds on dump throws/cuts?
- Does the superstar defender get hand blocks/have a great mark?
- Does the superstar defender simply cloak his/her offender and never gets any Ds but yet you wonder what happened to the other team’s best player?
I have met players in my life who simply like to get Ds and are very, very
good at it. Those types of players are effective at positioning their bodies
on in-cuts to get that picturesque layout D. Therefore, I think it is wise to
keep this superstar defender on a downfield offensive player who does not
touch the disc as much but when they go to cut for the disc that defender is
100% ready to play their part.
I have also met players who get few Ds but pressure the other teams’ best
handlers into making poor decisions or simply disappearing. They occasionally
get the layout D on the handler dump, but in general their defensive blocks
are not visible to common spectator’s eyes.
Lindsey Hack
Typically, our offense thinks of the sideline as a trap if we are being forced
to that sideline. Given the right thrower, it could be a land of opportunity
as it is much easier to destroy a defense with one break throw from the trap
sideline. But, given that there are few throwers that skilled on a team, as a
whole, the sideline is viewed as a trap.
The sideline is a trap because it gives throwers who do not consistently break
the mark a very small window to work with when throwing to an in-cutter. The
target is probably about two feet by two feet and there is no space (unless
you can throw break) for the thrower to throw to. Therefore, there is no room
for error. If you are a smart defense, and there is a significant amount of
wind, you will force to the downwind sideline. Now, not only are half of the
hucks down the sideline going to be out of bounds, but you will have a much
more difficult time breaking the mark because it will be into the wind.
Typically, our offensive motto has always been, “find the upwind sideline and
stay on it.”
How can teams train to use sideline space most effectively? Spend as little
time there as possible, but make large gains with your time there. For
instance, if you have a really good thrower with the disc on the sideline it
may be best to set up an away cut from the opposite sideline or a break cut.
Also, nothing destroys a defense more than getting the disc trapped on the
sideline and then letting the team work it effortlessly off the sideline.
Therefore, visiting the sideline is not the worst thing in the world; just
don’t plan on staying for too long.
Lindsey Hack
Not everyone can be great at everything and some become very good at a few
things. There are times where we have a few players who are very, very good at
a particular position - whether defensive or offensive. For example, I have
been on teams where we have a few players who sole purpose in life is to give
the handlers on the other team h***. That is their job, and is why they are on
the team. Now, I do not think these players should not be allowed to work on
their offensive game or guarding downfield players. But, when it is go time,
those players should be excited that they have a special gift to give to their
team. The role player is important because it allows players to focus, when it
matters, on individual tasks.
Should teams look for new players that fit certain roles? Personally, I think
it depends on the player. I have met and/or played with a few special players
who can be more versatile and should never be limited to a constrained role.
Usually those players are the “no-brainers” to make the team. After a team has
solidified those recruits, then I think it is necessary to find players that
can fill certain roles well that currently are unfullfilled on the team.
The physical defensive player and the athletic receiver are roles that I see
becoming more important in the next 5 years at the top levels of the game.
In a way, I see very skilled throwers becoming less of an emphasis as the game
grows. The crowd appears to be more enthralled by fantastic layout grabs and
skies rather than pretty, perfect, no drama throws. That does not mean I
necessarily agree with it, but I think we are in for more turnover ultimate
than ever before in the next four years.
I absolutely think there is hope for the all-around player. But, instead of
being 1 in 10 like the last twenty years, it may be more like 1 in 50 or 1 in
100 in the next five to twenty years.
Lindsey Hack
What is your favorite ‘move’ for breaking the mark? How do you do it, and in
what situations do you find it most useful?
To break the mark, I typically like to convince, or deceive, the mark that I
am going to throw a different throw than what I want.
For example, if I am being forced flick and I want to throw the around
backhand break, I will get into a very threatening inside out forehand flick
position. Since my break flick gets released pretty close to my knees, or the
ground, and is on the right side of my body, typically the mark will start to
lean over towards that position. Once I have noticed that they have committed
their center of gravity to defending the break flick, I will immediately pivot
over to my backhand side and complete the throw.
What is most important in teaching young players to break the mark?
Younger players can afford to make more mistakes, and I truly believe you are
not going to learn how to break the mark if you never attempt to in the first
place. Therefore, I think it is most important to teach young players to just
do it and do not fret too much if it is a turnover. Whether it is a turnover
or not, I ask the younger player to reflect on their throw and recount what
made it successful/unsuccessful.
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?
Tough question. I think it is important to have a lot of players that can
break the mark. If everyone can break the mark somewhat, it means every cut is
dangerous whether it is to the break side or not. If half your players can not
break the mark that successfully, good defenders are going to catch on. If
that smart defender is guarding a player who can not break the mark, they may
let that player catch the disc in a tough position on the field (sideline,
close to endzone, etc). Then, they will hope that their mark could force a
turnover and that the other defenders downfield would recognize that the
player with the disc can only throw to the open side. Therefore, those players
would clamp down defensively and the offense as a whole would come to a
complete halt. I would rather have no one that puts the team offensively in
that position than have a few people who just dominate marks.