Miranda Roth
While others may be more concerned with adjustments for each game, specific
plyometrics, or the most useful drills, I have 3 solid beliefs on fundamentals
of warm-ups:
-
Try to do the same thing for each game. No matter what you may include in your warm-ups, teams and individuals respond well to a routine. This way players don’t have to focus too much on the timing or progression of warm-ups and can instead focus on their skills, body and/or uncontrollables around them.
-
Don’t introduce new drills in warm-ups. While coaches and captains may have a vast array of drills that could help in many situations, it is more important to use known drills in warm-ups to temper the mental taxation of pre-game or pre-tournament play. Make sure you learn enough drills in your practices that you have a significant repertoire to choose from in warm-ups.
-
Warm up defense and offense. We often focus so much on warming up our throws and catches that we forget to warm up our defense. I think the easiest way to do this is to add marks to throwing drills and to finish warm-ups with some sort of game play whether it is half-field 7 on 7 or mini.
Miranda Roth
The most important thing to realize about your team’s culture is that it will
change every season.
Yes, I was concerned when I first joined Riot that I might never fit into the
intense, upfront grind of the kickass East Coast transplant women, but the
team has changed a great deal in the past 7 years. Riot has become a weird,
unique, open-nearly-to-a-fault bunch of weenies (young and old) who’d rather
drink Dr. Pepper than the beer and wine of Beth Wise and Vivian Zayas. I think
this attitude of being ok with change is particularly important when coaching
a team.
You need to allow your players to find their own sources of culture each
season. From one year to the next, you may find yourself nurturing a
completely different development of team culture based on the events in the
lives of your team members. At times, you may not even agree with the
development of a cultural practice (wearing eye black or skirts, swearing in
your cheers or your huddle talks…) but you have to listen to your
teammates/players to figure out what is working for them. If you’re lucky
enough to stay with the same team long enough, you’ll recognize some themes
will never change, even through the practical sways – the Small Fryz will
always love each other more than anything else and Riot will always support
each member in their individual pursuits even above the pursuits of the team.
Miranda Roth
I think that sideline contributions are underrated in their worth by most
teams and particularly by most great players. People who are great at team
sports are not necessarily motivated to play well for themselves – especially
in our sport, they are motivated to play well by their love of team, teammates
and something bigger than themselves.
In this way, I will stand by something I accidentally said in a huddle last
year: “Loud information is good information.” Now, of course this is a
generalization, but particularly when you are teaching people who are shy or
new to sideline talk what to do, first things first you must be loud! You must
make an impact on your teammate’s game and if you are speaking quietly, your
impact will be lost. No matter what you say, make it loud – cup your hands
around your mouth, deepen your voice and yell.
As someone who is mostly involved with women’s and youth ultimate, I can say
that from the sideline, you should be darn close to 100% positive and
informational. Especially on offense, cheering is the best way to help – it is
difficult to react to direction from the sideline when you are doing your best
to read the defense, thrower, and other cutters. On defense, “up” calls and
talking to the mark are the most important but still you must be LOUD!
Negativity will motivate only about 1% of the ultimate players out there so
unless you know your player very well, stick to the positive and maybe provide
constructive observations after the point.
Effective sideline talk is a part of every great team’s success. If you talk
well from the sideline you will feel more bought in, you will be engaged in
every point (no loss of focus), and you will make a bigger positive impact on
every game. Just a taste of what it’s like trying to be a good coach.
Miranda Roth
Fury, more than any other Women’s team in the nation (perhaps ever, though
there will be those who argue for Godiva or Maineiacs), knows what to do in
Sarasota.
Each player seems to have a very good grasp of her specific role from the top
of the roster to the bottom. Everyone plays that role perfectly when push
comes to shove. They don’t mess around against teams they know they will beat,
and they bring it hard to teams that might have entertained thoughts of having
a chance.
In the end, I think that the former is more important than the latter — anyone
can decide to bring it in a big game, but the question is how much do they
have left to bring? This became glaringly obvious in the heat, sun, and
humidity of Florida this year, not to mention the wind of years previous. This
year when other teams (mine included) bled points to teams they had beaten all
season long, Fury was done with each game early and was already resting in the
shade when others were playing into the cap. Over a 4-day tournament time is
ridiculously important. I think the particular skills they showed were less on
the field (though those, as always, were impeccable) and more off the field —
preparation, role definition and mental toughness.
Congratulations, yet again!
Miranda Roth
To catch a 50/50 disc, you need to somehow make the chances better than 50/50
for yourself. The first thing you can do is be tall—and yes, I know you can’t
teach height, but this also includes putting your hand up outstretched and
trying to catch the disc at your “tallest point” including your jump. This is
related to the second thing which is timing your jump. I know lots of players
(particularly new women) who think just putting their hand up will work—well,
it won’t work against good competition. To know when to jump you need to
practice jumping and catching as high as you possibly can—playing flyers-
up/500 and doing lots of one on one catching will help with this.
The third, and possibly most important thing, is to get position on as many of
the other people as you possibly can. If one of the other people is your
teammate, getting position on the opponent can actually allow your teammate to
catch the disc, too. If you can judge where the disc will come down and put
your body between that space and your opponent, you will greatly increase your
chances of catching the disc. However, you must, as I like to tell my players,
“Retain that s***!” This means that once you get position, you can’t relax—you
must actively maintain your position physically.
ADDENDUM:
We received this email from a reader:
I read the article from Ms. Roth about the catching discs subject and I
disagree with one point. Ms. Roth wrote: “If one of the other people is your
teammate, getting position on the opponent can actually allow your teammate to
catch the disc, too” For me, if you don’t play the disc you are not allowed to
block the opponent to help your teammate. I checked WFDF Rules and it is
related to rule 12.7. Keep up the good work. -a reader in France The
Huddle’s Explanation:
Thanks, ARIF, We (and Miranda) agree with the rule that an offensive player
cannot move solely to block a defender. For instance, if you are on defense, I
can’t run towards you and away from my teammate just to make sure you cannot
make a play. Miranda is trying to make the point that the offense is allowed
to choose whatever method they want to make a play on the disc. If I am on
offense, and I move in a way where I could catch the disc but also is a
position that seals a defender from making a likely play, this can be both
legal and extremely effective. In practical terms, the differences between an
illegal block and a legal positioning is probably going to come down to
whether the player in question could (given flight of the disc, position, and
where the player is looking) make a catch on that particular throw. Thanks,
ARIF, for bringing this confusing issue to more clarity and we hope this makes
sense. -The Editors
Miranda Roth
While I have not been personally very successful in this situation, other
teams have been successful at times against my teams so I can tell you what it
seems like they did. You must call tight lines—having players in the games
that can create Ds and capitalize on them is imperative. Now is not the time
to give players a chance to show their stuff for the first time—use people
that are tried and true on D and O. This may mean that these players are
playing a lot, but thems the breaks—they ought to be in good enough shape to
hang tough through this time. In terms of strategy, it might be time to change
something up. If your D has been creating Ds but you just haven’t been able to
score, you may think about switching to focusing on either fast-breaking or
settling down. If your D has not been creating Ds, you might consider trying a
new D.
In the 2008 Women’s Final, which was probably the best comeback to ever occur
in ultimate, Fury changed their D sometime around halftime or right after the
second half started. It was windy and we run a two handler crashing from
behind zone offense. They switched to guarding our crashing handler almost
like a box-and-1 with a huge cup around them. This flustered our handlers and
we were unable to adapt, opening the door for a huge and devastating comeback
by them. I’m guessing that they just took it point by point or broke the
points into games to three. Oftentimes teams can be successful just focusing
on shorter goals rather than thinking, “we have to score 10 times to be back
in this game.” On an individual level, it is important not to focus too much
on yourself and take too much of the responsibility of catching up, even if
you are playing a lot at this crucial time.
Miranda Roth
Zone offense is very difficult to simulate in practice. The skills necessary
for zone are often quite different than for man (offense and defense). For
zone O, you need to practice vision, patience and confidence which are quite
difficult to simulate. For the most part, we usually teach zone O by drawing
it up on a white board, going over it on the field and then doing LOTS of
5/10-pulls sometimes stopping the point to reposition people, especially in
the early parts of the year. Handlers can simulate zone offense by playing
against different types of partial defenses (3-person or 4-person cups, box
and 1, etc.) in small sided games where they just try to advance the disc.
Poppers can be added to increase the reality factor in these small-sided games
(we often play 5 on 3 or 4).
I prefer having 2 handlers attack 4-person cups and 3 attack 3-person cups.
This is not to say that they can’t both work for both defenses, but 2 handlers
can easily attack the middle (where the weakness is in 4-person cups) and 3
can more easily and quickly swing to attack the sides which tend to be weaker
in 3-person cups. Handlers and poppers should be the first to realize what
type of zone is being played and can thus most easily adjust to the formation.
Deeps in zone offense tend to hang out and wait for things to happen around
them. To a certain extent this is true—they should never just move around
blindly. However, deep movement can not only open throws to these deep
cutters, but can make poppers’ lives much easier by drawing short-deep and
deep-deep defenders away from their space. Deep cutters should try to make the
deep deep choose between them by staying in or out and staying left or right.
They should definitely switch based on where the disc is and make real cuts
but they should never be on the same side of the field or both be under/deep.
Miranda Roth
The best example of a role player on Riot is Michelle Bowlen. Michelle is very
tall (5'11"), well-trained in fundamentals and particularly smart (Fulbright
Scholar!). She doesn’t have the best break-mark throws in the game and can’t
guard every quick little handler. However, she is the scariest mark I’ve ever
seen in a 1-3-3. Luckily, we play in bad weather conditions at Sectionals,
Regionals and Nationals (usually) so we can run a lot of zone. We will often
put Michelle in just to run the 1 in the 1-3-3 for one point and then do it
again the next time we’re on defense.
I believe that the best players all start with a superpower. Michelle’s is her
zone mark. Surge is really fast. Vivian can throw anywhere on the field at
anytime. This is a great starting point for each player, but that doesn’t mean
that they shouldn’t all also continue to work on reading the disc, downfield
defense or dump cuts. In a game, we will always use a player’s specialty, but
the more well-rounded they are around that, the better they will be able to
perform in multiple situations.
In the next 5 years at the level of elite women’s ultimate, I see the most use
for the combination of two roles within one player. For example, someone who
can throw anywhere at will, but is also a very athletic defender. Right now
there are lots of athletes and lots of throwers, but rarely are these combined
(Deb Cussen is the prototype). I think that there will always be roles for
all-around players. I would still suggest that all-around players work on
something that they want to be their superpower—playing defense on the other
teams tallest player, winning every disc in the air, or being able to make 10
cuts at top speed during one point—but then also developing other parts of
their game to make themselves the best all-around defender as possible and to
be as difficult to guard as possible.
Miranda Roth
My favorite move, that is very popular and can be used by any player, is the
shimmy flick. This is a move that I was taught at Carleton but is based on
principles that I learned in my first sport, basketball. In basketball as a
defender, you are always taught to look at the offense’s belly-button because
that is the hardest part of the body to fake with. You can get faked out if
you look at the ball, the player’s head, feet or hands, but the belly button’s
not going anywhere unless the whole player is too. In ultimate, as a thrower,
to get the defense to move you have to move your belly button or, more
realistically, your hips. To do the shimmy flick, you start squared up to the
downfield and you want to move the mark to a right-handed player’s left side
(to the backhand side) to open up the inside-out forehand lane. So you shimmy
your hips to the left without changing your grip. As you shimmy, you’re
actually winding up for a forehand so as the defender moves to the backhand
side, you are preparing to throw a forehand. For more success step out to the
forehand side and get low.
As a reference to my coaches, Michael [Baccarini of Paideia] and Tiina [Booth
of Amherst], you can always break the mark by getting low. High releases may
be fancy and fun, but in bad weather they will be bad throws. The most
important thing to breaking the mark is getting low quickly and throwing with
lots of zip.
As a team strategy, I think it is important to have some players on the field
who can break the mark well and have all players on the field understand the
limitations and preferences of every other player so they can cut to the
proper place on the field.
Miranda Roth
I think there are two skills that can take a player from a good defender to a
great defender and they both have to do with the transition from an
individually good defender to a good team defender.
1. Communication. Silent defenders will never be great defenders. This
includes “up,” “switch” and “last back” calls. This is particularly important
in zone defense for wings and deeps. To practice this, I sometimes require
players to be saying something continuously during a defensive drill. This
helps generally quiet folks get over the hump of being vocal on the field.
This skill also holds true for people talking from the sideline. To practice
sideline talk have a thrower pivot while a marker marks with her eyes closed
and someone talking from the sideline. By doing this, the marker will learn to
listen and the sideline talker will learn to puppeteer the marker.
2. Vision. This can be harder to teach—some people are born with field
sense or learn it in other sports and some just don’t have it. However, this
can be practiced in concert with skill #1 by doing lots of 2-on-2 drills or
2-offense-on-1-defense drills. This forces the defender to be aware of more
than just her offender. Erring on the side of fronting in one-on-one matchups
and then relying on the sideline for an up-call is a great way of practicing
the transition from individual to team defense—finding the disc after an up
call (no matter where it was thrown) is an upper-level skill that most good
defenders can always work on to become great defenders.
Miranda Roth
I’m usually thinking, “Get open on the open side.”
When fatigue sets in, throws and finesse are the first thing to go and open
side throws are generally easier. Cutters can push through fatigue with desire
and brute strength. So, to get open on the open side, I usually start facing
the thrower, juke hard toward the defender (they are on their heels), take a
few steps really hard to the break side (this usually lures the off-balance
defender to commit to the break side), then explode past them to the open side
(this may require some stepping past/running through limbs of your defender).
Try to add angle to the final cut so you’re not cutting directly at the
sideline—give your thrower a bigger window with an angle at the front or back
cone.
Miranda Roth
I am going to focus on a long backhand because that is my best long throw, but
I think that a lot of the principles hold for long forehands and pulls as
well.
I’m all about maximizing torque when throwing—using rotation to generate power
flowing into your throw. On a long backhand the first point is to step out so
that when you twist your body you’re not killing your defender with a giant
elbow to the face (this is easier for tall players—shorter players should
focus on a quick stepout). While stepping out, I also reach the disc out as
far as I can to create the longest lever possible (thus creating the most
force). The last major step is to rip it—use your abs to pull your arm across
and really focus on opening your body all the way toward where you are
throwing. Your left arm should be relaxed and end up above your right foot
while your entire right arm should rip through to be above your left foot
(obviously switch for lefties).
Based on this, if you were going to pick something to train for distance
throwing, I’d work on my core muscles. Also, you can always grip it harder to
get more spin, particularly for keeping these long throws in inclement
weather.
Miranda Roth
1. If you pick the right personnel, there will always be a time when you
can play each player. Think about when these times are for each player on your
team and allow them to excel in these situations.
2. Be clear to your teammates about the team’s sub-calling philosophy. If
it changes for a tournament, don’t make it a hush hush operation—let everyone
know so nothing is a surprise.
3. When at all possible, have someone who’s not playing (a coach or
designated sub-caller, perhaps even an injured player) call subs. Sub-calling
and playing time create the most opportunities for team chemistry to breakdown
and when your playing time, which directly relates to most people’s enjoyment
of their playing, is dictated by peers, it can get ugly, fast.
4. Sub to win. At the elite level, everyone would rather be on a winning
team and play one point per game than be on a losing team and play five points
per game. Or at least we should—if people aren’t on board with this—reconsider
their options, which is fine.
5. Don’t get caught up in specialization. I think this may apply even more
to Women’s Ultimate than Open Ultimate, but if you have a good player on your
team, don’t keep her in the “D line” or “O line” or “Zone” or whatever you
think she is best at if she might be able to help the team in lots of
different situations. The reality is that there will always be turnovers,
teams will always throw different D and O looks, so just play your strong
players that get the job done in all situations and be creative with their
supporting cast.
Miranda Roth
For most of my teams (coaching and playing) we have been most comfortable in a
4-person cup recently. The goal with this zone is to prevent throws through
the cup or around it with yardage gainers—we want to force the throws backward
and we want to force a lot of them. I was taught to see this as a math
problem—even the simplest throw will only be completed 99% of the time (.99
possibility of completion). Two of these same passes will be completed .99*.99
times (.9801 possibility of completing both passes). So you can easily see
that with more passes, the chance of turnovers increases and, of course, if
you or the conditions are forcing more difficult throws the completion rate
for each pass goes down which translates to an increase in chance of turnover
(i.e. the same throw on a windy/rainy day is only .8 possibility of
completion).
In addition to the math, I feel very comfortable with this zone with the
personnel that I’ve had on my recent teams—lots of tall people with strong
marks that are difficult to throw over. Sometimes we also run a variation of
this in the 1-3-3 trapping zone that forces the same looks as the 4-person
cup, but also encourages the disc to go toward typically weaker throwers (side
poppers/wings instead of primary handlers) in a trap situation.
In both of these zones, the weak points are always creating numbers advantages
behind the cup/1-3. If two handlers can easily break it through a 4-person
cup, then there is a 5 on 3 downfield advantage for the offense. If this
happens, then we typically transition out immediately (on a yardage-gaining
break), or after it happens more than once (on short breaks).
From a team-wide standpoint, the adjustments that we like to make after teams
start breaking through this is to transition to a similar but different
zone—dropping one of the cuppers back into a very short short-deep position if
they are gaining from short breaks or perhaps a box-and-one if one handler in
particular is breaking through the zone repeatedly.
Often times the positions that have to work the hardest and need the most
feedback in both of my favorite zones are the wings—they are in charge of
covering the most field and based on the offense we are playing against they
will get very different looks. I think that the wings in the zone can make or
break the defense—making it with hustle, communication, and awareness.
Miranda Roth
The player that has excellent footwork in my mind has a football and track
background. He has great body positioning while cutting that I think leads to
his strong footwork. His cuts are strong as a result of pushing his weight
into the ground and exploding after getting low and chopping his feet. This
helps his play because I believe he is able to get open on players that are
bigger and stronger and faster than him by using good technical footwork.
In my own game, my footwork is very important. Because I have developed myself
into a deep cutter and mid-range receiver and thrower, my defender does not
know where I’m going to cut in an ideal world. Typically defenders play me
just on the force side, not necessarily fronting or backing. Because of this I
have to make some kind of fake to cut anywhere. Generally I move into the
space a few feet away from the stack to make my move (or in spread, a few feet
away from the sideline). Then I either get low, chop my feet, and explode or
shake and bake (I think this is more effective for me because it plays to my
power cutting and gets faster defenders on their heels).
I think more than any drills, thinking about cutting and training explosivitiy
is key. If you can envision yourself making a strong cut, you will be able to
do that. Cutting drills will help this come to fruition.
Miranda Roth
When this happens I need to assess what about our reset isn’t working before I
change anything. Generally, there are a few problems that are typical of this
sort of situation.
The dump is not working hard enough. This is actually not the most likely
explanation, but it does happen. This typically results from lack of
readiness—the dump fails to get to position in a timely matter, or relies on
the thrower to thread the needle rather than actually getting open. Handlers
can become lazy getting to the dump position, so I would encourage handlers to
throw and go, whether that go is a cut or just getting to the dump position.
This always makes life more difficult for defenders and allows the offense to
set the tone. If anyone is confused about this, watch Gwen Ambler move after
she throws and you’ll see what I am talking about.
The dump is working too hard. This is quite common and something I see
very often in the college and elite women’s game. The dump will either start
cutting before the thrower is ready, be indecisive in their cuts, or stick
with a bad cut too long before clearing. These all result in movement I like
to call “dancing,” and on the ultimate field dancing is bad. A dump needs to
be patient (wait for the thrower to signal readiness with vocal or body
communication), decisive (make 0-2 jukes and a strong cut), and realistic (if
they aren’t open get the heck out—we typically have the front of the stack
ready as a bailout dump option if the first dump is not available). Dancing
often results from tenacious face-guarding defense, which can be dismantled
better by the dump standing stationary and the thrower, unbeknownst to the
defender, putting the disc into space, rather than the extra movement on the
dump’s part. It is important for the dump to just chill out and not get
frustrated.
The thrower is being tentative. I see this quite often and I spend a good
deal of time working with my college and youth teams on this skill. People
always say that if you can throw a dump, you’re good to go. But this is a
little harder than it sounds. New players are particularly prone to
intimidation by an active and physical mark. To combat this, at any level, a
thrower needs to communicate with their dump—say her name and turn your entire
body toward her, step toward where you want to deliver the pass and, as
Michael Baccarini taught us, deal the cards (snap your wrist to get snap on a
short throw).
I think that most reset problems stem from one of these three scenarios, as
well as the problem of dumps being stagnant and being unwilling to go upfield.
But to me, you have two equally good options as a dump—either up-the-line or
back—and you better be able to take advantage of both, particularly against
aggressive defenders.
Miranda Roth
When I hear the up-call, my first instinct is to get between my player and
where I think the disc is going to be. I don’t look for the disc yet because
the disc is secondary to my player when I’m on defense. If I can get my body
into the proper position, I will get the disc every time.
Typically in this situation, I will try to make some kind of body contact (not
with arms or legs)—jockeying for position using my butt or shoulders to
maintain my position between my player and the disc. This is something that
changes from game to game in what will be called a foul and what will not. I
appreciate games in which some contact is allowed so that contact similar to
what is usually used in soccer for shielding the ball is appropriate.
Information that is important to me when trying to establish my position
includes: type of throw (forehand vs. backhand, inside-out vs. outside-in),
handedness of the thrower, power of throw, float of throw, and wind. All of
these things will affect the flight pattern of the throw and thus where you
should position yourself. You should know some of these things immediately—if
the throw is on the live side, you know it is a forehand if you are forcing
forehand. The one hitch to this is if the thrower is left-handed. To be a
great defender, you need to check in with who has the disc at all times so
that you know whether a forehand or lefty backhand will be coming up. You
should always have the force of the wind noted in your mind at all times
during a game so that you don’t have to lick your finger and test it while
trying to get a D. The power, flight path (IO vs. OI), and float of the throw
are all things you should be able to read by the first time you see the disc
in the air.
After hearing an up call, I typically take 3-4 hard sprint steps to catch up
to my person before I check in with the disc. Then, when I do check in with
the disc, it is a brief look during which I can see how high it is, how fast
it is going and at what angle it is flying. The person I’m guarding doesn’t
come into my mind that much as I try to establish position.
If you have all the correct information and have the right body positioning
based on this information, you will be able to get the D every time. You don’t
have to worry about jumping higher than someone unless they are significantly
more athletic or taller than you. If this is the case you might want to jump
earlier to get more of your body between them and the disc (and they will also
probably going early). If I am similarly athletic to my offensive player and
in proper position, I will go for the catch with both hands to make sure I get
the D. However, if I haven’t had time to get in the right position, I will go
with one hand over or through the hands of my player to reduce the risk of
fouling. If the huck goes up to the break side, I spend more time sprinting to
get position and reading my player than I spend reading the disc itself
because as the saying goes on defense, “Play the player, not the disc.” As
long as they don’t catch it, you did your job.
Miranda Roth
As a wise woman once said (props to those who get the joke), never lose a game
without playing zone. I think this thought answers the question but taken to a
broader sense: never get beat over and over again without changing something.
So your scouting report was wrong or the team has adjusted to all their
opponents having the same scouting report on their strong player. This happens
very often with great, specialized players. If an amazing receiver gets forced
under enough she will become a great thrower. Now what do you do in this
situation in real-time?
First, play zone. If you are worried about a one on one match up, the best way
to increase your chances is to allow more defenders to contribute to the match
up’s offensive obstacles. Lots of zones would work, but particularly difficult
for many all-star players are box and one zones or transition zones. If you
play box and one then you are guaranteed to have at least a 2 on 1 situation
in all deep looks (your deep-deep and your player on vs. the other team’s
star) AND if she goes back to being a throwing threat, you have your player on
(maybe with a straight up mark) and a wall of three close behind making her
life miserable as a thrower. One thing to be cautious of with a transition
zone is to make sure you transition a strong defender onto their main
player—sometimes it is worth taking a little extra time or giving up a few
free-ish passes to get your match ups straight.
Second, take note of who has been throwing it to the player in question. Would
a straight up mark help, either in discouraging the throws or pushing throws
out of bounds? Do the throwers have equally good forehand and backhand hucks
(maybe try forcing a different direction)? Maybe getting closer and more
aggressive on the mark would really help keep those long throws from going up.
I have also known some teams to foul on the mark in this situation. Though I
do not encourage this as a strategy (at least not until we have foul limits
for individual players), you may want to encourage your marks to be so
aggressive that they MIGHT foul.
Third, ditch the scouting report. Back the heck out of the player in question.
Who cares what she’s done earlier in the season, the way she’s beating you in
this game is what you need to deal with at the moment. This can also be used
in conjunction with a change in marking strategy.
One other thing I’d like to mention is an interesting strategy I’ve heard for
how to get match ups to work. It’s all good and well to put your best defender
on the other team’s best player, but if the other team is deeper and generally
has more strong players on the field than your team does, you can think about
doing what I call the “Tennis Shift.”
In tennis team matches, there are positions 1 through 5 with 1 being the
highest (best) players and 5 being the lowest (weakest) players. Sometimes, to
win more of these match ups within a match, a team will shift its 5 spot
player to the 1 spot and shift the rest of their match ups down. This
basically concedes the 1 spot to the opponent, but you have a way better
chance at winning the other match ups and maybe the match as a whole. The way
this can be applied to ultimate is that you have 1 through 7 defenders to mark
1 through 7 offenders. If you don’t think their #1 is guardable by your #1
defender, try putting your #7 on their #1 and try to win all your other match
ups in such a way that the impact their #1 makes is greatly reduced by the
players around her being shut down.
Now, to be fair, I haven’t actually tried the Tennis Shift. My thought is that
it could work, but you might not necessarily put #7 on #1 it might be a
relative shift. It is very important to think about match ups. Some other
things to think about might be putting your tallest defender on the player in
question if she is beating you based on height or use your fastest defender if
she is beating you on speed.
Miranda Roth
At tryouts, I am looking for someone who will fit into the TOP HALF of our
roster if they are a new player. I prefer having all-team tryouts so that each
member, even if they have played on the team previously, brings great
intensity to tryouts — this is the best way to start a season (and the most
fair way to choose a team).
In terms of skills, this means you need to have all the basics without flaw.
For example, you can be the best thrower in the world, but if you refuse to
play defense, ta-ta. As a teammate, I’m looking for someone who will support
the team, make the (huge) commitment to being at everything possible and be
low-maintenance. It’s good to ask questions; it’s bad to ask questions every
day of the same person. It’s also good to have a compatible personality —
someone that people will enjoy being around has a much greater chance of
making the team because we spend so much time together.
As far as age, I’m more looking at someone who will either contribute to the
team immediately, and hopefully for more than one year OR someone who will
learn quickly and has a lot of potential (these are usually the hyper athletes
with weaker throws). In my mind, it’s great to be young and want to learn — if
this is you, make sure you show the appropriate amount of respect for team
captains/coaches/returning players. Young players can make the team as whoever
they are, age doesn’t matter that much to me — we have had very experienced,
calm young players play great in big games on Riot.
As far as what type of play is better — I believe the base should be to be
100% on offense and never let your woman touch the disc on defense. Beyond
that, if you can break the mark, throw hucks, sky people, get blocks — show
that! But if one of those things isn’t you (they are almost certainly not ALL
you), tryouts is NOT the time to start trying. If you are particularly good at
something that the team you’re trying out for does not have, make sure you
show that at some point during the tryout process.
I would say the #1 thing I’m looking for in a tryout is someone who works
hard. If you work hard every moment of your tryout that will stand out to
anyone. Whether you’re at tournaments, practices or track workouts, you better
be giving it your all at all times. This includes traits like being on
time/early to everything, busting your ass at track (and also having been at
the track/weight room prior to tryouts), being healthy for the tryout whenever
possible, jogging to water, making eye contact with people explaining
drills/offense/etc, and talking from the sideline at tournaments and
practices.
Miranda Roth
I guess I’m pretty old school on this one. One of the main advantages of the
horizontal offense is the deep space it affords throwers, particularly once
cutters get the disc in their hands. In a crosswind or upwind situation, deep
looks for any thrower become less of an option so I would prefer to run the
vertical stack. This usually gives the thrower multiple in looks and I find
the dump-swing to be much easier out of a vertical set. To me, dump-swing will
win you windy games just by advancing the disc a little bit each time on the
swing.
Now there are some special situations to be addressed here.
What if the disc is trapped on sideline toward which the wind is blowing? This
is a tough one. In this situation, the dump-swing is harder and it’s even hard
to throw to an in cut. One thing to do is while using the dump swing; don’t
swing it all the way to the sideline creating a trap situation. This also goes
for a similar weather situation when playing zone offense. Another thing to
consider, particularly in lower level games where more turnovers occur (and
particularly in really bad winds) is hucking and playing D.
What if you are going downwind? I actually really like running horizontal or
spread offenses in this situation because of the open deep space it creates.
Again, if you turn it over on deep looks (where more horizontal turns come),
the other team has to work it all the way up, into the wind.
What if you really want to run the horizontal offense/your team doesn’t have a
vertical stack offense? My advice, much like in a vertical stack offense, is
to keep the stack closer to the handlers the windier it is. This forces the
defense to still respect deep looks and it also makes handlers’ jobs easier
since they don’t have to throw as far to get it to a cutter. On the other
hand, if your handlers are particularly strong, you might think about running
a handler dominated offense (the cutters wouldn’t have to stack as close for
this) or at least initiate to a handler cutting up field and then to a cutter
on the second pass.