Ryan Morgan
I have a rather painful childhood memory from back in middle school. I was
playing basketball and went to set a low screen for another player. In a
moment of miscommunication both my defender and the player who I set a pick on
rushed to guard my teammate. I was left open for just a few seconds, but
before I realized it, the basketball hit me in the face. The point guard
recognized that I was about to be open and passed the ball early. I remember
appreciating two lessons learned from that moment. First, always keep your
head up so you don’t get hit in the face unexpectedly. Second, and far more
importantly, if you keep your head up you can take advantage of narrow windows
of opportunity. This second lesson is field vision.
Like many Ultimate players, I can trace my field vision skills to non-Ultimate
sports like basketball and soccer. These taught me to move without the ball,
respond to a teammate’s positioning and see open passing lanes. After lots of
practice one learns to pick up on tiny cues on the field from which one can
anticipate what will happen next. The hours of practice that give a basketball
player the field vision to use no-look passes are the same hours of practice
that give a handler the field vision to throw to a cutter that isn’t open yet.
In both cases, field vision is a matter of picking up on and taking advantage
of tiny cues. In both cases, the only way to learn those cues is through hours
of practice.
Sure, some field vision skills from non-Ultimate sports translate to Ultimate.
A brand new Ultimate player with a soccer or lacrosse background will
generally have less trouble adjusting to the pace and movement of Ultimate
than a brand new player with only a golf background. But just like learning to
throw a flick, transferring field vision skills to Ultimate requires practice.
I remember my first few weeks playing Ultimate in college when, because of my
soccer background, standing in a tight stack in the middle of the field felt
so unnatural. I wanted to spread out like in soccer. As a rookie who couldn’t
throw further than 15 feet, I was pegged as a cutter and continued to struggle
with the stack concept until one practice where we were randomly assigned
different roles. I got to be a handler, and though I still couldn’t throw, I
could see where I wanted to throw. That’s when the stack concept started to
make more sense to me. All it took was seeing the field from a different
perspective.
I think the way to teach field vision, if it can be taught, is to give players
the opportunity to see the field from a different perspective, or a different
angle, than they are used to. If the player is a cutter, make the player spend
some time handling. If the player is a defender, make the player spend some
time on the offensive team. If the player is a deep-deep in a zone defense,
make the player play in the cup. Seeing the field from different positions
helps you hone field vision because you learn the little cues that allow you
to anticipate what will happen next. All it takes is practice.
Ryan Morgan
No one gets four strikes in baseball simply because they think its wrong that
the rules allow only three. You don’t pick and choose which rules to follow.
You play by the rules of the game. Whether or not you agree with it, the
Spirit of the Game concept is a fixture in the official rules of Ultimate so
we, as players, have an obligation to adhere to it. But in the middle of a
game, especially one with much at stake, what does it mean to adhere to a
concept that is so vaguely defined?
We’ve all heard cheers of “good spirit” raised by opposing sidelines when a
teammate concedes a contested play. But yielding to an opponent’s opinion
cannot be what the rules mean by Spirit of the Game. Instead, the core of the
Spirit of the Game concept is a mandate to play with integrity. Playing with
integrity means playing as honestly and as objectively as possible. But it
also requires the courage to stand by your honest opinion.
To me, Spirit of the Game means calling it the way you see it. It means not
yielding to an opponent when your honest perspective differs. On the flip
side, it means not allowing a vocal teammate to influence your perspective.
And perhaps most difficult, it means not allowing the fact that your decision
may determine the outcome of the entire game to influence your perspective.
It’s true that Spirit of the Game is often abused and disregarded. I have just
two comments on those that play that way. First, disregarding Spirit of the
Game is cheating, plain and simple. There is no faster way for a player to
lose my respect than to disregard Spirit of the Game by knowingly making false
calls to gain a competitive advantage. Second, any victories achieved without
upholding Spirit of the Game are hollow victories. We commit hours and hours
of time and energy all year long to compete on the field to determine the
better team. All that effort is for naught when one gains a competitive
advantage by cheating instead of by putting in hours on the track and at
practice.
Ryan Morgan
My college team always seemed to be able to only field 5 good zone offense
players. The last two players on the line were usually assigned to play the
wing position—that is, the popper responsible for making cuts to the sideline
when the handlers swung the disc around. As a result, I never really
appreciated how important the wing position is to an effective zone offense
until I started playing club. In fact, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say
that good wing players can do more to make a zone offense run smoothly than
any other position.
All zone defenses are designed to make the offense throw a lot of completed
passes. They do this by committing defenders to cutting lanes around the
thrower. So in theory, when the handlers swing the disc quickly to the other
side of the field there wont be enough defenders to cover the new cutting
lanes. This is when a wing player with excellent timing can have the biggest
impact. By this time, the wing should have set up a cut to the sideline for
decent yardage. The wing, if open, should receive a pass from the thrower
quite close to the sideline. If covered, the wing has succeeded in drawing one
of the only defenders on that side of the field all the way to the sideline.
This is important because there should now be a huge open throwing lane behind
that defender which can be filled by someone else. No other zone offense
position can do as much to open up cutting and throwing lanes.
The key to playing the wing position effectively is timing. When disc gets
swung around the handler set to the off-side handler, he or she will only have
one or two seconds to make an up-field throw before the zone defense adjusts.
The wing must have already set up and made a strong cut to the sideline so
when the handler turns upfield he or she sees either an open wing or a wide
open throwing lane towards the middle of the field.
A team that consistently gets these types of opportunities to move the disc
upfield will have much more success against a zone defense.
Ryan Morgan
Sub-calling, especially for one who one who plays at the same time, is one of
the most difficult things to do. Personally, I hate doing it because I feel
like it distracts me from my ability to remain focused while playing. But like
everyone, I always have my own feelings about who should be playing at a
particular time. Fortunately, as captain of my team, my opinion about who
plays carries a bit of weight with the sub-caller. What I’ve learned is that
the ideal sub-callers understand that they have a duty to the team rather than
to their teammates, demonstrate objectivity and detachedness in performing
that duty, and have an ability to quickly evaluate changing conditions.
Of course when playing time is not distributed equally, there will always be
someone who is disappointed with the sub-caller’s decisions. Dealing with
these types of complaints can be uncomfortable because they require explaining
to a friend why you chose to play someone else instead of him or her. I think
there are four things that the sub-caller has to do in these situations:
1. Delay the discussion until after the game. Because of everything that a
sub-caller needs to concentrate on during the game, complaints simply cannot
be dealt with until after the game because dealing with complaints would
disrupt effective sub calling.
2. Listen to the player. Understand exactly what the complaint is. (Does
he believe he is not playing enough? Believe certain types of players are not
playing enough? Believe he is not playing enough at certain times (ie: zone)).
Listening is extremely important because you can tailor you answer to his
concerns. Also, sometimes part of the solution is for the player to know his
concerns have been taken seriously.
3. Honestly explain the decision to keep that player off the field (you
haven’t mastered this offense/defense in practice, you are not in condition,
you were limping that last point and wanted to give you some time to recover,
you displayed a string of bad decisions, the guy who played instead of you was
on fire/had a great match up).
4. Identify what that player can work on to fix it. This communication is
very important because it gives the player a clear idea of what he has to
focus on to get better. When he gets better the team gets better.
Ryan Morgan
I believe that good chemistry between handlers can affect the game more than
at any other position. Having two or three experienced handlers that really
know each other is such an advantage because they likely have withstood
defensive pressure like this before and they likely have talked about it and
figured out, between them, how to deal with it. Because they can predict what
the other is going to do, they don’t panic when the stall count gets higher
and they can reset the disc accordingly.
The next best thing to good chemistry is having a dump system and running it
continuously at practice. Drilling over and over at practice simulates
chemistry by making cuts and throws predictable. When the pressure mounts and
novel situations present themselves, like the unusually stifling defense here,
handlers can rely on the cuts they know are coming. It sounds so simple, but
on the fields it’s a very difficult thing to do.
In my experience, when handlers run into trouble moving the disc it is because
the dump system and chemistry induce different results. The system might tell
you “cut upfield” whereas chemistry tells you “cut downfield.” It seems like
the turnover that happened in this situation resulted from this type of
miscommunication. Since that is the only turnover between the handlers so far
I would pull them aside to make sure they get back on the same page. Handlers
deserve a lot of discretion to decide how to make adjustments to particular
situations like this one. They often see important things that other players
don’t and should be free to take advantage of what they see. However, its
important to keep a close eye on them, as system-wide or personnel adjustments
may be necessary.
At the college level, where a couple of main handlers will play a large
portion of the points, you have to consider fatigue from playing against such
tight defense when deciding whether to make a halftime adjustment. You will
need these handlers to play well at the end of games. To keep them from
getting gassed, adjustments can be made to the dump system to minimize
cutting. For example, the dump could focus on finding a good position early in
the stall count so when the thrower turns to dump he is already in position.
Then the dump can stand still and let the thrower initiate his cut by throwing
the disc to space to one side. This way the handler-dump only has to make one
cut to get the reset.
Ryan Morgan
Being a receiver, this scenario is one of my favorite moments in ultimate. The
adrenaline kicks in and it dawns on you that it’s your turn to make the play
you have been training all season. My training regimen is focused on
maximizing acceleration and jumping ability, both of which are essential to
getting the block in this scenario. But before putting those skills to use,
you have to look up quickly and find the disc. In this brief glance you must
do three things:
1. Confirm that the throw is, in fact, to your man.
2. Check to see if the disc is under-thrown.
3. Identify if the throw is forehand or backhand—this will tell you which
of your shoulders the disc will come over as well as the spin on the disc. All
this information has to be ascertained instantly.
The next step, and I really don’t think the importance of this can be
understated, is to get position on the other player. Unless you are a giant or
have a 45" vertical, an advantageous position relative to the other player is
the single best thing you can do to get the block.
When I first started playing club ultimate, I was fortunate enough to play
with Kevin Kusy on a successful Mixed team called BRU. Kusy is a great
receiver who won a college championship with the 1999 NC State team. He was a
bit bigger, a bit taller, and much more experienced than I was but we went up
against each other all the time in practice. At first he absolutely tooled me
on these types of plays. After a while I learned that getting position on him
was more important than reading the disc perfectly and attempting to catch it
at the height of my jump. Eventually, I started bringing down some discs
against him by first establishing position.
I learned that the first step in getting position is to get ahead of the other
player as soon as possible. This is where the acceleration comes in. If you
can beat the player downfield you can have first choice of position and that
is hugely important. Additionally, once in front, you can dictate where the
other player goes or does not go. You can steer him or her away from where you
can make a play on the disc (within the scope of the rules, of course). If
required, this is where the jumping ability comes in.
Assuming I have position, as the disc is approaching I am thinking about how
to make the play while keeping the other player “locked up,” usually on my
shoulder. For example, if it’s a flick huck down the sideline, I would take a
line on the disc that pushed the other player towards the middle of the field
(again, obviously, within the scope of the rules). As the disc approached, I
would adjust my speed to his in order to keep him locked up on my left
shoulder so he couldn’t get around me to make a play. My last two steps would
be strong towards the disc to make the block with an outstretched right arm.
A ending tangent on acceptable levels of contact in receiving situations: I
think that the undeniable increase in contact that goes uncalled in these
situations at the elite level is due to the mutual respect players have for
one another. It comes from a mutual desire to play as hard as possible and to
leave everything on the field. Additionally it takes a mutual understanding
that playing at that level necessarily requires a certain amount of contact
that the rules, under some interpretations, may not allow. Oftentimes at the
elite level, players chose to interpret the rules in a way that allows almost
any receiving contact that does not truly affect the outcome of the play. In
an extreme example, Kevin Kusy was playing with Ring of Fire in the semifinals
of Club Nationals in 2003 against Furious George. A throw went up to his man,
Andrew Lugsdin, in the endzone. Both players charged hard toward the disc and
made so much contact that Kusy broke his clavicle on the play. Lugsdin caught
the goal and no foul was called.
I understand that this may seem unnecessarily dangerous to some. But I find it
extremely satisfying to be able to battle with an opponent and take some hits
knowing that I can hit right back without fearing a foul call. One of my
favorite players to play against is Taylor Pope of Ring of Fire. When he
guards me its always very physical. But the physical contact between us is
never intended to gain an unfair advantage (e.g. tugging at shirts,
intentional hacking on the mark, pushing, tripping). We both thrive on the
challenge that physical play presents, but we also both understand where to
draw the line. As such, I have a huge amount of respect for him. I suspect it
is this combination of a mutual desire to play as hard as possible and a
mutual respect for other players, that accounts for the level of acceptable
contact at the elite level.
Ryan Morgan
This is a very interesting scenario because there are so many adjustments that
could be made to respond to this player. You could assign a speedy defender to
outrun him on the deep cuts, you could assign a tall defender to pull down
floaty passes, you could assign a physical defender to disrupt the flow of his
cuts, you could keep playing the same defense on him but put a straight-up
mark on everyone else, you could go zone, you could play last back, or you
could even throw your scouting report out the window and let him hang around
the disc.
In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what adjustment you make as long as you make
one. This player, who is used to hanging around the disc, has clearly gotten
comfortable playing downfield against your defense. The absolute worst thing
you can do is to not do anything. It doesn’t matter if your best defender was
guarding him in the first half, you can’t just say “try harder” or “don’t get
beat deep anymore.” At this point in an elimination game you have to make an
adjustment to get him out of his rhythm. You have to throw a hurdle in his way
to show him a different look.
Once you disrupt his rhythm he is going to want to go back to his comfort zone
— near the disc. At that point, I would return to my scouting report and
continue to push him downfield. A different defender should be put on him
though, so he doesn’t get comfortable again. Since most handlers don’t want to
work hard, I would put a fast, physical player on him. That way he will have
to work to get open knowing the whole time that on a long pass the faster
defender will be able to run past him. But that decision just reflects my
personal preference on how to guard handlers downfield without knowing more
about the teams involved. So there could be a better choice considering the
totality of the circumstances. But again, the most important adjustment to
make is to make an adjustment.
Ryan Morgan
Trying out for a club team is like interviewing for any job. There are some
things that are in your control and some things that aren’t. It’s important to
focus on the things you can control and understand that the other things
aren’t worth worrying about. Even if you are a great thrower, if the team
already has great throwers then the 6’9" guy that can’t throw may get selected
over you. Here, I’d like to focus on three things that I would like to see
from all of my tryouts, regardless of my team’s needs: commitment, willingness
to adapt, and decision making.
First, for a tryout to have any chance of making the team he must show his
commitment. Elite club ultimate requires a significant time and money
commitment. Additionally, a newcomer to the team will require more time during
the season to gel with his new teammates. A tryout should show that he is
prepared to make the requisite commitment by attending all preseason tryout
events. This may require missing family events, having less time to study for
a test, or delaying that vacation but an elite club player must make the team
a priority. A tryout who misses preseason events severely disadvantages
himself.
Second, a tryout must show a willingness to adapt to the team’s style. Just
because you had the green light to send it in your former team’s huck-n-hope
offense doesn’t mean you will have the same luxury with this team. Get a feel
for what kind of offense or defense the team is accustomed to running and show
you can be an asset in that system. A good rule of thumb is not to try
anything unusual unless an established player does it first. Generally
speaking, don’t be the first tryout to attempt a 40-yard hammer or a blade to
the break side. If you are comfortable with a special throw, show it off
during warm-ups and not in-game. Perhaps over the season improvements can be
made to the system to take advantage of your skills. But for the tryout period
you should adapt your play to the team. The team should not adapt to you. Of
course, if you find out that this team plays huck-n-hope too, then huck away!
Third, every tryout must demonstrate good decision-making. At the elite level
every possession matters. Every turnover matters. So, good decision-making
that will reduce turnovers is a much more important factor than at lower
levels. Sometimes knowing how to play smart is a more important quality that
being talented. On my team, a talented player that makes poor decisions will
get cut while a less talented player that makes good decisions has a much
better shot at making the team. Some examples of good decision-making include:
- Seeing poaches
- Recognizing mismatches
- Throwing high percentage passes but knowing when to take calculated risks
- Appropriately choosing to initiate or not initiate a fast break after a turnover
- Remaining calm even as the stall count gets high
Ultimately, both sides are trying to find the perfect fit for them. As a
tryout, as long as you focus on those things you can control including
commitment, a willingness to adapt, and good decision making, then you can
feel good about your effort. Good luck!
Ryan Morgan
There are numerous factors to consider when deciding whether to run a
horizontal stack (HO) or vertical stack (Vert) offense such as: recent success
rate with a particular offense against your opponent, probable individual
match-ups with your opponent, and how critical the particular point is. In
this scenario we are asked to discuss how another factor, wind, affects that
decision. Before that discussion, however, it is necessary to look generally
at the relative costs and benefits of the Vert versus the HO offense.
The Vert offense is systematic and mechanistic. Teams benefit from its
predictability. Everyone knows who is cutting, when he is cutting, and
generally where he is going to cut. The thrower knows when and where to look
for these cutters. Everyone else sets up subsequent cuts and movements
accordingly. The cost of the Vert offense is that it limits the players in the
stack who are not scheduled to cut.
The HO offense attempts to isolate a number of players at the same time by
spreading them across the field. Each of these players have the freedom at any
time to take advantage of open cut opportunities…either in or out. This
potential for opportunistic behavior is the benefit of the HO offense. The
necessary cost, of course, is decreased predictability. Because cutters are
not moving according to preset rules, as in the Vert offense, each one must
first decide when and where to cut and must coordinate his decision with every
other cutter’s decision. Due to this multiplayer decision-making, the thrower
cannot expect a cutter in a certain position at a certain time and must
therefore find the cutter before making a decision to throw.
Given that Vert offense favors predictability at the cost of opportunistic
behavior, and that the HO offense favors opportunistic behavior at the cost of
predictability, the question now becomes how the wind affects each of these
factors. Wind certainly decreases the predictability of any offense. Throwers
become tighter and some throws that would be made in calm conditions are
unexpectedly withheld in windy conditions. Cutters can also tighten up by
hesitating to cut or by staying too long in the lane. This seems to weigh
against playing Vert in windy situations. However, wind can also negatively
affect opportunistic behavior, especially heading upwind. The probability of
completing deep passes decreases going upwind, for example, thus cutting off
those opportunities. Since there are more of these opportunities in HO
offense, it seems to weigh against playing HO in windy situations. Ultimately,
deciding between Vert and HO in wind depends on just how much it affects the
predictability of your team’s Vert or the possibility for opportunistic
behavior in your team’s HO.
My team, Truck Stop, was a young but very athletic team. Additionally, Truck
Stop added a significant contingent of new players, myself included, who
needed to build chemistry with the rest of the team. Because of these
characteristics we generally played Vert in a strong headwind, but exclusively
HO in a downwind situation. It made sense for us to use a HO offense in that
situation because everyone can throw further going downwind, making it
possible to complete more deep opportunities. We have also utilized some
techniques to mitigate the costs of each type of offense. In an effort in
institute some predictability into our HO offense; we have a number of set
plays that establish the first few cuts off of a pull. These plays help to
jump start the offense and settle everyone down for the first few cuts and
throws. Similarly, in an effort to take advantage of opportunities in the Vert
offense, we have number of plays that initiate cuts from the middle of the
stack. For example, if a defensive handler walks to the disc after a turnover
and notices that we have a huge height advantage, he can call a play that will
send that player deep to take advantage of that opportunity.
By evaluating the effect of wind on your team’s potential for opportunistic
play in the HO and on predictability in the Vert you can chose the offense
that will give you the best chance for success in the wind. Furthermore,
addressing the shortcomings of these offenses in general with set plays will
increase your chances of success.