As team strategy becomes more sophisticated, we can start to play with
dynamic strategies along the width of the field. The sideline becomes
and area of both limitations and opportunity, both for the offense and
defense. What makes this region of the field different? Your answer to
this seemingly-obvious question has large implications for your team's
success.
We asked our authors what they do in their practices to prepare for
sideline situations, and how it changes their on-field tactics. While
we've asked our authors to approach their writing from an offensive
standpoint, it is important to realize that for every offensive guru
writing here, there is an equally motivated defensive coach plotting to
beat those strategies. As Dr. Reznikoff says: "Greater than half of all
possessions either start on the sideline or end there." Let the games
begin.
Adam Goff
Offenses used to look to get the disc near the sideline and then attack from
there. Teams didn’t want to be right on the sideline—with a foot on the edge
hoping to attack from there, but a vertical stack offense looks to move the
disc to ~5-10 yards from one sideline, take a good long look up field and then
swing it around and try the other sideline. This offense can still be
effective and all teams should have the ability to use this, even as simply a
change of pace.
First, let me eliminate an obvious situation, as there is always a reason not
to do something. When the wind is strong and blowing cross field, you do have
to stay away from the downwind sideline. The wind becomes an extra defender
and it allows the defense to overplay.
All offenses have the same basic philosophy: you need to create space in a way
that gives you the advantage over the defense. This is difficult to do,
because there are 12 people upfield and it can get very crowded. On defense,
it’d be great to have 8 or 9 people on your side. On offense, often you want
to have about 4—big open spaces to throw into. Therefore, you have to make
more of the field available.
When using the sideline, you can afford at most 2 people in the area directly
upfield of the disc. The others must keep the attention of their defenders,
and keep them from poaching. This poaching is, of course, a big risk, because
the players not upfield are usually a bit less of a threat, so their defenders
can range off of them farther than usual. However, note two things about this:
First- poachers only come from one side of the field. This is different than
an attack that uses the middle of the field. Defensive help can come from both
sides of the attack. Second- if they leave the players on the far side, those
players do become threats. Immediately, the open offensive player is a threat
to take off deep (if the poacher went in) or to come in (if the poacher went
deep). So, movement and preparedness is important there.
More importantly, an attack on the sidelines dares the defense to overplay it.
The offense is all but begging the defense to come and take the sideline away.
As an offense, send the disc around and take a ton of free yards. A sideline
attack must plan to attack both sidelines.
So, a few keys to remember:
-
Having an offense that attacks the sidelines is necessary—if for no other reason than to change the look
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Attacking a sideline requires that the offense creates space—in, out, throw towards the middle or straight up field
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The other sideline is the key to success—all players must be ready to swing, clear space, and use it
Ben Van Heuvelen
The value of the sideline space depends on the offense. In a horizontal
offense, the sideline limits your options. In a vertical offense, it’s a great
place to be—until it isn’t.
Horizontal
From a downfield cutter’s perspective, one unique benefit of the horizontal
offense is that it lets you make cuts across the mark. With so much uncrowded
horizontal space between the cutters and the thrower, you can threaten an
open-side cut, then change direction to receive a breakmark pass. (Even a
great defender cannot take away the open side and the break side, and a good
thrower will be able to open up either the i/o or around break.) Some teams
call this a “stop cut”—a short-yardage cut across the field and back, where
the cutter often gains the disc with a 1-2 second unmarked throwing window.
It’s a great way to get a horizontal offense flowing.
With the disc on the sideline in a horizontal offense, however, you lose the
option of cutting across the mark. From a cutter’s perspective, there are
fewer “sweet spots” on the field where a thrower can likely deliver an
accurate pass. From a defender’s perspective, you have a much better idea of
where your man wants to cut. Advantage defense. This isn’t to say that your
horizontal offense can’t make lemonade from sideline lemons. (Indeed, any
offense will end up on the sideline, so you should learn how to make the best
of it—and I’m sure some other Huddle contributors have given good ideas to
this effect.) But, in my experience, it’s easiest to deal with problems,
whenever possible, by avoiding them.
I place the responsibility largely on the handlers. Good defenses will
recognize that the middle of the field is more dangerous to them, so they’ll
often use a dump defender to poach the passing lane. One possible response is
for the offense to swing the disc to the poached sideline handler. A better
response, though, is to have your handlers cut towards the middle of the
field. For example, if you’re being forced forehand, and your forehand-side
handler is being poached, send him on a 20-yard sprint from the sideline,
behind the thrower, to the break side: the thrower pivots to the backfield,
keeps his hips between the marker and the break side, and delivers a little
flip pass to the streaking handler, who receives the disc ahead of his
defender, open for a 1-2 second unmarked breakside throwing window. Even if
the defense recovers, you’ve reset the stall and maintained possession at
midfield. As a downfield cutter, I like the look of this setup much better
than a narrower sideline cutting lane.
Another easy adjustment is to create terminology that emphasizes how much you
like the middle of the field. When we’re running horizontal, my team calls the
middle 20 yards of the field “on stage,” and the 10 yards closest to each
sideline “off stage.” We want the disc on the stage. (As an aside: we also
want no more than two cutters on the stage at a time.) If the disc is off
stage, we want to get it back on stage. If you have the disc on stage, then
you can look downfield an extra second or two before you look to reset. If you
receive the disc off stage, you look flow for a second or so, then get the
disc back to the stage right away.
Vertical
In a vertical offense, the sideline is like a good party—you can have a great
time, but if you stay too long, you’ll wear out your welcome.
Again, I look at this from a downfield cutter’s perspective. If my teammates
and I are clearing space effectively (a big “if,” which even many elite teams
fail to achieve), then every downfield throw goes to a cut that originates in
the vertical center of the field. This means that the cutter can choose the
angle that will seal his defender from a play on the disc, and it means the
thrower has a high margin for error, since a cutter can change his angle to
account for an overthrow or underthrow. (If a cutter is entirely vertical to
the thrower, on the other hand, he can only account for a throwing error by
running faster or jumping higher.) As long as our cuts are originating from
the middle of the field, we’re going to have good angles and high completion
percentages. If we work it up a single sideline, and every cut comes from the
vertical center of the field, then I’m happy with our offense—even if every
single pass is received within 5 yards of the same sideline. It’s all about
the percentages.
Vertical offenses break down when cutters don’t recycle fast enough. If the
disc advances and cutters fail to push far enough downfield ahead of the disc,
then defenders can back their man, knowing that the offense won’t benefit much
from a 5-yard in-cut jammed to the sideline. Similarly, if cutters fail to
recycle to the vertical midfield (i.e., if they crowd the flow-side sideline),
then their cuts (deep or underneath) will have no horizontal angle to the
thrower, and the completion percentages will fall. At this point, it’s the
handlers’ job to reset the offense. If you have a smart and hardworking corps
of cutters, then all the handlers need is to throw a pass or two. (Swinging
the disc to the opposite side of the field is always a good thing, but not
essential.) Mainly, the handlers are buying time, keeping the stall count
fresh, while the cutters recycle, create passing lanes, and put themselves in
position to enter the lanes on good angles. Then, whether we’re attacking a
new side of the field or not, we are cutting on angles that give us high
downfield completion percentages.
Charlie Reznikoff
An organized approach to sideline situations gives the offense a great
advantage. For example: a well-isolated huck down the line or a series of
swings to the breakside. Unprepared and against a good defense, a team facing
a sideline trap will likely turn the disc over. I would challenge any team to
spend more time practicing from the sideline. Most teams have only one play
for the sideline, and many for a centered disc. Most teams design their plays
to start from a stopped disc. Most teams draw up their endzone offense
assuming the disc centered, ten yards out. Most teams do not train for when
things break down. Like most teams, Sub Zero spends the majority of its energy
developing strategy for the middle of the field, for the best case scenario,
and for the O-line catching the pull, though this represents the minority of
our actual offense. Teams that use wishful thinking when designing strategy
and drilling will get forced into unplanned situations by a good defense. No
situation more exemplifies this than the sideline trap.
Sub Zero ends practice with a scrimmage, O-line versus D-line. If the O-line
scores, they pull to the D-line. The D-line calls a play, receives the pull,
and centers the disc. Yet this never happens in a game. Why not instead have
the D-line set up on the sideline with the disc? Why not spend entire
practices with possessions starting randomly around the field, giving the team
only 20 seconds to set up? Or, do the same but ask your players to set up out
of position with no play call. You could practice offensive possessions with
your team setting up a play, but start with a swing to the trap and flow from
there. Your frustration in that practice will lead you to develop strategy for
those situations. I suggest that every team dedicates fifty percent of its
practice
Kirk Savage
Field spacing depends on the offense your team is running. This is dictated in
part by the defensive strengths of the team you are playing and in part by
your own team’s strengths.
In the mid-to-late 1990’s, the offense of choice for us (Furious) was the
vertical stack. In the vertical O, the idea is to move the disc to one
sideline or the other and flood the stack to the other side of the field, thus
isolating a cutter. The shorter the stack the better—thus allowing for more
effective deep cuts. We used this offense very successfully as we had tall and
fast receivers. Defenses at the time where not very sophisticated—except for
DoG who was able to use the “clam” to slow things down. However, around 2000
teams started to get wise to the fact that it is pretty easy to poach on in or
out cuts in the vertical setup. When the players in the stack flood—defenders
just sit in the lane—and there is nowhere to go. Suddenly, the sideline is a
war zone where cutters have to battle for every 5 yard gain.
Then we adapted and started the “West Coast” Horizontal Offense. At first it
did not really matter where the disc was on the field. Teams were slow to
adjust and we had our way for a number of years. We were able to cut out or
come under for big yards, as defenders did not know how to match up against
us.
It was not until Sockeye started to figure out that if the disc is on the
sideline in Horizontal O, that a deep poach on the far side of the field is
possible. It took them a couple of years to perfect it, but eventually they
did and this created all kinds of problems for our team. Having the disc on
the sideline was a terrible place to be once again—and we had to work hard to
break our old habits and move the disc to the middle of the field. In
Horizontal O, if the disc is in the middle of the field—it is really hard to
poach, as defenders have to play more honest on their checks—and the thrower
has access to the entire field.
The game has now evolved to the place where handlers are even more important
than ever to moving the disc. In years past, the handler could just be a
reset/babysitter of the disc. However, with the latest improvements in
defense, handlers are required to constantly attack and look for the disc. The
“flip” to the handler (a play that 4 years ago was very rare) is now
commonplace and a necessity for a team to have offensive success.
The best philosophy in today’s game is to:
- Keep the disc in the middle of the field
- Activate handlers to move the disc and to keep the angles changing downfield for the defenders. †
Our team has the advantage of having played together for many years. We will
change our offensive sets from vertical to horizontal to split to stretch to
keep the other team on their toes. This constant changing of styles allows for
a team be most effective. My advice is to work on a variety of offensive sets.
This variety will also pay off for your defensive line, as you cannot always
be sure of the style that a team will play against you.
† This is much like a power play in hockey where the offensive players move
the puck around the perimeter of the defenders looking to change angles, which
creates a breakdown in positioning and an opportunity to strike.
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.
Ted Munter
Moving the disc does one of three things:
- Gains ground (i.e. attacks)
- Moves you to a better place from which to attack
- Maintains possession
Because there is less room, the sideline can often be a harder place from
which to do 2 and 3. But if you can make space for your teammates, it can also
be an ideal place from which to attack.
As always, personnel and approach determines much of what you do. A dominant
handler who can always get the disc makes the liability of going to other
players on the sideline less risky. A team that wants to send it often better
know how to get a few attacking looks once there. A team that likes to work
the disc or does not have a lot of downfield offense should spend less time on
the sideline and have a clear system for moving the disc back to the middle
and across the field.
In practice, do lots of starts from the sideline. After a turn in a scrimmage
just stop for a second, throw the disc to the side and start again. If you are
comfortable on the sideline—attacking or moving off it—your team will excel.
Greg Husak
I tend to think of the Ultimate field in three lanes running down the field.
When the disc is in one of the side lanes, you really only have that lane and
the middle lane available, as throws to the far lane are quite risky.
Sometimes focusing on just two lanes can mean that you reduce the complexity
for the thrower and the offense, and it limits the angles that poachers can
come from. However, as a defender, I have always felt much more comfortable
when the other team has the disc on the sideline (with certain exceptions)
rather than in that middle lane. As a thrower I like the freedom of using all
three lanes to throw to, and also having a lot more variety of options with a
dump for a reset. For all these reasons I prefer using the middle third of the
field as an offensive player.
The biggest thing to focus on in attacking the sideline is keeping good space
between players upfield. Whether utilizing a vertical or horizontal stack, the
players must be spaced such that they have multiple cutting options, and their
movements must be coordinated enough to create space for one another to avoid
poaches and picks.
Having an offensive philosophy stressing certain movement principles (for
example: cut deep from the middle lane and in up the side lane; or clear that
side lane for more horizontal cuts from the middle-lane while deep players
come back toward the thrower up the middle) will provide guidance to the
cutters in flow and give them an idea about the general circulation of the
offense. Within that structure players can take advantage of what the defense
is giving them to move the disc up the field.
Chris Talarico
The sideline is a great space to look to gain yardage. If your dump can beat
his defender up the line, it should be a relatively easy pass to space in
front of him, and he can then potentially hit a deep throw. This is probably
the best way to get off a high percentage huck (and doesn’t necessarily need
to happen on the sideline). It’s easy for the downfield cutters to time a deep
cut when they see this up-line cut developing, and the thrower can use his
momentum to get off a big throw.
Of course, this is just one option. Like every other play ever drawn up, it
doesn’t work every time. No matter what part of the field you want to attack,
you need to be able to move the disc off the sideline. Generally, an offense
is most effective when it changes the point of attack - that is, downfield
throws can (and do) come from the middle of the field and both sidelines. This
means using swing passes to move the disc laterally. Using the whole width of
the field puts far more stress on a defense than working down just one
sideline. If the disc stays on one sideline, the defenders can limit their
focus to cuts toward that sideline, so they only have to worry about guarding
in-cuts vs. out-cuts. On the other hand, when the defenders aren’t sure where
the disc is being thrown from, it forces them to respect a cut to almost any
part of the field, making their job that much more difficult.