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.
Back to Issue