Bart Watson
Becoming a great cutter, like any ultimate skill, requires more than simply
athleticism (though work at the track won’t hurt). It requires plenty of
skill, thought, and practice. I think about cutting broken down into two
components: the technique of the cut itself and cutting within an offensive
system.
Cutting technique: As you start to work on your cutting technique, it’s useful
to think about your strengths and role as a cutter. While there are some
fundamental aspects of cutting that are universal across body types and
positions, like driving your defender away from where you want to go to set up
your cut, how you accomplish these fundamentals will vary both by cutting
style and by what you are hoping to accomplish. Let’s consider first the
fundamentals, and then we can focus on how to alter these strategies for
position, body type, etc. I will highlight four fundamental techniques to
cutting. All of these can and should be worked on consciously, both at
practices and in your workouts.
1. Control your defender
Controlling your defender is the most important part of good cutting. Good
offense beats good defense. Why? Simple, the offense knows where it is going.
However, offensive players shouldn’t take this for granted, but rather use it
to their advantage. In cutting, the best way to accomplish this is by pushing
or pulling your defender in ways that set up your cut. Sometimes this will
take the form of driving right at your defender to get them on their heels
before a change of direction. This type of cut works well as a lane cut. I
like to think about stepping between a defenders feet right before making a
hard cut, putting them on their heels. The second way to set up a defender is
to pull them to a space that makes defense more difficult. If you want to cut
break side, jog them to the open side to open up more space for the thrower to
put the disc into. If you want to cut across the field on the open side, move
them further to the break side and start calling for the disc before shooting
across. The key is to be in control of your defender, not vice-versa. If you
can get them to turn their hips away from where you want to go, you’ve won.
2. Stay low through turns and chop your feet.
Form is critical. Offense often has an initial advantage on cuts, but without
good form, this is easily lost. Good cutting technique involves getting low
with your hips, chopping your feet, and pumping your arms as you attack your
turn. Shuttles, plyos, and speed ladders are good ways to work on this form.
Don’t forget the arms, as they are equally important as quick feet in getting
in and out of turns. Finally, with turns, find angles that allow you to keep
some of your speed. If you come out of a turn with speed and the defender
doesn’t, you’ll open up more space.
3. Use fakes; they aren’t just for throwers
Fakes are a good way to accomplish goal #1, controlling your defender. Just
like with throws, fakes set up your defender and allow you to open space on
your cut. Head and other upper body fakes are a great way to do this. Practice
turning your upper body away from where you want to go a second before you
change direction and watch how your defender reacts. Change of speed, or
stutter-step, fakes are another way to control your defender. On deep cuts,
slow your pace to one second to freeze your defender, before continuing deep
at full speed.
4. Keep moving.
Young players biggest cutting problems typically stem from viewing it as an
entirely stop and go enterprise. Good defenders will use any stoppage to reset
their positioning, reducing your advantage. How you continue to move will
depend on the offensive system you are playing in, but in any case, once a
point begins never allow your defender to reset. If you are playing in a
stack, keep making short cuts, adjusting your position, forcing the defender
to lose disc-man vision. In a horizontal, you may have more freedom to job in
your lane. In any case, continue to move, hopefully in a way that puts you in
position for your next big gainer (more on this in a minute). If you do come
to a stop, find moments when your defender looks away in order to start moving
again. Any time a defender turns their head, when they turn back you should be
in a new place.
All of the above rules need to be tailored to your cutting style and offensive
role. Thinking about this individually will also help you to pick role models
for cutting. Some players are able to use their quickness or explosiveness to
rapidly change directions and so can accomplish goal #1 simply by cutting for
a step or two before changing directions. Josh Zipperstein of Chain, Josh
Wiseman of Revolver, and Damien Scott of Jam are good examples of these
shorter cutting styles. Josh Z. and Damien show that this can be done in
different ways, where Josh uses very quick feet and Damien uses a more
powerful driving approach. This style of cutting will apply more to handlers,
who often have to get open more rapidly late in the stall count.
Downfield cutters and cutters that focus on speed more than quickness should
work on elongating their cuts, driving their defenders further, and creating
more space in which to use their speed. Many of the Sockeye lane cutters, like
MC, are very effective at this style of cutting.
Cutting within an offense: Perhaps equally, if not more important, than
individual cutting form is effective cutting within your team’s offense. A
good cutter with bad timing is going to get far fewer discs than a lesser
individual who knows his/her team’s system. While this is obviously going to
be very team specific, here are two general issues that you can think about:
1. Knowing the flow of the disc and using it to your advantage.
You know where the disc should go in your offense and the defender doesn’t.
This presents several tactical advantages. The first is in relation to point
number #1, controlling your defender. If your team is working on getting the
disc on the break side for hucks, set up your defender by making in cuts to
the offensive side, improving your positioning for the eventual break side
bomb. Second, this allows you to move before the disc moves, making your
defender lose disc-man vision and improving your knowledge of the field
relative to them. If you know your team always dumps at 6, try starting to set
up a cut for the dump at 5 and trust it will get there. Your defender has to
defend you based on the first thrower, making it that much easier to get open
for the second.
2. Taking what the defense gives you vs. breaking the defense
One of the classic offensive debates is whether to take what the defense gives
you versus trying to actively break the defense. While this often gets a lot
of discussion in relation to the mark, it’s equally applicable to cutting.
Defenders will normally take away chunks of the field. In addition to the open
side, defenders will often position themselves to prevent the deep or in cuts.
Cutters should vary their strategies based both on their successes/strengths
and in order to keep the defense off balance. If a defender is giving you the
disc in, take a couple of these easy in-cuts, before setting up a double-move:
mimic your in-cut for a few seconds, wait for your defender to recognize and
commit, and then break deep. The less predictable you are as a cutter to your
defender, the harder it will be for them to know whether you are setting them
up or making a real cut.
In all, cutting requires as much practice, skill, timing, and thought as
throwing. You should think about where you want to attack, how you will set up
your defender in order to attack that space, and the form you need to complete
the cut. The rest is just hard work, but remember, if you do it right, your
hard work beats the defender’s hard work.
Adam Simon
I should start by saying that I am an incredibly blessed ultimate player. For
the past few years, I have had the coolest job in ultimate. “Go cover whoever
you want, and when we get the disc, get it moving, then put it up. Your
receivers will be Beau, Jolian, Mangan and Martin.” Uhhh, yes please? (I
imagine Jeremy Cram felt the same way when he was choosing between Nord,
Chase, Andrew Fleming and Mark Stone).
Ideally, everyone on your team does everything well. Everyone is a threat both
with and without the disc. But, of course, no team (with the possible
exception of JAM in 2008) has an over abundance of complete players. I think
the percentages of such players on the top teams rises each year as current
players continue to develop their skill set and young players bring new skill
sets each year, but even now every team seems to have a mix of specialists and
general practitioners. Obviously, not all of the best athletes have the best
throws and not all the best throwers are the most athletic, but each still
contributes in a major way to their respective teams’ success.
So where do you put your complete players? The people that are good at
everything go where? Thinking simply, success is based on some combination of
your offense holding serve more often than your opponent’s offense and your
defense breaking more often than your opponent’s defense. Since both of these
are factors, you want to put some of your complete players on offense and some
on D.
When playing offense, they should probably be a cutter (or at least have the
option of going deep from a handler position) to maximize the offense’s
options and force the defender to commit to stopping one direction (either in
or out) with his/her positioning. You want the defender to feel screwed. If
they stop the in and take away this player’s throws, this person is such an
attractive and effective deep target that the offense will happily use hitting
this player deep as a perfectly reliable plan A until the D decides to do
something different. If you force them under, they wreak havoc on you with
their throws. My prototype for this role is Mac Taylor. Other players that
come to mind are Fortunat, Kurt Gibson, AJ Tiarsmith, Grant Lindsley, George
Stubbs, Damien Scott, Mike Grant, John Hassell, Jeff Graham, Teddy Tripoli…I
could go on. Team USA is filled with players like this.
When playing defense, your complete players should be handlers. The word
“quarterback” comes to mind. I would say Ben Wiggins is that last true O-line
quarterback. Other teams seem to have multiple players through which their
offense can run. Defensive offenses tend to rely much more on one or two guys
running the offense. There is usually a higher average level of disc skill on
an O-line while defenses tend to have a higher average of athleticism. So disc
skill is in greater demand on defense. If you have 7 solid athletes on, you
want the ones with the most disc skill handling.
Athletes and smart defenders get blocks. D handlers get breaks. So let’s build
the ideal D handler.
First things first, your not going to score if you can’t generate blocks, so
you gotta have someone that is a fundamentally sound defender—Someone that
understands downfield positioning and marking that can put significant
pressure on his/her matchup over the course of the point. Ideally, the person
is a totally badass athlete and absolutely dominates his/her match-ups
consistently, but chances are that player could better serve your team as a
target than a thrower. So acknowledging that this isn’t a role for your best
athlete, I’d say you want a diverse athlete—someone that can play effective D
on both receivers and handlers. It’s not always in the best interest of a team
to put their D handlers on O handlers b/c on the turn, you never take your O
player out of his/her comfort zone. Your opponent handles for part of the
point, then he covers a handler after the turn. He’s always around the disc.
He’s still doing what he does best and it’s tough to exploit him because
chances are, if he’s handling on offense, he knows how to cover handlers as
well. If you can mix it up and put at least one of your D-line handlers on a
cutter, you can send him into squirrel mode off the turn. Cutters are often
much less effective covering handlers than handlers. There’s nothing O cutters
hate more than having to cover someone shorter than he is that doesn’t stop
running. It’s annoying and difficult, and should you fail to score, renders
him less effective with each subsequent O possession which pays off huge late
in games.
Secondly, you need someone that is comfortable being around and effective at
handling the disc—a fundamentally sound thrower/decision maker with a good
first step that can break the mark, run the reset and keep possession when the
offense is struggling to gain yards off the turn. It helps, but is not
necessary, to have a complete player in this role. It certainly gives you more
options if your D handlers are also effective deep threats, but scoring
percentages always go down when your best athlete makes an in cut and tries to
huck it to your 5th best athlete. In general, it’s best to keep your D
handlers around the disc unless they are being defended in such a way that
there is an easy goal to be had. Third, you need this player to be dangerous
with the disc. On a D-line, there is usually an abundance of sick athletes.
You need a thrower that can put it out in front of these players where they
can go do what they do best and make plays. Every good D-line puts the disc
up. It’s icing on the cake to have good throwers in your downfield cutting
lanes, but given that your handlers will touch the disc far more frequently,
it’s best not to have to wait for a cutter to get the disc. You want to be
able to throw a goal at any time from almost any place on the field. And you
can’t do that if you don’t have good deep throwers handling.
It’s tough to say which attribute is most important. D handler is an
interesting position b/c it’s rarely obvious who is going to be best at
filling that role. All other positions at the club (O handlers, Deep D,
Cutters) make themselves fairly obvious in tryouts, but D handlers don’t. Many
teams put their best defenders on the field together and by default, the one
or two guys with the best throws start handling. I think the best D handlers I
know are made from either O handlers that commit to becoming more athletic or
good defenders that commit to developing their disc skill. If I could only
pick two attributes, they would be big throws and a good first step.
Intelligence is actually much lower on my list. I think it’s the only position
where careless, reckless idiots can still be highly effective.
A D-line run by a poor decision maker with big throws and an itchy trigger
finger is still going to score a ton of goals if he has good targets. A D-line
run by a fundamentally sound decision maker with good fundamentals, but
lacking the big throws or the quick first step is not going to do nearly as
much damage. Most O-lines at the top level are excellent at getting the disc
back, so your rewards decrease drastically if you have to make more throws.
You will score more with the dumbass with big throws than with the genius that
can’t put it up b/c you will have significantly more (many times over) looks
at the endzone in each D possession.
Keeping that in mind, the best D handlers couple intelligence and good
decision making with the deadly first step and big throws.
The first player I ever played with that played this position exceptionally
well was Colin “JV” Gottleib. When I was a freshman at CU, I noticed that the
D got the disc almost every possession. When JV was in, the D scored and when
he wasn’t, the D didn’t score. Part of it was having an under the radar
Richter as a target to bail out the throws that didn’t go where they were
supposed to; however what made him great were his quick first step, his
unwillingness to stop running hard and his big throws from both sides. I
modeled a great deal of my game from his. I’ve never seen offensive players
look so beat at the end of points as when they were covered by JV and then had
to chase him around the field.
Brandon Malacek is probably single handedly responsible for bringing this
position into the limelight during Wisconsin’s championships. It seemed like
every time he got the disc he was putting it up. His throws were (are) huge,
often pinpoint, and when they weren’t or when he made a poor choice, Shane,
Drew and Lokke could almost always bail him out.
Jason Simpson currently fills this role for Chain, which always seems odd to
me, because he’s a phenomenal athlete and receiver. But once Chain picked up
Rob White and Zip, they started using his lefty backhand to get it out in
front of them.
Stephen Poulos fills the role for Ring. That guy can chuck it a country mile.
I think the world of Jeremy Cram for his disc skill, but I wish he would put
it up more.
My prototype for the position is actually Kevin Cissna, despite the fact that
he played mostly offense in his career. His first step verged on uncoverable,
and he was athletic enough to cover receivers. He was thick and really strong,
so if he ever played physical D, it was almost impossible to get anywhere near
top speed. He was a great decision maker and had deep throws in the wind.
Not to give too many props to UC-Davis, but Jeff Eastham is also on my short
list. He continues to be one of the best deep defenders in the game, and while
Jam prefers to use him as a receiver (they benefit from having a staggeringly
high proportion of complete players), he would throw the bulk of goals for any
other team’s D-line b/c he’s very quick and has huge throws.
Dylan Tunnell
Three of the handiest attributes a deep receiver can have are speed, jumping
ability, and height. Sadly, even by lifting, doing plyometrics, and running
sprints, an athlete and only increase her or his speed and explosiveness to a
certain extent. As far as I have seen, height cannot be taught or learned.
Fortunately, there are several other factors that go into being an effective
deep threat, all of which are much more learnable. I am going to discuss three
skills in particular.
The first two skills are about making yourself an attractive looking target to
the thrower. No matter how tall, fast, and good-looking you are, unless your
teammate with the disc looks up and sees you going to the place to which she
or he wants to throw at the right moment, you’re not going to get many bombs
sent your way. From where you set up your deep cut and your timing are crucial
to getting open and getting thrown to. At UGA, I played with a guy named Amble
Johnson. Amble was about 5'10’’ and was one of the two slowest guys on the
team (If you are reading this Amble, I’m sorry. But it’s true.) but he caught
as many deep goals as anyone on the team. He’d set up his cuts by constantly
repositioning himself in response to where the disc moved. This kept his
defender engaged and unable to keep track of both the thrower and Amble. As
soon as he saw the disc in the air on it’s way to a thrower in a power
position (i.e. coming up the line or off of a swing cut) Amble would take a
couple of quick steps towards the thrower to create more space behind him into
which a deep pass could be thrown. He’d time his cut so that right as his
teammate caught the disc and looked up field he’d see Amble taking of towards
the endzone with plenty of space out in front of him.
Most throwers prefer to throw bombs within the first two or three seconds of
catching the disc, before the defender gets a chance to set a good mark. If
you time you cut so that the thrower sees you going right as he or she looks
up you’ll be a lot more likely to be thrown to. In terms of from where your
cut should originate, don’t be too far away from the thrower. It’s nearly
impossible to throw a leading pass to a receiver who starts her or his cut
from far away. Even though floaty passes sometimes make for exciting plays,
leading passes that hit receivers in stride are a good team’s bread and
butter.
Aim your cut towards the back of the endzone rather than the sideline so the
thrower won’t have to worry as much about putting it out of bounds. Try to
avoid cutting directly away from the thrower because it forces the thrower to
either throw straight over your head which is difficult to read, or to send a
pass with a lot of bend which is difficult to throw. If you are cutting for
the thrower’s forehand you should start your cut from the backhand side of the
thrower’s body and head towards the back of the endzone on the forehand side.
The reverse is true if you are cutting for a backhand.
The final and perhaps most important part of becoming a threatening deep
receiver is to become a strong thrower. If you cannot throw well, you are a
one dimensional player. A smart defender will just stay behind you at all
times forcing you to come back towards the disc because she or he is not
worried about you hurting his or her team with your throws. If you can throw,
any cut you make towards the disc is much more of a threat to your defender
because you are a weapon with the disc in your hands. Your defender will bite
a lot harder when you fake in and it will be that much easier to get him or
her off balance and get open going away. A good example of a deep player who
became dominant once he learned to throw is Kurt Gibson. Kurt’s first two
years at Florida he was a great athlete and made a number of exciting plays
but once defenders started picking up on the fact that he wasn’t a great
thrower, they just stayed behind him and took away his strength. Kurt’s junior
year he became a great thrower and he became nearly uncoverable because if his
defenders backed him, he’d get the disc easily and throw goals. He forced the
guy covering him to basically pick him poison. Either let Kurt catch goals or
throw goals. Tough choice. Florida went from not making nationals Kurt’s
sophomore year to winning it all his junior year largely because he learned to
throw well.
Even if you aren’t overwhelmingly endowed with the genetic advantages of being
fast, explosive, and tall, if you start you deep cuts from the right place,
time them well, and make yourself a great thrower, you will be well on your
way to becoming a strong deep threat.
Seth Wiggins
A great defensive handler first and foremost plays defense. The defensive unit
will only get a handful of opportunities to try to score; most of their time
spent on the field will be defending. To be valuable to their team, a
defensive handler will need to produce more than they give up, and the offense
has a big advantage to start with. Effective defending from a variety of
positions is well covered in other issues of The Huddle.
Aside from defending, there are a few attributes that separate among defensive
handlers the great from the rest, and those attributes are largely based on
the realities of playing with defensive units. Among the top teams today, most
put their smartest, most experienced players on offense, usually taking those
with the best disc skills with them. As most defensive units attempt to
specialize at defending, they spend relative to offensive far less time
practicing their offense sets. Further, most offensive teams are kept
intentionally small, while defensive teams take the remaining 14 or so
players. With any weather affecting play, defensive teams tend to defend
downwind most of the points. So how does a great defensive handler manage to
get a less-experienced, less-practiced team with far fewer disc skills to
score upwind? Among the greats that I have watched and played with, a few
factors have stood out:
Use Only What is Needed
Offensive players will generally be put in enough situations to utilize their
strengths. Over the course of a game, and even a tournament, defensive
handlers will be limited in available options. The pressure to force their
strength on the situation is usually the greatest on defensive handlers, and
the best ones I’ve seen have been extremely patient to use only what would
work, instead of what they thought they could do.
Be an Effective Reset
As the effectiveness of cutters goes down, the number of dumps thrown goes up.
Great defensive handlers are able to consistently provide an open, safe throw
for players with less disc skills in order to maintain possession.
Break the Mark
Similarly, as the downfield cutters are less able to get free on the open
side, breaking the mark becomes even more important. A great handler for the
D-team will be confident and able to break the same mark repeatedly in the
same point.
Be Comfortable at High Stall Counts
While usually wise to move the disc to the first open option, a great
defensive handler might need to deal with several high stall counts per
possession, as open options might be few and far between. The ability to
maintain composure to get out of high stall situations is often the difference
between a turnover and a break.
Deal With Weather
The great defensive handlers I’ve played with have been able to do all of the
above in the wind. When the weather gets more difficult, even more pressure
gets put onto the handler, as lesser throwers will be even more reluctant to
take risks with the disc.
While hardly comprehensive, these attributes stand out the most in the great
defensive handlers I have played with, from high school to Club Nationals.
These aren’t fixed: you can improve your own ability with every one of them,
and doing so will help your team’s chances to score breaks.
Kathy Dobson
Every team has its own style of play and I think it is hard to pick out
characteristics that make a great defensive handler—or any other
position—without considering it in the context of a specific team. That said,
I have noticed that good defensive lines are able to use the chaos of a turn
to their advantage. Some teams try to pick up the disc right away and move it
quickly to make it difficult for the other team to set up a defense while
others take their time to set up an organized offense. Either way, I think one
of the biggest factors of successfully scoring off a turn is the on-field
leadership skills of the defensive handlers.
Nancy Sun, who was a defensive-line handler for Brute Squad for several years
and now captains Fury, stands out in my mind as one of the best on-field
handler “quarterbacks” that I’ve played with. Although she prefers a slower
set-up off a turn, she is able to recognize when a fast break opportunity is
available—based on how many people are downfield, their position, mismatches,
etc.—and use it to the team’s advantage. It doesn’t hurt that she has great
long and break throws to open up more opportunities on the field.
Nurit Bloom, who played for Brute Squad for several years, is another example
of a great defensive handler. She not only creates turns with her physical and
smart defense, but she is able to move the disc quickly, making it difficult
for the opposing team to set up their defense after a turn. She doesn’t have
the long throws that other handlers do, but she creates other opportunities
with her break throws and quick disc movement.
Maureen McCamley, who plays for Lady Godiva, also stands out as a great
defensive handler but for a different reason. In addition to having great,
physical defense and beautiful long throws, she also has fantastic pulls. In
my opinion, any woman who can consistently put the disc in a favorable
position off the pull (back left corner of the end-zone, for example), while
playing decent defense, should earn playing time on an elite club team.
Jon Remucal
There’s a lot more to being a great handler than meets the eye. Being one of
the better throwers on your team is important. But there have been plenty of
teams on which the best thrower is not a handler, especially when it comes to
hucking. This isn’t say that being a great thrower doesn’t help a handler be
great. Rather, there are a lot of factors and skills that make some handlers
particularly effective.
Getting the disc
Any good handler can deliver a disc after receiving the first pass after a
pull. But the best handlers are able to get open during the normal flow of a
point a high percentage of the time. Of particular importance is being able to
get open for a relatively easy dump throw. A number of factors contribute to a
handler being able to get open, though a few a especially important:
Know your position. Great handlers are able to more effectively get open by
actively positioning themselves in relation to the both the disc and their
defender in a way that makes it easier for them to cut or receive the disc.
One player that I learned the value of positioning from when I first arrived
on the club scene was Dan Rydel (Surly, Sub Zero). Dan is not your typical
fast-twitch kind of handler, but he is able to get the disc often and easily
because he positions himself so that the person with the disc can see him and
his defender is forced to choose to take away perhaps one cutting option,
leaving others options open.
Cut to get open. We’ve all heard someone on the sideline yell “Stop
dancing!” before. Getting the disc as a handler is much easier if you sell
your cut. In other words, cut like you mean it. Driving 4-5 steps (as opposed
to 1-2) in one direction puts your defender on her heels and, ideally, forces
her to turn her hips because she believes you’re actually going to keep going.
As soon as this happens, you’ll be much more likely to be open when you cut in
the other direction. Someone who does this better than anyone I’ve played with
or against before is Kevin Cissna (Jam). His reliability as a dump was due in
part to his ability to drive his defender in one direction before switching
directions and being open by a couple of yards.
Go deep! One of the best ways to put your defender on her heels is to go
deep to be on the receiving end of a huck from time to time. Doing so forces
your defender to respect the deep cut option, which will help to free you up
around the disc more. Think Kobe Bryant driving to the basket the first couple
of times down the floor in order to put his defender on his heels and set up
an easy pull-up jumper the next time down. There are a lot of handlers that
are willing to go deep, but among the more effective that I’ve seen are Jeff
Cruckshank (Furious George) and Fortunat Mueller (DOG/Boston).
Getting rid of the disc
Once you’ve got the disc, being a great thrower only gets you so far. The best
handlers do more than hit deep cuts in stride or slice through a zone defense.
I’ve been fortunate to play with Damien Scott (Jam) for a few years, and the
things I mention below (as well as those mentioned above) are all things that
Damien does superbly.
Break the mark. The best handlers in the game can break the mark effectively,
and do so often. Breaking the mark opens up the field and forces both the mark
and downfield defenders to play more honest defense. It also leads to my
second point here…
Set up your teammates for success. Putting a huck out in front of a teammate
so she can catch the disc in stride for a goal is an obvious way to set up a
teammate. But often, really great handlers aren’t necessarily the ones
throwing the goal. They make the throw that sets up their teammate to throw
the goal. Breaking the mark is one really effective way to set up your
teammate. Once she gets the disc on the break side, she will have a second or
two with a great look down the field for an easy throw to the break side while
her defender is trying catch up and put the mark on.
Do the little things right. I’m stealing a favorite of Team USA coach Greg
Connelly here. But it’s absolutely true. There’s no doubt that great handlers
have physical skills that allow them to make great throws. But often the thing
that separates the best from the rest is the fact that the best often do the
little things right. Among the many little things, here are a few:
1. Don’t forget to fake with the disc, especially when you first receive
the disc. This immediately puts the mark on her heels.
2. Take the easy throw to keep the disc moving. Some handlers with great
throws hold on to the disc, looking off easy under throws in hopes that a
great look deep will open up. This often hurts an offense more than it helps.
3. Face your dump and look to your dump early. Facing your dump allows you
to establish eye contact with her, lets you see how she means to get open, and
puts you in balance and ready to throw from either side of your body. The less
time you give yourself to get off a dump throw, the greater chances the
exchange will result in a turnover.
Deb Cussen
Having great throws is one thing, but what makes a great handler is how those
throws are used. A lot of characteristics that apply can be said about any
great player, like the ability to consistently get open, especially late in
the stall, and in a dangerous place to make the next throw. The great ones
blend taking opportunities and making opportunities. With handlers, I think
what separates the great ones, beyond just having great throws, is vision.
Vision involves being able to see the field; the whole field, not just the
primary cutters or the play in motion. Spaces are opening and closing, cutters
are changing directions and speeds. A great handler takes all of this in,
anticipating cutters’ motions to hit a new space she’s cutting into, or
hitting her just as she plants and turns under for max yardage gain. Reads the
body language of a poacher as he starts to step off his man, pump fakes to get
him to bite and then hits his man on the break side. That weak-side handler or
h-stack cutter sneaking down the far sideline can catch his defender sleeping
when the handler sees it developing and puts up the throw.
Besides reading the field in the moment, a great handler will anticipate
changes on the field over the course of a game. Every defense gives up
something, and having vision is knowing where the vulnerabilities lie and how
to take advantage of them using those great throws. A great handler will also
manipulate the defense, capitalizing on areas of weakness and forcing them to
change, opening new opportunities to strike. Take a few deep shots early in
the game in order to set up the easy, big yardage gain in-cuts later in the
game when the defense starts backing. Throwing a few swings around the cup and
entice the off-mark to slide over away from the middle into that lane and bite
on a fake, then hit a popper through the cup.
All of these scenarios involve solid decision-making based on calculated
risks. A great handler knows when that big incredible throw is likely to pay
off, and when it’s better to rely on the consistent throws and basic offensive
strategy.
Chelsea Putnam
Great defensive handlers are typically people who are aggressive, able to see
the field really well, and have a solid understanding of when it is
appropriate to play transition offense. In my opinion, one of the most
important parts of being a defensive handler is leading your team when you
guys do get the D. This may be calling a play, running to the disc to
transition, creating space for a teammate, or cutting to get the disc off the
transition. I think one of the most brutal things to have happen to your team
is to turn the disc over and have the other team score within 2-3 passes.
Therefore, if you are a defensive handler your goal should be to move the disc
away from the defense immediately and start marching up the field.
One player who is an amazing example of a defensive handler, who I have been
lucky enough to be teammates with, is Andrea “Chowda” Jung. She is and
incredible defender and because she is such a threat as a thrower she runs our
offense right off of the turnover. By Chowda getting the offense going
quickly, the other team can’t get the right match ups quickly, and we have the
opportunity for an easy score.
Gwen Ambler
In my experience, the toughest match-ups on receivers are against those
players that are as big a threat going deep as they are coming under. Playing
defense against a player like this, it is not obvious how you should play
them. If you force them away, they’ll burn you deep and/or sky you for the
score, but if you force them in, they’ll have a chance to use their throws to
put the disc into the endzone.
Leslie Calder in her prime is the perfect example of this type of player. As
an incredible athlete, she had a great top speed, could turn on a dime, jumped
well, had amazing hands, and could lay-out for passes that were well out of
range for most players. Her throws were also superb, and she could break the
mark and huck with pin-point accuracy. Being a lefty also helped her team as
she could open up the field in different ways from her teammates. Miranda Roth
and Georgia Bosscher both earned Callahan awards for this type of double-
threat play.
Against players that have only one clear superpower, it’s easier to plan ahead
to take that threat away, even if they are really, really good at that one
thing.
For this reason, I think that receivers with big aspirations should make sure
and not focus exclusively on the skills that get them open (speed, turning,
explosiveness, juking, timing) or that secure the disc in their hands
(catching technique, reading the disc, lay-outs, hops), but also need to make
sure that they can be potent once they have possession (fakes, breaks, hucks,
field vision, decision making).
It takes time to develop into that type of well-rounded player, so first a
receiver would need to make sure and become at least a single-threat by being
able to get open reliably. In my opinion, the easiest way to do this is
through working on timing and learning how to get a defender on her heels. If
you could work on one physical aspect, I would suggest focusing on top speed.
Cara Crouch
Many players in Ultimate have good throws, but that does not necessarily mean
that they are great handlers. The key to becoming a great handler is combining
the mechanics of good throws and a versatile throwing repertoire with three
big picture attributes: awareness, communication, and mind set/attitude.
The first characteristic of a great handler is awareness, or vision. The
ability to evaluate the field at a moment’s notice is crucial for calling
plays, or dictating what you want as a thrower. What is the positioning of
your offenders and their defenders? Whose defender is out of position? Are
there poachers about? Has someone set up particularly well for a deep cut?
Great handlers can also apply this keen awareness to their mark in a very
short time period. What plane is the mark taking? Are they sitting heavy on
the inside out or outside in? As soon as you figure these things out, take
what they are giving you or throw from a plane that is not parallel to theirs
by stepping towards or away from them. The last mark of a great handler in the
awareness category is to open your vision. The hardest handlers to mark do not
follow individual cuts with their eyes; they use their peripheral vision and
scan the field instead of following one cutter at a time. Just a note on this:
it is helpful if your team establishes what order you want to scan the field
in. For example, some teams scan deep early in the count, then open side,
break side, and finally the dump space at a higher count. I learned to expand
my vision the hard way by getting hand blocked by Miranda Roth, a great
handler. I also learned to expand my throwing repertoire to include more
creative throws by observing and playing against Roth.
Communication is the second responsibility of a good handler. When you have
the disc you are in control of the game for that short amount of time. You
have the ability to dictate the play by communicating with your cutters about
what you want or do not want, and this can be done through verbal or non
verbal communication. Verbal communication might involve an established play
call or basic directive to a player. Non-verbal communication might involve
more subtle means of communicating through a pump fake, head nod, eye
movement, hand gesture, or another subtle body cue. Lastly, good handler
communication does not only occur on the field. Be vocal with your teammates
about what kind of cuts you like to throw to or spaces you particularly look
to hit.
The last quality of a great handler is mind-set. While playing on Ozone, I
observed Angela Lin and Holly Sommers exude a calm confidence with the disc
that I tried to mimic as a young handler. Besides exhibiting the knowledge
that you are in control, know when to take risks and do it confidently, do not
be too hard on yourself for poor execution (vs. poor decisions), and be
aggressive about quick movement. Lastly, and perhaps most difficult for the
aging Ultimate player in all of us, try to avoid falling into “the handler
trap” mind-set of getting stuck behind the disc. The line between stealth and
sloth is thin and blurry, so if you are inactive make sure it is serving a
purpose.
Matthew Sewell once told me that Ultimate is 60% skill/athleticism and 40%
confidence. Although I am sure he was exaggerating the percentages to instill
confidence in a young player, he was absolutely right about the necessity of a
confident and aggressive attitude. That mind-set, combined with good
communication and a keen awareness, will help turn a good thrower into a great
handler.