Outside the Huddle: Issue No. 3 – Defending a Hucker

Here’s the situation we presented to the panel:

You are in an elimination game against a team you have played several times this year. They have a very skilled deep thrower that typically plays as a handler, rarely going downfield. This player has hurt your team in the past by throwing long goals, regardless of the type of mark you use. Your scouting report coming in is simple: push this player deep and keep them away from the disc.

At halftime, this player has unusually already gone deep, successfully, 3 times. Once was on a called pull play. They have hucked for another goal, though not on a pull play. You are behind 8-6. What do you do in the second half? Should you continue to push this player away from the disc? What kind of defender, given your normal options (you can’t just put World’s Greatest Defender on them) should be used?

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While a seemingly broad question, Issue 3 really boils down to a few key ideas. Ben van Heuvelen starts his response, and this entry, with a few of them: “On defense, your goal isn’t to shut down all options , because that’s impossible against a good offense. Rather, your goal is to dictate to the offense those options it can take. So, the first thing to realize here is: if Big Thrower hasn’t been able to make big throws, you’ve done something successful.”

Having a gameplan, especially one developed over the course of a season/career, is something players/coaches should trust. A frequent effort of gameplans in this sport are figuring out what certain teams/players want to do, and trying to take that away.

“Whenever lining up against a gifted opponent I have always found it helpful to ask myself: what does this player want to do? In this case, this player is most comfortable and probably most confident in a handler role, staying behind the disc and throwing goals rather than receiving them. When playing against teams that have a player like this, someone who excels in many aspects, always make them beat you with their Plan B or Plan C, never Plan A.”

“You take away a team’s strength and make them beat you with their weakness. If they do, you make them do it again, because it’s their f***ing weakness!” — Jon Gewirtz

This idea is nearly universal in the sport, and in all sports. Where trouble arises is when teams find ways to beat you with their second/third plans, like in the proposed scenario. Now comes the hardest question at all: do you make a change, or keep playing it out?

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what adjustment you make as long as you make one. -Ryan Morgan

It’s important to note that most panelists make the distinction that change means tweaking matchups and individual strategies, not entire gameplans. Using different or alternating defenders against ‘Big Thrower’, changing what defenders do on the mark, and similar changes are the kinds of responses proposed, but most would still try and hold true to the main goal: don’t let ‘Big Thrower’ play his usual role as deep-throwing handler. “But again, the most important adjustment to make is to make an adjustment” -Ryan Morgan.

As a wise woman once said, 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. -Miranda Roth

There are team-wide changes that can be made as well, such as throwing different kinds of zones: standard zones; the “box-and-one”, which puts 6 players into zone positions while one would mark ‘Big Thrower’ regularly; and others.

You can also adjust your methods of denying this player the disc by changing pressures against his teammates: “It’s important to keep in mind that he’s not a handler by himself. That is, he’s has someone to complete the chemistry and that guy may be the one to really clamp down on.” writes Tully Beaty. Dan Heijman agrees: “What we need to do is ratchet up the intensity on their throwers. Make it so they don’t want the disc in their hands.”

There are tons of different small adjustments that could be made, and in an elimination game, you might need to use any and all that you can think of.

“Or…” says Chris Talarico, “if you don’t like these options, you can go back to shutting down the deep and allow him the underneath…and kick yourself after you lose for allowing the same guy to beat you the same way. Again.”

I think the most important thought process comes from Ben Wiggins, as usual:

“My gut usually sticks with the scouting report; I have a lot of faith in how I scout teams, and if I was sure 50 minutes ago that this guy is a better thrower than cutter, well, 50 minutes and some lost sweat shouldn’t change that. In fact, nothing in the first half has contradicted our report…heck, if we had been pushing him towards the disc, maybe we are already down 8-5 or 8-4. This might just be his day.”

I couldn’t agree more that long-developed strategies shouldn’t be abandoned at the first sign of adversity. Stick to your guns, trust your gameplan, and most importantly, trust your teammates.

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Super excited to start reading The-Huddle for the x-th time, and hopefully encouraging others to do the same. I’m not sure that any other source has been this valuable.

Cheers!

In a Position to Win; Part I – Why It Matters

i. In a Position to Win; Preface

Introduction

In the simplest sense, Ultimate is a game of throw and catch. Behind all of the offensive strategies and defensive sets, each point is won by someone throwing a disc and someone else catching it. Within a game of throw and catch, there are two vital spots on the playing field: the spot of release and the spot of the catch. As a down-field defender, out job is to defend the spot of the catch. The best way to do this is to get between the offensive player and the place they want to catch the disc.

This is how defense is played in every sport. The most obvious example: football. There is a line on the field that the offense has to stay behind, and it is the side farthest away from their goal. The defense lines up on the other side between the offense and the goal. Basketball and hockey players do the same thing: stand between the offensive player and the basket/goal; but in these sports, you can see it taken to another level: the defense will force the ball/puck carrier to the outside of the court/ice. Why? Because the goal is in the middle of the playing field.

Ultimate is a little different, however. The goal is an end-zone, just like in football, but there are no restrictions on where players can be at any given time. Additionally, there is no reason to force players to the outside or inside of the field, because they can score on anywhere across the width of the end-zone. There is, however, a way to create a specific goal for the offense as a defense, and it’s the most important defensive position in all of Ultimate: the handler defender, or the mark.

Defensive Positioning: “In a Position to Win” – PREFACE

The moment I started playing college/competitive Ultimate, I’ve loved playing defense. I found the endless changing of positioning, thought processes, goals, and objectives during the playing of each point remarkably intense and rewarding. In my playing, learning, and teaching of the sport, I’ve seen a lot of new/young players struggle with the concept of “defensive positioning”, watching them simply chase their mark around like a game of “follow the leader”, and they waste a lot of energy/allow a lot of easy catches in doing so.

My next series of blog posts, titled “In a Position to Win”, will try to shed some light on the concept of “defensive positioning” on a level that players of most any age/level can understand. I will talk about why it matters, how it works, when to use it, and more. It will focus primarily on player-on-player defense, but the occasional zone conversation will occur.

Along with my own thoughts on the concept, I will do my best to compile other great content already available on other blogs/websites. There is a great wealth of Ultimate knowledge on the internet if you take the time to look.

I hope to have the entire three or four part series done by the time May comes around (no promises).

Look next for “Part I: Why It Matters” early next week.

Outside The Huddle: Issue No. 1 – Horizontal vs Vertical

Horizontal stack offenses have become much more popular in the last decade at the expense of the previously ubiquitous vertical stack offense. Given equivalent talent, which type offense would you rather run in windy situations?

This question is one that captains and coaches struggle with each year, and is even more pressing at the club level, where October weather and Florida hurricanes put a premium on moving the disc into the wind. Not long ago, the Condors won a championship in a game with a single upwind point. To guide our panel, we asked the following sub-questions as well:

• Which offense works better into the wind? With a strong downwind? What about a stiff crosswind?
• What adjustments can you make strategically in either offense in a very strong (sustained 20-mph +) wind?

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Possibly the most prevalent question in all of Ultimate: “Which type of offense should we run?”, or in 90%* of cases, “Horizontal or Vertical?”

The question posed to the panel takes wind into consideration, which gives us some context with which to provide anecdotal reasoning and examples.