Cutting–"Threat Points"
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Loading ...I thought of this whilst sketching out some different offensive sets in my notes at the Neuroscience 2007 seminar in San Diego, and I think it very aptly sums up my philosophy/thought process with regards to cutting.
“It” is the notion of Threat Points, places on the field where, given your position and motion and the position of the disc, you can choose to cut in at least two directions and reasonably expect to get the disc–which way you cut, then, is a personal call depending on how you’re being played defensively and perhaps other concerns like the skill set of the person with the disc, weather, etc.
This is perhaps best conveyed by means of visual aid…
The simplest setup for this might be the dump. Let’s say we have a fairly typical dump setup like below:
In this particular instance the force is forehand (player with the disc is on the right), with the black lines being defenders. The red line is the cut/clearing out that the dump cutter has just made (I’m assuming a following-the-play scenario where the dump is moving, not starting from standing), and the blue line is where the dump should cut to next.
By making a hard cut to that space…
…the dump cutter is now in a position where he can do one of two things.
- He can continue cutting to space upline, or
- He can plant and cut backwards at an angle to get the dump in ideal position to swing it.
Which option he chooses depends on a few factors, notably which option his defender is giving him (it could be both), what’s happening downfield (is the upline lane clogged?), his team philosophy (perhaps the dump-swing is their bread and butter) and how the defense is playing their team (again, perhaps the dump-swing is the necessary tool to victory against a lane-poachy D, or perhaps the mark is taking away the backfield and upfield is the most viable option).
What matters most is that, more often than not, this puts a cutter in a position where he can effectively “threaten” two areas. This usually means that the cutter can get open in at least one direction, given that the two positions are not simultaneously defensible (some defenses/situations will prove this wrong of course).
Finding Threat Points like that and exploiting them is the essence of my cutting strategy, especially when it comes to secondary cutting–very often when clearning out deep or back towards the stack there are positions where I can make a cut back into space and be open for a gainer/swing. Generally I set up my cuts by cutting to a space where I can pick one of two directions to go in and still get the disc.
In cases where a defender is on you such that they’ll be with you in whichever direction you choose to go, you’re very often still in a position where you’ll force a defender to turn his hips, in which case the cutting 101 rule of “get him to turn his hips, then go the other way” applies.
