Cutting Thought: Be Fit
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Loading ...You can find a lot of things that resonate with how I cut through my recently posted links compilation.
That said, with these posts I’m going to try and flesh out a lot of the aspects that go into cutting, so hopefully some of it will be helpful/new.
A couple broad sweeping generalizations to start:
1. It helps to be fast. Always does, always will. Train hard, focus on your sprinting form until it becomes natural to sprint quickly, and your job gets a lot easier. I’m a pretty fast guy, so unfortunately a lot of my cutting style is skewed towards taking advantage of that. Keep that bias in mind going forwards.
2. It helps a LOT to be explosive. If you’re not fast (or at least, if your defender is as fast or faster than you), being able to start and stop more quickly will work to your advantage. As a handler/mid and when I found myself evenly matched (I wouldn’t like to ever admit to being overmatched), relying on my explosiveness to generate a step or two of separation was crucial to setting up any other cuts I made. This is a lot easier to train than simply being fast. Go to the gym, get stronger. Learn how to lift with one leg, and how to jump and land with one leg. Most importantly, learn how to stop. It is my opinion that stopping is the most underrated skill in ultimate frisbee.
I’ll stop there before this turns into a fitness post. Going forward, I’m going to try and give some more concrete stuff than this, but a lot of what follows stems from the above. Solid fundamentals (of movement) make it possible to excel at the minutia.
I’d be quite interested in your thoughts on stopping. I’ve noticed the power of stopping/reversing in my own game, but haven’t seen anything on its technique.
I find movement technique especially important, as I’m on the sheer upper range of size for most competitive frisbee folk, at 6’4″ and 240#; I have to figure out how to get open with technique and strength rather than top-end speed.