Handler? Know Thyself.
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Loading ...If I asked you the question,
“What do you look for in a good handler?”
Your list would probably look something like this:
- good throws
- good hands (catching)
- quick
- good hucks
- breaks
- good decisions (doesn’t turn the disc over)
I’ll offer that, while there is some requisite level of competence required in some of these areas (I’m thinking “good hands”) to be a handler, you can actually do a LOT without anything close to a complete skillset.
The most important thing for any handler (or really any player with the disc in his hands) to know is:
- his/her own limitations
That’s all. Can’t huck it? Maybe learn the fake, but don’t sweat it. Always turfing your IO? Shelf it. Always throwing the disc away? Maybe you need better teammates to catch your visionary throws. (I’m kidding). Not quick enough to shake ‘n bake your man in two steps? Master the fine art of positioning and timing, instead of dancing in the lane.
Right there with knowing what you can’t do is knowing what you CAN. Maybe you don’t have a money flick bomb, endzone-to-endzone, but when you get the disc on an upline cut you can put it to Fred where he’ll rip it down 80% of the time. Maybe your IO sucks, but if your mark is overplaying it you can make a beautiful leading around pass.
Play to your strengths!!! Maybe your team asks you to do more than you’re capable of or comfortable with right now. Instead of simply trying (and failing) to live up to those expectations, think about how the things you WANT to do and CAN do can jive with those same goals. If you’re a handler without game-changing throws, but you can move quickly and get open, instead of trying to make that short IO break pass the coach keeps preaching you can instead focus on dishing the disc to the first open man you see as soon as you get the disc and get back to where you’re the most dangerous–moving. If you’ve got big hucks and little else (including good judgment on when to throw and when to hold), consider talking to your cutters and establishing some preferred receivers you can be comfortable throwing to (and make sure the rest know not to make that cut for you, so you’re maximizing completions).
I’m sure you’ve had experiences where you’ve run up against guys and thought, “I/we are so much better than them, can do so much more,” and then get your ass whooped. You can do a lot with a little if you know how to use it. Before you get caught up in all the stratagems, running a ho-stack or a clam because everyone runs one, try running it from the other side–what can you do well? In what setups, or simply “how,” can you best utilize this skill or ability? (Or instead of the positive definition you can look at the negative definition–given your limitations, how can you most avoid overextending yourself?)
Nobody has it all. You can be a great, well-rounded ultimate player, but there are bound to be areas where you feel less confident. Sometimes you’ll bump up against those limitations–but it doesn’t have to be by design! The best offenses are structured to play to their strengths, to feature their talents. Certainly, progressing in your skills and abilities is something to work towards, but when it counts,
Thanks for this thought. In my coaching, I’m constantly telling people that if they know what throws they have and the range on those throws, then deciding to throw or not to throw is really easy. It then frees them up to get the disc moving again (good for the team) rather than being paralyzed or making a poor throw because they “had to” throw to a particular cutter.
Also, why restrict it to handlers? A cutter looking for a continue should also know what she is capable of throwing and not over-extend herself.
Pascal,
Agreed. The value of simply moving the disc remains very underrated at all levels, I think. The best teams out there realize this to some extent–even if they don’t embrace it fully in their own offensive set, they do a good job of stagnating the other team on D.
You’re right about it not just being a handler thing–my first insights into the thing happened to come when I was thrust into handling on the b-team my freshman year, and I think a lot of rookies find the prospect of “handling” daunting due to all the conceptions of what a handler “should” be.
Absolutely cutters need to learn this too–I think systems generally do a better job of not pressuring a cutter compared to the pressure a handler might feel to create offense with throws, but the best players, if not great at everything, are well aware of their limitations and strengths in all areas–regardless of what their “role” is.
I’ve been trying to condense good O (and by extension good D) down to just a few points, so that I can really drive them home.
1) Move the disc
2) Move with purpose
3) Always be a threat
4) Make good decisions
I think “Know thyself” is half of making good decisions, the other half is knowing your opponent.
(And as you can see, #1 is Move the disc.)
John, what have you come up with for good D?
My D ones are still too many, and too jumbled. I need to do some work to condense them down…
I see a lot of college players having trouble making the jump to open because they don’t understand that the percentages have changed, and those risky turnovers that used to be OK aren’t anymore.
Then they’re frustrated that players they see themselves as better than get more playing time than themselves.
Rule #1 of O:
Complete your passes.
Rule #2 of O:
Complete the passes of your teammates.
Rule #3 of O:
All else is failure.
Rule #1 of D:
Force opponent to violate Rules 1+2 of O.
But Dusty… If you’re going that far you might as well make it “Don’t turn over” and “Cause turnovers” or “Score” and “Stop them scoring”?
It’s not as actionable. It doesn’t foster any greater depth of understanding. It also doesn’t create a feedback loop when people fail. Why did was the pass incomplete? … No answer.
It’s completely true, it’s just not helpful.
Is it not helpful for everyone to take responsibility for every turnover and then once over for their own?
No two turnovers are the same, no set of rules covers all possible turnovers. (We’re teetering on the brink of Godel territory here, concerning the strength of a system, I feel…)
The points that follow easily from my rules:
— take throws that are likely to be completed by you.
— make passes by your teammates more likely to be completed by moving.
— accept that the separation of individual and team failure is false.
The assumptions that these rules make:
— players understand what easy passes are for themselves/teammates.
Even a novice understands what an easy pass is.
The balance of strategically important passes versus strategically unimportant passes varies by team, strategy, coach, captain, point, game, tournament, game conditions, etc.