Thoughts.

This is one of the simplest, yet most powerful notions I’ve ever heard in ultimate frisbee.

When you’re playing defense, stay on your opponent’s outside shoulder (“outside” referring to the force side).


In this position, with the defense set up on the outside shoulder of the cutters, there is no such thing as an easy throw. Even on the far right, where it would almost seem to make sense to shift around…When you leave that alley open the throw becomes uncontested if you lose the footrace (and why, even if you can win the footrace, you wouldn’t choose a superior starting position is a good question–if you’re going to play even, you should still do it on your opponent’s outside). If you stay on the outside shoulder, you’re forcing a throw threaded between the gap between the mark and your positioning without sacrificing the open-side risk.

Even when it seems counter intuitive, stay on the outside shoulder. Always consider the throwing lane. Don’t let yourself be run around and in so doing concede the straight open side cut.

This would be best explained with video, but I don’t have the time or the means on account of my traveling to Japan and not having a team to demonstrate (I haven’t checked the availability of the Buzz Bullets, but I imagine they’re preoccupied getting ready for worlds). Keep an eye out for it in video–lots of shitty defense with a defender getting deked away from the outside shoulder, spectacular defensive plays compensating for said deking (doesn’t justify it unless you get a D on that play consistently!), bad throws forced by good defense keeping its position downfield. There are fundamentals that work or do not work underneath every highlight reel play.

The Huddle already beat me to this, but I’ve been sitting on this thought for a while now.

Athletic position means being on your toes, knees bent, ready to uncoil. Keep it in mind on the ultimate field. Keep in in mind when you’re tossing on the green or in the park or wherever you happen to get your tossing in. Keep it in mind when you’re in the gym and doing plyos. Develop your strength, and then learn how to channel that strength as quickly and effectively as possible through your toes. And dominate.

As I alluded to earlier, relative positioning of the disc (to receiver and defender) is a key consideration not just for the thrower, but for the receiver in situations where the defender is close.

This notion should affect a receiver a few ways:

1. When setting up one’s cuts, have a mind for where your defender will be when you finally pick a direction to move in. Some of the most frustratingly effective cuts that have been made on me (and which I in turn started making) are set up very simply by moving until the cutter is between the defender and where the cutter expects to receive the disc. In this way, a quick movement gives the cutter the innate advantage of a well-positioned throw without requiring a ton of effort on the part of the thrower.
2. As soon as the disc goes into the air, a good receiver will not move simply to catch the disc as soon as possible–she will also move, perhaps laterally somewhat in addition to the direction she’s already running in, to position her body behind the the disc’s trajectory. In so doing she will put her body in the way of the disc, making a play more difficult for a defender (picture a football receiver shuffling to catch the ball rather than reaching, allowing them to take a hit while receiving the ball without fumbling).
3. Along with 2, a good receiver will catch the disc such that a defender cannot make a play through his body without fouling him. This means either attacking the disc as soon as possible in front of him, or, if pancaking the disc (this is seen with some frequency at the elite level), will position his arms such that the lower arm is on the side of his body that the defender is likely to bid from–a good layout D comes from a low angle (high, gazelle-style layouts (hi Watson), while impressive looking, contain a lot of wasted motion in the up-down plane and are less likely to get to the disc as quickly), so using your arm as a buffer (catching with your arm under puts your elbow in the way) in addition to your already well-positioned body makes a clean D nearly impossible.

Feel free to comment if you have additional thoughts here. Certainly the case is such that sometimes you need to lay out for the grab, but that falls under “exceptional” rather than “good,” in my opinion.

This is something I never really thought about until this spring, when I was teaching somebody how to lay out.

Do you have any preference? What’s standard for you, and why? I’ve decided I prefer one handers because it allows for maximal extension and a braced landing (and I fancy myself consistent enough with the one-handed grab that the two hander is unnecessary). And I prefer fingers underneath because it’s an easier transition to sliding on the ground without having the disc stripped, as I use my forearm for impact absorption on the landing (I’ll do a more extensive post on layout technique sometime later). Think about what works and why. And PRACTICE if you’re unhappy with your skillset! Visualization is a nice tool to practice layouts without the extra wear and tear of throwing yourself on the ground repeatedly, if physical practice is too painful. But it’s through repetition that you’ll find the most success in-game.

How do you gauge how far you should space yourself from your man?

Here’s a few factors you should take into account.

• The relative threat of your player, as dictated by his/her spot on the field–is she way on the far sideline in a horizontal stack, when the disc is on the other line? Did he just finish cutting deep, and is so far that any throw made would leave you with time to catch up and make a play? Is he out in the lane, ready to be the primary cutter as soon as the disc is tapped in?
• The speed/skill of your mark. Is he faster than you? Can she beat you in an open sprint? Can you make up a cushion of two steps if he runs straight away from you?
• The role of your opponent. Does she mostly handle, hanging out around the disc? Is cutting deep the only thing he wants to do? Know what to expect when you position.
• Size disparity. Even if you have the ups to sky your opponent, if they LOOK like a good target deep, you’re not going to want to give the thrower any extra encouragement with a cushion there.
• The opponent’s strengths. Can she throw? If not, is the under really your first priority to defend? (hint: sometimes it still is. When?)
• How he/she reacts. Can he juke with the best of them, but struggles to find a rhythm when you take a couple steps out into the lane? Do they always run away from your cushion, or do they try to blow past you anyway?
• Your comfort/energy. Do you like to get physical? Are you too tired to respond to all of your opponent’s motions up close? Do you prefer to chase the frisbee down, and can you do so if you opponent has a lead of a step or more on you?

Play some thought games with yourself, really see yourself in a variety of situations–both static (off a dead disc) and dynamic (as the disc is dumped and swung, or as it flows up the open side, as it goes from a handler to a cutter who can’t huck). What about weather? What sorts of information are the most essential to know/deduce when determining your defensive positioning?

Very simple defensive thought here.

Pay attention to the hips. Slowly, it will become second nature. But initially, just pay attention to which setups lead to which results–not in terms of “caught a goal deep” or “dropped a pass,” but in terms of “I was ready for/anticipated that move” or “I was caught completely off guard by x.” Learn to anticipate x. Learn what predicts x, and anticipate what will predict y. Be one mental step ahead of your quarry and you’ll be one physical step ahead of them when it matters.

The thought crossed my mind today, the sprout rising from this seed.

I feel like it could be a pretty viable strategy to do smart matchups placing your second-tier defenders on the other team’s studs in order to contain them (knowing that it’s easier to contain than to dominate) while your studs get Ds on the more vulnerable O-types, but this obviously depends a lot on the team–the strategy is worthless if you can’t contain their studs enough to force the disc into the hands of chumps. Maybe it is the case, as Hh notes, that the studs need to contain the studs and the second-stringers are the ones who have to step it up and get D’s on the chumps. Perhaps the primary D-getters should be your young, spry, athletic freshmen and sophomores who sit on the sideline enough that they’re always fresh when they’re in.

Continuing in my UCPC seminar review, Ben Wiggins’ seminar on marking.

It was an interesting seminar–definitely different from what I was anticipating; instead of perhaps an endorsement of well-known marking strategies, or a long list of little tips, Wiggins goes for the marking jugular, so to speak, with a few solid to useful ideas and a few more radical, though potentially very useful, ideas, as well as a fair bit about team defense (of which the mark is possibly one of the most important components, as the mark is the most powerful defensive position on the field in terms of space defended by a good mark). Wiggins’ target audience for a lot of these thoughts is elite-level play, where a defense cannot expect the offense to turn the disc over without considerable pressure, and where the offense will likely score with great consistency nonetheless–where a single turnover or two might be all a D-line needs to win a game, so a lot of these ideas aren’t necessarily for, say, rec league pickup.

I’m going to shoot for more brevity in this post and try to list more than rant.

Simple, useful ideas:

• The notion of “blocking back,” whereby a mark reaches away from the thrower rather than towards them when attempting to pointblock; this allows for a slightly longer window to react to the disc’s movement.
• Similarly, Wiggins suggested keeping the head back as far as possible while marking, to give oneself perhaps an extra split-second to see (and perhaps tip/block) a throw
• When trying to stop a continuation off of a dump/etc., the player setting the mark should take a very quick glance (glance, don’t stare) upfield while running to set the mark–look for a split second, and then process what you see as you run to set the mark, don’t get caught looking away from the thrower
• A good mark will learn which fakes are bad, and will ignore them as non-threats, rather than responding to any movement and letting the handler toy with the mark.
• Finish drills! In a dump-swing drill, for example, the last handler and mark should go for 1-2 seconds as though the handler were trying to continue the disc upfield. Over many iterations of a given drill this gives everyone on the team dozens more opportunities to work on marking per practice.

Less simple, but useful ideas:

• Marking with staggered feet–a bit controversial perhaps, but Wiggins insists it has situational value. Going on the notion of “blocking back,” the side which your foot is back on will have a slightly larger window with which to react to a throw on that side (so one generally wants the foot back on the side of the throw that’s a bigger threat). It also should help with movement toward or away from the thrower to avoid potential fouls.
• A moving start out of a stoppage–instead of standing passively when tapping the disc in on the mark, while the O makes play calls, etc, Wiggins suggests a mark that is moving from one side to the other as the disc is tapped in–supposedly this takes away certain options and forces the O to adjust immediately as the disc comes in, but I’m not so sure of its efficacy. Something to try.
• The notion of “baiting,” where a mark will show one look (say, with hands held as though to stop a high-release, allowing the under) for a few marks/a full point, and then when they know how the handler will throw against this mark, make an adjustment and go for the point block. Definitely a risky proposition in some cases, but against high-level O, a chance like this for a point block is as golden a chance as any you’ll see.
• The idea of always covering the space on field with the mark, instead of the sideline (i.e., having your butt facing the sideline, stopping a backhand when the backhand would be OB anyways): this is common sense to a point, but Wiggins advocates for it to the point where the upline throw, while difficult, is (I think) unacceptably easy to get off. Again, how you implement this would depend on the level of offense you’re trying to D up.

Team D strategies: you’d be better served looking at Wiggins’ materials on the UCPC downloads than my explanation here (UPDATE: note that the link is now broken, with no apparent replacement elsewhere on the internet–my apologies). It’s definitely worth noting that a tall, athletic team like Ego designed their D to force deep throws and use their athletes to their advantage, while a team like the Drizzle implemented a team D strategy that focused more on creating havoc and poach opportunities since they were playing a team that was clearly above their heads. Something to consider when thinking about one’s own team D.

Improving individual/team marks: nothing too revolutionary here, I think. Obviously a fitter mark is a better one. Wiggins suggests keeping stats to assess the quality of marks (yardage allowed), as well as using video. Pickup is a great time to implement new strategies or work to incorporate more elements to your game. It’s important to scheme one’s defense to play to one’s strengths (and/or to dumb down your opponents’ strength). Realize that the best defenders are not always the best markers, and vice-versa. Know who excels at what so you don’t put a line out that’s overmatched on the mark, and realize that good marks invariably contribute to errant or rushed throws that result in D’s downfield.

This was probably the lightest seminar, in terms of relative amount of stuff I might take with me and incorporate. That said, it was still definitely some valuable stuff.

Still in the reviewing queue:

• Keynote by Dr. Goldberg
• Applying Mental Toughness Strategies by Tiina Booth (ARHS coach)
• A Season of High-Level Ultimate by Nathan Wicks (former Brown men’s coach, ’00-’05 (note they won championships in his first and last years coaching them))
• Perhaps a brief bit on the Panel Discussion.

Probably in that order. (UPDATE: check the UCPC label for the other recaps)

Some links to other UCPC reviews:
Lean and Hungry FitnessGeorge Cooke
Jim Parinella