To play better, you have to watch more Ultimate
In order to fall in love with Ultimate you have got to watch it (especially with friends). Pick up the slack!
This was initially supposed to come out on the 15th of April, but my immune system decided otherwise. Unfortunately, I was down with chicken pox (my friends did judge me for it since it is claimed to be a kid’s disease). Regardless of the situation, here is another post on Ultimate Frisbee, so YAY! Welcome back and let’s get into it.
I have been thinking about this blog post multiple times in the shower because I found it really hard to distil it down to the “Dummies“ level. Alas, if I didn’t try, I would never know, right? So here we are.
This blog is going to revolve around a 50-second clip of a point in the New Zealand Division 1 Semifinals: Brightside vs. Wildcats.
Brightside = Orange, hailing from Christchurch
Wildcats = Lilac, from Windy Wellington
This specific clip is by far the best play I made in this tournament. I did other cool stuff, like losing my voice on day two of the tournament, but this is cool. It isn't fancy or anything; it was just a simple switch. I'll stop talking about it. Let me show you instead.
Did you catch that? Probably not; I will explain what I can about this clip.
Positioning on defence
All of the players you see in this clip are highly aware of where their opponent/mark is located. Our team started off this point with a zone defence and then transitioned into playing match. This is usually done to apply pressure at the beginning of the point to see whether we can generate a turnover from the opponents. After a certain number of passes or based on where the opponents are on the field, we switch to match. We mutually agreed that we would force them to throw forehands. Hence, you can see the following setup.
Here, you can clearly see us set up on the opposite side as our opponents forcing them away from the disc. Why, you might ask? Here is why:
Josh is doing a good job of applying pressure to throw a forehead into space that most of the defenders (i.e. Wildcats, lilac) are covering. That means if the disc does get thrown into that space it can be slammed into the ground to get a block.
This allows us as defenders to react to what uncanny move the offence is going to uncork (you should assume they are unpredictable from time to time). You can see that Riley in this image has no space between him and the offender (Adam Chung), while most of the others have around 2 metres or so. This is known as a “buffer”, it gives you the space and time to react to movement made by the offence. It is great for the offender as it gives him a chance to maybe catch the defender off-guard to gain some yards with the disc.
This would mean they have to get through us before they get the disc which makes it harder for them. That is the job of the D-Line.
This is a forehand force situation. The setup, if we were forcing a backhand, would be inverted. The defence would be on the other side of the defender, and Josh, in this situation, would be forcing Edwards to throw in the opposite direction of the arrow.
Exploitation of space as an offender
In the clip above, you can see the Brightside handlers doing a great job of exploiting the looser marks set by the Wildcats’ defence. As a result, they can generate a lot more movement, providing quick passes, which also provides them more options in the downfield. Why? Because your teammates would see the disc moving around frantically and the human tendency of running towards the disc kicks in (ultimate players are usually more disciplined than I state). In all fairness, more movement = gain in yards. It is bound to happen, if you don’t stop it ;).
Defenders POV:
It is good to poach off 1 as long as you do not lose them completely. Leaving an offender completely free on the field. You do
Back peddling2 as a mark is good to make yourself larger to prevent throws from going past you. The triangle drill is what is usually used to implement the back peddling. Remember that this can work in a different order and doesn’t specifically need to be 1, 2, and 3.
WARNING: This drill is only a tool, doing this on every defensive point will get you annihilated, lol.
Shuffle across to stop the break side throw
Back peddle to make self large to prevent throws going past you
Work back down slowly (not too slow and you don’t want the disc to go above your head)
Make sure you communicate with the other defender in the space that the offenders are exploiting. It is vital as both of you should be ready to switch positions whenever necessary.
Snapshotting and the importance of looking around on the field
“Snapshotting is very very important. It allows you to understand where the disc is. It doesn’t need to be a long look, just a quick look around. Your brain will analyse the information almost instantaneously and it will do it passively“. - an interpretation of what Lauchy (my cracked defensive coach) said at practice.
What is the reasoning behind taking quick looks?
Taking longer looks allows your offender to take advantage of it and run away from you very quickly making it very hard for you to catch up.
There is a lot of snapshotting that happens in the clip above. The best person to watch in this clip would be Theo Moore (there is an image above with names; Jersey number 51). He does a fantastic job of taking quick snapshots while making sure that he is close to his mark.
No pixelated image here, just go admire Theo’s awareness in the clip :).
Flashing Lanes (the act of covering throwing lanes to disallow throws downfield)
While playing defence it is important to make sure you know what is happening in your surrounding area. Is someone else ready to get a pass that you can restrict? Flash the throwing lane! Shut down the tentative pass by dropping into the predicted trajectory of the pass and that is a job well done.
Here are a few examples from the clip above.
P.S. Bold arrows = offensive flow/throw; Dotted lines = Defensive movement
Here you can see me ‘flashing the lane’ when the handler had possession of the disc with a good amount of momentum suggesting that the throw was going to go in that direction. Why didn’t it? Because I decided to appear out of the blue for a brief second.
This is a similar situation just in a tighter space. I make sure to move into the throwing lane to prevent an upline throw from going off (uplines are the bane of my existence, I hate them so much because I get beaten like that too many times). That leads to a dump pass to the person (Tavish) I was marking, which is a win in a defensive regard since I stopped the more threatening option.
Switching (a.k.a. Rolling)
This is the switch I was talking about at the beginning of the blog. So happy that I was able to recognise it and try to relay the information to my teammate as soon as possible.
This is an image of the aftermath of the lane-flashing. You can see me ready to follow the handler who Elliot was marking running up the line. Meanwhile, Elliot is ready to take on the other handler (Tavish) who has possession of the disc. This isn’t perfect by any means, but what could I have done better to stop the flow of this point?
A highly experienced friend of mine who saw this clip said:
“You could have conveyed to Elliot to roll to Tavish the moment you were ready to switch because you can see Elliot move in the opposite direction to follow his mark which allows Tavish (the guy with the disc) to get the swing to Morgan (the guy who is going to receive the pass from Tavish)“.
After watching this clip around 2 million times. I understand that he is 100% right.
I think that is all I got for this one! Phew, this one took longer than I expected.
Hopefully, this shows you the importance of watching Ultimate. Doing it more will help you analyse games and different ways people beat others. Even better if they are games you are involved in.
Because you are playing in an ultimate frisbee game that is recorded.
You can spot mistakes that you make
You can laugh at yourself and fix those mistakes
Before I leave you I have two things for you. A bunch of games from different divisions to show you how awesome this sport is,
Denver Molly Brown vs Toronto 6ixers (Open's Women’s game)
Boston Brute Squad vs San Fransisco Fury (Women's)
Wildcats vs Groot Vol.1 (Open's Men's game) There is no bias here...
Ring of Fire (USA) vs Clapham (GBR) (Men's)
Australia vs Japan World Games (Mixed game)
New Zealand vs Singapore (Mixed)
and of course a meme (can’t have a blog post without a meme, right).
Poach off → allowing the offender to have more space, while you cut out passing lanes to get a block.
Back peddling → the act of making yourself larger to block more throws since you will have more time to react to the throw and to cover more space of the field.