Thursday, February 26, 2009

Handler Defense

I found this article about handler defense, and I thought it was great. You'll find a lot of similarities to how I teach handler defense, plus some great insights. Check it out and do it: http://forceflick.blogspot.com/2009/02/handler-defense.html

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Winning from the sideline

This post is about an aspect of every ultimate team's game that is all too often overlooked--cheering. Now I know that upon reading the word cheering that every "serious" ultimate player out there probably threw up a little in their mouth, but stay with me. I'm not talking about the clever rhymes that you make up at the end of CUSL games to tell the other team that "their bids were legit" or that " their D was all over me", what I'm really talking about is support. I'm talking about taking the support that we give our teammates 3 days a week for 2 hours at a time at practice a little further. I'm talking about winning games from the sideline.

If you've ever played a school with a program - meaning a school that competes yearly at regionals, maybe takes some shots at nationals ever once in a while, and nearly always has a solid team come spring - I'm sure you've noticed that they know what it means to win games from the sideline. It helps that those schools usually have squads of around 20-30 guys, but it's possible to do this with 8 guys, or maybe even 7? When you play these schools there's always someone from their sideline yelling something when the disc is in play and sometimes between points too. It's tough to play against a team when their whole sideline is giving "up" and "broken" and "strike" calls on every throw. It sucks to get beaten on an in-cut, but it sucks even more when all you can hear from the sideline is "nice cut" and "yeah Jimmy" as you're getting beaten in. It gets in your head no matter how good you are.

Now imagine the most intense ultimate game you've ever played in. I'm talking about that one game where you played balls out every second of every point and threw your body around like you didn't care if you lived to play in the next round. That game where you probably forgot the score because you were so focused on denying your man the disc and making hard, smart cuts straight to your throwers. Now think about what you heard during that game. I bet it was your teammates on the sideline giving you position calls and encouraging your effort on the field. Now try to imagine playing as hard as you did without the encouragement you received. I know I couldn't do it.

This, meaning winning games from the sideline, is something that our team can do very well with at times, and absolutely terribly at others. Case in point: Western game at Knox Indoor '09 vs. Chicago game at '08 Sectionals. For those of you that were there at last year's Sectionals, imagine our last game on Saturday without Lee on the opposite sideline encouraging us and making sure that we didn't give up. It wouldn't have been the same without it. It's hard to keep a sideline up through 4 or sometimes 5 rounds of play during one day at tournament, especially when you're down on the scoreboard, but in order to take the next step from being a team with a lot of potential to a team that translates their potential into wins on weekends, it's something we have to do. Lucky for us, it's doable without much effort at all. It takes some awareness from the sideline, and some passion and drive which I know this team has.

Most importantly, though, it's keeping the chatter positive and simple that really makes the difference. The 7 players on the field don't need 10 guys on the sideline telling them that they're marking wrong, or that their hands are too low. Leave that up to the captains, that's what they're there for. Simply calling your "up", "broken", "no breaks" and "strike" calls make all the difference when there's a whole team yelling them from the sideline. Let's win games from the sideline this spring.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Guest Article: Open Side Dump Cuts by Nick McDuffee

I asked Nick McDuffee formerly of Illinois and currently of Machine (Chicago's elite open club team) to write a guest article for us about cutting for the dump from the open (or force) side. This is something that I've struggled with myself over the course of my ultimate career and I think that Nick did a great job explaining how to do it effectively. If you have any questions for Nick feel free to comment on the post and I'll be sure to pass your comments on to him.


Handler cutting is about timing and explosive cutting. If you cut early or late you will not get open and if you cut tentatively you will not get open. If you continually jig jag and cut back and forth you may get open, but the thrower will not know where you are going and may throw it to the wrong spot. To be a good team you need to be able to hit your dumps 95% of the time. You should be able to hit your swings 60-70% of the time. The dump cut may be the least glamorous cut in ultimate, but it may also be the most important because it allows you to reset the stall count.

Getting open on the dump starts with the guy with the disc. He has to look for his dump cut on 4. That gives him a great chance to get the dump off, and if the first dump cannot get open he still has a shot on the second dump. If he looks after 6 he is putting a lot of pressure on the dumps to get open immediately. Once the guy with the disc decides to look at his dump he has to stay with the dump. He cannot give him a one second look and turn back up field. Once you commit to the dump you need to stay with him until 8. On 8 you can look to turn and huck. When you commit to the dump, turn and look at him, so he knows you are looking for it. Back hand throws are much easier and more consistent forehands at the short distance of dump passes.

Now that the thrower has committed to the dump, the dump cutter needs to get open. The most important aspects of cutting for the dump are spacing, decisive cutting, and explosive cutting. Each of these aspects are a little different based on where you are on the field. I will try and go through each of them as we did them last year on Machine. This was the most effective system I have seen since I started playing ultimate.

Disc trapped on the sideline

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My focus for this article is on cutting to the open side, but that starts with good fundamental cutting, so I will begin with the most common scenario you will find yourself in while making dumps and swings. The cutting process starts with spacing. All too often, the dump sets up too close to the disc and does not give himself enough room to cut explosively. The dump should set up 10 to 15 yards away from the disc. This gives you the opportunity to cut explosively. Cut hard right at your defender. If you can get him on his heels you have created a huge advantage for yourself. Now you can dictate your cut rather than just taking what the defense gives you. If you can get up line you want to take this. Once you decide to cut upline you have to take it. You cannot cut it off and cut back for the dump because the second dump is filling in just in case you do not get it upline. Make one decisive cut so the thrower knows where you are going and cut upline or dump. If you catch it upline, your first look should be for somebody cutting deep and to quickly continue the flow upfield. If you catch a dump your first look is for the swing because the hardest place for an offense to work is on the sideline, so you want to get the disc back to the middle of the field.

The swing cutter or second dump sets up about 25-30 yards away from the thrower and he is about 5 yards upfield. Starting upfield allows you to gain yards on a swing or at least not lose any. Once the dump starts his cut you need to be moving at probably 75-80%. You do not want to go so fast that you impede the dump cutter, but you want to be setting up your cut. Your cut should begin by mirroring the dump cutter, but 5 yards up field. If he goes up line you should look to attack up line, but make sure you peek up field so that you do not cut off an open look. If he goes dump, your cut should look like you are trying to go up line, but then you cut it off and cut back hard where you came from. This should create enough separation that a floaty swing pass can be thrown about 20 yards to the middle of the field. And you should catch it with a wide open break look, which should be your first look.

Force side Forehand-middle of the field

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The break side handler sets up even with the thrower about 10-15 yards off. The force side handler sets up about 10-15 yards off, but 3-5 yards behind the thrower. The throwers first look should be to the break side handler who cuts hard up line. If he’s open hit him. If not look at the force side handler. He should cut straight behind the thrower. Keep 2 yards distance. As he is running past hit him with a short, tight pass. This gives him a wide open look to the break side. The thrower needs to seal off the marker really well because once they see you do this a couple of times they will jump the throw and attempt a block. If you seal the marker off he will have to foul you to block the throw. If the defender is overplaying this cut, wait until right after you pass the thrower and cut right back and you should be open. This is tough to communicate between cutter and thrower. The easiest way is often if the thrower thinks the cutter is covered he should do a fake, and that will signal the cutter to cut back.

Force side Backhand-middle of the field

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X

You set up the same way as forehand, but opposite. You do everything exactly the same except you have one extra option. If cutting from the force side, and your defender is overplaying for the cut across you can cut straight up field. Because you are starting a couple yards behind the thrower it is an easy flip pass rather than an up field throw. After receiving the pass you should have a wide open look up field.

Force side-sideline

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When the disc is on the sideline the dump cut wants to set up a couple yards behind the thrower and the swing cut wants to set up even. The first cutter is 10-15 yards away and the second is 25-30. The first cutter should cut straight for the sideline and receive a dump pass right at the sideline. Right after the thrower passes. He should cut towards the middle and look for an immediate throw back from the dump. Because the marker is behind the thrower he should be open every time. If the fist look does not get the pass he should clear back and around very wide and as hard as he can because he has to clear space for the next cutter.

The second cut should be cutting at about 75% as the first cut starts knowing that if the dump gets off the first look is to the guy who threw the first pass. He cannot be in the way. In this scenario stay further up field so you can cut for the swing after the second pass. If the first dump does not get the pass you need to be ready to fill in. You should mirror and go to the sideline or cut that off and go up line for a short flip pass.

Using these techniques was the most successful I have been on force side dump and swing cuts while playing at Illinois and on Machine. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email.

Nick McDuffee

Monday, February 9, 2009

Knox Review

This past weekend at Knox was pretty awesome for both teams. Although ISU D would only leave with 2 wins (I think), they were two pretty meaningful wins. They took Bradley (not a split squad) to universe point on Saturday and won with some last minute luck and hussle, and took it to Knox B on Sunday with an impressive 11-2 win. They got a bad (or maybe fixed?) draw in bracket play though and ended up playing ISU in quarters, where they made their exit. It was awesome to bring two teams to a tournament and have both of them make it to quarters. Good job Gnomes.

Round 1: ISU vs Western Illinois
ISU couldn't have asked for a better draw on Saturday afternoon. After being eliminated from contention for a regionals bid by Western Illinois at CP Sectionals in April, the Gnomes had been anticipating this matchup for over 8 months, and it showed as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead, breaking Hysteria twice in a row to start the game. Western, to their credit, was able to bring it to to as close as 6-3 before ISU took it to half 7-3. Proud and still hungry for more, ISU took a breif half to regroup and point out some of their weaknesses before taking to the court again to finish off the game 9-5 ISU. The story of the game was all about ISU's intensity throughout. There were up calls from the sideline after every throw and no one saved anything for later. We played that game like it was our last and it showed. It seemed like the top 7 matchups were close, but ISU was able to put in 3 separate lines without a dropoff in level of play, and that's something that's hard to compete with. I could be wrong, but I think that's how the Hodags won two national championships in a row...

Round 2: ISU vs Sasquatch
Sasquatch was not who I thought they were according to my Knox Preview post. Apparently I was thinking of Yeti from UW-Stout. That said, Sasquatch appeared similar to UW-Stout in a lot of ways. They were made up of a lot of young, inexperienced players with a few fairly talented throwers. ISU came out strong against Sasquatch and jumped out to an early lead but as the lines got a little looser, Sasquatch stole a few points and brought themselves to within 3 before ISU took half at 7-3. The second half would not be so close. After a quick look at the scoreboard, and the realization that this team had scored the same amount of points as WIU (a clearly superior team) had against ISU in the first half, Doug challenged the team to bump up their game in the second half and Sasquatch wouldn't score again. 12-3 ISU.

Round 3: ISU vs Lake Forest
After going 2-0 so far in pool play, ISU needed to win this game to guarantee themselves 1st place in Pool B. Maybe it was the sun beginning to set on the T. Fleming fieldhouse, or perhaps the huge turkey dinner that our team had between rounds, but ISU came out sluggish and slow against Lake Forest in the first half. I had planned on not playing this game because of my knee injury, but after the score was knotted up at 2-2, I decided to take an O point in an attempt to calm down the team and get us to play our game. The next point we would work the disc up the court like clockwork, the cutters running hard through their cuts and the handlers making smart, crisp throws to space. After that point it seemed that ISU remembered that they were the 1 seed in Pool B, and quickly took half 7-4. During a short half ISU talked about how we were disappointed with our performance during this game and that it was our worst half of the tournament so far. After a quick break ISU proceeded to take the game at 12-6 and guarantee a 1st round bye on Sunday. On a different note, Hollywood went down with a knee injury in the second half of this game, and we've now learned that he'll be out for the season with a torn ACL. He'll be missed on the field and I'm already looking forward to playing with him after he's all healed up from his surgery and back on the field.

Sunday Elimination Play

Quarters: ISU vs ISU D
Perhaps we should start sending our split squads to different tournaments because no matter what we always seem to meet each other in bracket play. I wouldn't be surprised if we somehow end up playing our women's team in Naperville this April. Props to ISU D for coming out with fire in their eyes in the first half of this game. Although the score at half was 7-1 ISU, the game was much more highly contested than that score makes it appear. The first point was both sloppy on offense and highly contested on D. There were multiple turnovers but in the end the Circus Shorts were able to put it in to take the first lead of the game. The story of this game was experience. The athletic matchups were rarely uneven, and in some cases even favored ISU D. Erase 1 or 2 poor throws or bad offensive decisions per point on the part of ISU D and the game may have ended differently. That's an encouraging outcome for a captain, and I'm proud of the way both teams played during this game. ISU would take the game at a score of I believe 12-4.

Semis: ISU vs Western Illinois, again...
I guess the first round didn't count, because Western came back for another match against ISU
in the semis. I'd love to write another elaborate paragraph about this game, but you can pretty much just scroll up to the summary of the first game and re-read that because it went almost exactly the same. ISU got pumped up and they never came down, running tight lines and playing tight O and even tighter D. Western came hard but it wasn't enough as ISU wouldn't give them the disc to do anything with and when they did, they'd just take it right back. The only real difference between the two games was that ISU scored two more points and Jeff Reed hit an 18 yard field goal at 9:50 into the 1st to take the lead. 11-5 ISU.

Finals: ISU vs Northern Illinois
The semis and finals were the first two games that ISU would play back to back all weekend, and it showed. We're about 3 weeks into our conditioning program and it's definitely helping but looking at this game from the sideline one could see that we still have a lot of work to do. Nothern received the first half pull and after 3 passes they put it in the endzone to take the lead with ease, 1-0 NIU. This was a shocker for ISU who had scored the first point in each of their games so far and never been trailing. Another quick break and Northern was up 2-0. ISU
regrouped, put in a fresh line, and was able to get on their horse to eventually bring the score to 6-3 ISU. Northern took a time out at this point and showed that a time out used correctly can truly change the tide of a game. After the time out and a hell point Northern would begin a little run of their own, scoring 3 before ISU could take the half at 7-6. Two more points for NIU after the half and ISU was now playing from behind, a position that doesn't favor us. There was a clear shift in our mindset when NIU captured the third lead change of the game. It was now as if we had begun playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Our crisp, efficient offense gave way to poor clearing cuts, a crowded force side and stranded handlers. Our defense struggled to contain Northern's 2-3 stud cutters per line and Northern's women seemed to step up their game considerably, although they had been having their way most of the game anyway. All of this led to lengthened points, and, as a result, sloppy offense. We would end up getting broken twice in a row (broken as in losing our O point, and also our force), once because I couldn't get the mark on fast enough after being beaten on an in-cut, and the other because of a sloppy mark. Northern took the game 13-11. Congratulations and kudos to them on playing a great tournament and having awesome spirit throughout the finals. Also a special thanks to Jorge for finally giving me my glasses back.

...Anybody excited about Chicago Invite?

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Both ISU teams played well this weekend at the Knox Indoor. ISU lost to NIU in an intense finals match by a score of 11-13 and ISU D made their exit in the quarterfinals, courtesy of ISU. A full tourney write-up is coming soon, but right now I'm just gonna take a shower and pass out. It's late as hell.

How many pointless commas did I use in the last post?

Are you a Space Panda?

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?

New Cu1timate format

Should we go back to High Tide next year?

Who will get into the most trouble in GA or on the way?

Quickest dude:

Which tournament would you rather attend this spring?

How many beers have you had this weekend?

Which offense is the most effective in the college game?

How often do you read RSD?

Which tournament can't we miss this spring?

How would you like to see our last week of indoor practice time used?

Which is better, UPA or NCUA/Cultimate