Trouble In Vegas - 2014

Trouble in Vegas is a tournament that started in 2006. In its early years, it was easily the biggest and most competitive college tournament of the spring season, and Colorado State attended every year from 2006-2011. After a couple of big rain outs and some internal issues within the organization that put the tournament together, it came to end. It was quickly resurrected as a much smaller, far less competitive tournament that went under the radar for a lot of schools (We didn't even know it was still going on for a couple of years).

Anyway, given the turbulent weather in the Midwest, we decided to make our triumphant return to Vegas after a three year hiatus. We rolled in around 8pm on Friday night and after picking up a couple stragglers from the airport, settled in to our hotel to get some sleep for the 8:30 start time Saturday morning. 

For anyone who hasn't been to Vegas, the field complex is enormous, but the fields tend to be dry, hard and dusty. This year, a rainstorm the day before had softened the fields up nicely. The only issue we ran into was a broken bottle on our field, which I spent the first 30 minutes cleaning up, then placed a broken down cardboard box over. Not the best solution, but better than nothing. 

We were the one seed in our pool, which included George Washington as the two, Santa Clara as the three and Arizona-B as the four. The top two seeds from each pool would advance to championship pre-quarters, while the bottom seeds would battle it out in placement brackets. 

Our first game of the tournament pitted us against Santa Clara. They won the flip and elected to take defense. Our offense came storming out of the game with a crisp, flawless point that concluded with an easy score to Hollywood. Our starting D-line for this tournament consisted of fourth year lefty handler Oliver Feind, second year Easton Archibald and five freshmen. Despite the lack of experience, they played stifling defense, forcing turns on every single offensive point for Santa Clara. However, that lack of experience made completing the break difficult, and while we did force a lot of turns, we only were able to secure two breaks by half, leaving us with only a 7-4 lead. 

In the second half, our offense, which didn't have a turn in the first half, got a little bit sloppier and a couple of miscommunications on deep looks and a drop led to a Santa Clara break. The defense continued to force turns on practically every point, but continued to struggle offensively. We finished the game out 13-11. Despite the close final, I never felt pressured to sub O players in on D, rather electing to allow the young guys to work out their offensive issues.

The second game of the day was against a young, small Arizona-B squad. Their A-team had trounced us pretty badly at the Santa Barbara Invite several weeks before, so we had motivation to come out with a lot of intensity even against their younger guys. The game itself wasn't very exciting. We were able to practice our 3-3-1 contain zone a bit, as well as shore up the man defense and work on completing the breaks. The highlights of the game were Hollywood taking half with a Callahan and Wheels finishing the game with a Callahan. The final was 13-3. 

Our final game of pool play was against George Washington. Both teams entered the game 2-0. I can't confirm completely, but GW had one stud who I guessed to be Chris Kocher from NexGen. However, I don't know faces well enough, and I had thought he'd graduated. The game was contested early on with a quick break from us to open things up, but a break back from GW before half would put everyone back on serve with us leading 7-6. The downfield defense on our end was stifling and GW often had to reset the disc 3-4 times before getting a breakmark look downfield. But behind Kocher's (?) extremely patient play, they were eventually able to find open men and punch in scores.

The second half their defense ramped up and our defense struggled offensively as we had against Santa Clara. They broke our offense three times, and we weren't able to break them in the second half, allowing them to run away with the game 13-10.

This was a disheartening loss, but still left us in the championship bracket. After a bye round we traveled across the field complex to play Cal State - Fullerton with a quarter-finals berth on the line. They ran an H-stack with a lot of people very close to the disc. This allowed our tight man defense to smother them most of the first half, but the offensive struggles continued for the D-line and we only took half 7-4.

In the second half, their spacing improved and they managed to break our O-line a couple of times to make it a better game. But we closed the game out with some experienced D lines to score the final three after being down 11-12; winning 14-12.

Saturday night I battled horrible tech support people for the hotel wifi (100% useless for half the team), and Sunday morning we got the fields for our quarterfinals game against Claremont. We opened the game with a break, and took the early lead, but our offense sputtered and we gave the break back midway through the half. Senior handler Oliver Feind went out with a bad ankle sprain midway through the first half as well and 5th year captain Matt Marrapode had knee locking issues from the previous day. We ended up finishing the half on serve, 7-6. In the second half their defense really started ramping up, and coupling that with our tendency to stare downfield and ignore our resets (especially in the red-zone) they took the game 10-13.

This bumped us down in to the 5th place bracket game against Occidental, who had been eliminated by San Diego State in their quarterfinals matchup. They were a very huck-oriented team, with good disc movement and bumps. Their one big athlete downfield scored 4-5 of their first six goals deep fairly easily before our defense clamped down on him. Offensively we struggled a bit as our handler depth had dipped due to the previous injuries and fatigue from the weekend left our remaining throwers making a lot of poor decisions.

We were down at half 5-7 and we had lost our top defender when Scott Wheeler went down with a hamstring strain on a big defensive bid. We shook off the mistakes and injuries in our half-time huddle and rallied around high energy play from our first and second years and a commitment to our resets from the older players. Our defense clamped down on their hucking game (first year Noah Budd absolutely shut down their main deep threat), and we did much better in the second half, taking the game 14-13 at hard cap.

The game for 5th place was against a well-rested Utah State team who had gotten to the game via a forfeit from an exhausted, injured Montana squad. Utah State had some big-play guys down field, but our first years stepped up to the challenge and the game was hotly contested game from the start. I was proud of the guys for not losing any intensity after the close win against Occidental, and we ended the first half on serve 6-7. However, we lost both Jordan Trepp to a left shoulder injury and Noah Brown to a knee issue after a big collision on a poach D. This left us with senior Stephen Gross (callahan nominee) as our only significantly experienced thrower.

Despite that, the young guys played absolutely fantastic throughout the entire game battling hard with Utah State. The game ended up with USU on top 13-12 in a hard fought, spirited game. A loss was tough to stomach, but I was very proud of our young players, especially the guys that stepped up into a handler role, never having done so in a tournament setting.

This left us with a final 6th place finish out of 33 open teams there. We did our tournament wrap up and props circle and hurried into the vans to stay ahead of the weather, which we miraculously did. Next tournament: The Rocky Mountain Invitational March 29th and 30th.

Zone Offense - What do I do?!

It seems most of my entries are based on whatever the weather is doing in Colorado. The last two days it's been 35 mph winds up here in Fort Collins, so this post is going to be about zone offense.

I actually think zone offense is one of the harder things to teach young players. There isn't some defined set of rules to follow. Most of the best zone offense players I know have gotten that way simply from experience. However, there are several core principles that I teach that tend to give people a good understanding of the intricacies of the offense.

Before we get into those principles I think it's important to briefly touch on the most important part of any kind of zone play: winning the transition game. The most important part of a zone-oriented game is the ability to win the transition battle. This can mean defense to offense, zone to man or any combination therein. I've seen so many teams (especially ones I've coached, *sigh*) destroy a zone defense, only to turn the disc on the first or second throw after the transition to man.  I've also seen many games where one good fast-break transition on a turnover completely breaks a game wide-open because it ends the upwind stalemate that can take place in heavy wind conditions.

How you transition well is something that's more mental that physical. You have to recognize the differences in play from zone offense to man offense and zone defense to man defense, and be able flip the inner switch accordingly. Drilling transition heavily is very beneficial in allowing your team to win the transition battle, and come out on top of the games that take place in crappy conditions.

Anyway, let me get back to zone offense specifically. Teams tend to break zones in a couple of ways:

The first is having one absolutely dominant thrower. Florida of years past comes to mind, when their zone strategy was to keep the disc in the hands of guys like Tim Gehret, Cole Sullivan or Brodie Smith and allow them to find the holes in the zone with their ridiculous arsenal of throws. Their resets tended to be very short 2-3 yard passes that they used to get the disc into their main thrower's hands.

The second way teams break zones is with good overall team movement and flow. This isn't to say these two things are mutually exclusive. You still need strong throwers for movement and flow, and oftentimes that dominant thrower's zone breaker needs to be followed up by his teammates' continuation. But the second concept here is definitely more general and team oriented, so that's where I'll focus for the specific zone principles I'm eventually going to discuss (I promise!). Ok, ok, here we go.

Core Concept One - Touching the disc is not important in zone offense.

This is probably the biggest mistake young players make when first playing zone offense. They think that if they don't touch the disc they haven't contributed to the point. This idea is completely untrue (for man offense as well). Spacing is incredibly important for zone offense. Young players all want to be directly involved in the play, so they tend to crowd towards the disc when they lose the 'structure' of their normal man-based offense. When they crowd the disc they allow the defense to collapse more and more onto the thrower, which tends to cause turnovers.

Spacing is the key word here. Oftentimes poppers need to make themselves a threat, not by being near the disc, but by being elsewhere on the field. This, in turn, draws defenders out and opens both throwing and popping lanes for teammates.

Since every zone tends to be a bit different I usually talk about zones in terms of levels. Level one is where the teams cup, whatever it may be, is. Level two is the wall, or wings or whatever your team calls it. Level three is the deep cover.

The basic spacing idea I try and get my players to understand is, the farther you can stretch one level from the next (both horizontally and vertically), the more likely you are to open up easy throws for your team. This could mean forcing their deep farther down the field to open up a shorter hammer behind their second level, or placing yourself in a a threatening shallow position to pull their short-deep away from the flow of the disc for a big swing or whatever. The basic idea is make their defense cover the entire field. If they don't, you're going to be open; if they do, you've made your teammates' jobs easier by drawing defenders away from the disc.

Core Concept Two - Swing for the fences.

Now this concept may be titled a bit deceptively. The goal of many zones is to bait big, over-the-top throws. I'm not saying every team should try and jack up big hammers or blades. What I'm saying, is that IF you're going to put up a lower-percentage throw, it should be a zone-breaker, something the defense won't be able to recover from. A hammer 40 yards across the field that gains 0 yards downfield, with continuation easily contained is not worth the higher risk of the throw itself. If you're going to take a chance on a throw like that, make it worth the risk-reward, in that, if completed, it will force the other team to transition to man or gain significant field position (even if it's incomplete). It's similar to the idea of the long two in basketball being a terrible shot to take. It's horribly inefficient because it has around the completion percentage of a three, but for less points.

Low-percentage also has to be qualified here. In different conditions and for different throwers different things are low percentage. In 35 mph wind, any throw is low percentage. In pristine conditions, with a stronger thrower, over-the-top throws like hammers or blades can be as high-percentage as a backhand or forehand.

Core Concept Three -  Attack the disc

This is a pretty simple idea that most players learn early on. Attack the disc, run through the disc etc. However, in zone, offensive players often end up a stationary position where they only appear open. This is where the majority of Ds happen in a zone: the defender comes flying in and gets a block on a non-moving receiver. This is why attacking the disc is so important. You have to be aware of the players around you and aggressively go get the disc, even if you were initially stationary.

Core Concept Four - Keep the disc moving

This is a fairly simple concept that most teams understand. Unless you've got that one player with the ridiculous zone-breaking throws and your offense is just trying to feed him or her the disc, then you want to keep the disc moving.

Defensive players in a zone will be farther out of position the more the disc moves around. If the disc stops for any significant amount of time, every single defensive player gets to assess where the disc and offensive players are, and position themselves accordingly, essentially allowing their defense to settle into it's ideal setup for the scheme.

If the disc doesn't stay at any one player long enough then the defense will always be on its heels trying to catch up to the offense and will never reach the 'ideal setup.'

Core Concept Five - Avoid throwing through a set cup

This concept directly relates back to core concept four. If a cup has settled onto you as a thrower, then you have allowed them to reach their "ideal" setup for their defense, more specifically for whatever they are doing close to the disc. Sure, throwing through that set cup is possible, but you're essentially taking their best defensive setup and saying you'll beat it. Five throws through a stationary cup aren't worth more than the one that gets blocked.

If you're going to try and break through a cup, do it before they've settled. Two or three or four players in a cup simply can't run 100% as a unit, so as they're moving the holes will be bigger, that's when you want to go for the kill. Swing the disc around, get them on their heels, tire them out a bit, THEN strike it through.

Let me clarify also that through a cup and over a cup are different things. If you're going to break a cup with an over-the-top throw it really doesn't matter if they've settled or not. The focal point here is threading the needle between their cup members.


Obviously, there's more to zone offense than these five things, but these principles are a great starting point for players to begin to understand what goes into playing zone offense.

Ultimate in Colorado - Travel Times and Unpredictable Weather

As per usual, let me apologize for my writing hiatus. Since my last entry I've purchased a new home, captained a burgeoning club mens team, joined the FC Ultimate board of directors, and worked through the fall season of my 6th year as the coach of the Colorado State Men's Ultimate team. I've had several ideas as to what I wanted this first post of 2014 to be about (hopefully this translates to more entries soon!), but as a huge winter storm hit Colorado last night I think mother nature has decided for me.

I  first thought about the subject matter for this entry when I saw this map linked from the USA Ultimate Facebook page:

Membership Statistics

It's an interesting picture of the density of competitive ultimate players. Obviously, the high population west and east coast hubs make up a huge concentration of players but what jumped out to me most notably was the "island" that is the 1500+ members that live in Colorado.

While it's a blessing to live and play in a state with a large concentration of players, it still presents a unique competitive challenge for college teams in the area: travel distance.

My freshmen year of college (2003) this was just our spring tournament schedule(the team has always driven to every tournament we attend):

Masochist - Colorado Springs, CO - 2 hours (one way, Sunday ended up being cancelled because of 6 inches of snow Saturday night)
Mardi Gras - Baton Rouge, LA - 19 hours (one way)
Southerns/High Tide - Statesboro/Tybee Island, GA   - 29 hours (one way)
Fools Fest - Lawrence, KA - 8.5 hours (one way)
Sectionals - Golden, CO - 1.25 hours (one way)
Regionals - Santa Barbara, CA - 19 hours (one way)

The moral of the story: to be a competitive college team in Colorado you must travel, and you must travel far. When the college restructuring moved Colorado State from the Southwest region to the Southcentral, travel times went down for us slightly. Instead of 18 hours to San Diego or Santa Barbara we'd go 14 hours to St. Louis or 15 hours to Austin. Now our tournament totals have tapered off since my first year, we travel less than in the past and set up more local scrimmages, but the raw travel numbers from that first year are still pretty daunting.

Now I know there are other college teams that deal with similar situations or worse (sorry Montana teams), but the simple fact is, to play the sport we love competitively, it's a very large time travel commitment on top of all the other (physical) commitments there are.

So what does mother nature have to do with any of this? Well, not only does Colorado State get to drive hundreds of hours every season we also deal with wonderful Colorado weather. Our IM fields on campus close from November 1st until the end of the end of March. We are very lucky to have an awesome sports club staff who negotiates with our athletics department for time on the outdoor and indoor turf fields that our football program use for this down-time, but our late fall and early spring practices are oftentimes completely limited to track workouts.

All these factors came together in a brutal reminder when the team traveled to the Santa Barbara Invite this past weekend. After the debacle of weather delays and cancellations from our spring tournament schedule in the mid west last season, the team leadership decided we'd forgo regular season games versus regional competition, swallow the longer travel times and travel to tournaments with somewhat guaranteed good weather.

So, this past weekend (January 25th and 26th, the first weekend after our semester started) we rolled into Santa Barbara with a small squad of 17/29 of the players on our roster (travelling during the first week of school proved difficult for a number of our players). I had hoped some veteran experience would mitigate some of the rustiness since we hadn't played "real" Ultimate since MLC back in November, but with our 5th year captain tearing his MCL skiing over break, and losing one of our other main handlers to a bad ankle sprain, the team was woefully thin at the handler position.

This video of our game against Arizona Sunburn (awesome editing by the way Sunburn, thank you!) sums our problems pretty effectively, sloppy play from the handler spots and inexperience on rotations and swings:

Colorado State vs Arizona SBI 2014

In addition, many of the California teams are from schools on the quarter system, so they'd had several weeks of practice leading up to the tournament whereas we had only one practice in 2 inches of snow the Wednesday before the tournament. (The point of this is not to provide a myriad of excuses for our poor performance. When we scheduled the tournament at the beginning of the fall, we knew the difficult situation we'd be putting ourselves in.)

We got steamrolled, simple and true. We finished 17th out of 18 teams with both our wins coming against a spirited, but very small UC Irvine squad. As we did our team wrap-up after our last game Sunday I strove to drive this key point home point home: a lot of sloppiness and team mistakes we made over the weekend were correctable (drops, throwaways etc), and that the experience our young players got from playing against solid west coast teams would be hugely beneficial for the rest of the season.

We got back to town just ahead of a big storm front Monday and Wednesday night's practice  was cancelled due to 2+ inches of snow still caked on the field. Thursday, a new storm rolled in and we moved our practice time two hours earlier to try and beat it.

This is where this whole rambling piece comes to fruition; as the snow began to fall harder and harder during our Thursday practice, the intensity level picked up. Partly due to the soft landing surface the snow provided and partly due to just being fired up from getting our butts kicked at the tournament five days prior, the amount of bids and defensive intensity went through the roof. As it got colder and the snow got deeper the team just kept working harder (the more you run, the warmer you stay). We wrapped practice up with a series of sprints and as I watched the team running through the falling snow I could help but marvel at how incredible the whole scene was: 20+ young men, soaked from the snow, running their hearts out through what would turn into a full-blown blizzard in an hours time.

As much of a bummer as it was not to do better at the Invite, that practice, with that energy, and the way the scene played-out as the snow fell was a perfect reminder as to what makes Ultimate such a wondrous sport. Practices like that make all the 19 hour van rides 100% worth it. I can't imagine a better place to call my Ultimate home than Colorado and everything that comes with it.

A Top 8 South Central Regionals Perspective (non-ozark/texas style)

A Top 8 South Central Regionals Perspective (non-ozark/texas style)

No disrespect to any players/alumni from the Ozark and Texas sections, but ever since the regional redistribution that moved the Colorado teams from the Southwest to the South-central, much of the chatter and banter has been, for the most part, originating from the east side of the Colorado/Kansas border.

I’ve coached the Colorado State men’s team for the past five years (playing five years on the team previous to that), and given my unique (maybe rare is a better word) perspective from the Rocky Mountain conference and our team’s regionals experience this year, I’m going to throw out some semblance of a write-up for Saturday of South-Central regionals.

First off, I’m going to steer clear of  any real mention of CU here. They’re a strong team every year. Insert XXXXX player here who currently plays nex-gen, bravo etc. They’re fantastic at churning out great players; much respect in that regards to Catt (years past), Jim and Brent (years current) and their core of veterans that continue to churn out an elite-level team from year to year for the past decade plus.

We (Colorado State) went into the tournament as an 11 seed, which from our perspective was a (very) slight under-seed. Our spring tournament schedule was plagued with weather cancellations and delays. Free State Classic was completely shut down. Huck finn was delayed and then played out in pretty ridiculous conditions (thank you Wash U for getting us games we needed) making the results hardly indicative of the relative strengths of many of the teams involved. With the crazy weather all over the midwest this year, I felt like the bid allocations and USAU rankings were particularly inaccurate given that so many teams were scrambling just to get their 10 sanctioned games played.

With the double-elimination bracket at regionals, there was no room for a slow start for any team and with that knowledge our team arrived at the (drenched) fields at 7:30 for a good, lengthy warmup. The fields seemed to have good drainage but even so, the men’s division ended up being delayed, with games getting pushed back to noon and the final round of the day finishing right as the sun went down at 8:00pm (extra props have to go out to Calvin Lin and the rest of the staff of the tournament, rotating teams through fields, keeping people informed, and dealing with the whole crappy weather situation).

Our first game was against Kansas, the “home,” team who had finished 2nd out of the Ozark conference. They started the game strong, breaking the mark at will, with 5th year (? I think) senior Brett Hidaka wrecking our marks with quick release backhands and a dominating throw and go. A defensive adjustment on our part all but eliminated their break-mark game and after starting the game giving up three breaks to their aggressive defense and quick-strike offense we ended up taking the game 14-11. Hidaka deserves an all-region nod no question, the heart and soul of a very quality team.

For our second game,  we took a hike through a grove of trees to meet up with a Texas A&M squad who had beaten Baylor in their first round 15-11. Both team’s offensive lines dominated the game with the defensive breaks for either team being few and far between. For A&M, Matt Bennett (? fairly sure) absolutely ran their offense with every other throw going through him. We threw 4+ different defensive looks at them and he was able to break every single one with a combination of low breaks, scoobers and blades. Their downfield seemed to run mostly through Dalton Smith who did a very good job of taking the under when given and streaking deep when the occasion arose. Both players seem well deserving of all-region nods. Additionally, it was a pleasure to play against a team who kept a good, positive attitude throughout the the entire game with compliments going both ways on big bids and plays. A&M ended up taking the game 15-13.  

That loss dropped us down into the backdoor bracket where we were matched up against a Texas State team who had just eliminated Texas-B  from contention with a 15-13 victory. We went up two breaks early, then protected that lead, getting three more breaks in the second half and taking the game 15-10. Texas State seemed to be a very athletic (young?) team, but were plagued by a lack of intensity and a tendency to huck regardless of whether the look was good or not.  

With that win, we gathered up our gear and took another long hike to the far side of the complex for a game against Mizzou, who has just beaten Wash-U on universe point. We started 15 minutes late (it was a long walk for both teams), and the first half was back and forth with their offense scoring easily with good disc movement and bump-huck looks. Our offense all but matched them in the first half but had to work for every point against effective poach defense and hard-man intensity. In the second half the fatigue of the day caught up with us and a slew of throwaways and drops combined with Mizzou’s strong D-line offense let them run away with the game for a 15-8 victory. I know next to nothing about Mizzou’s notable players, but their biggest impact guy against us was a lefty handler with a very quick release forehand huck, who got around our force-middle 3+ times for around-break scores.

In a shameless own-team plug, props have to go out for Stephen “Stacey” Gross, and freshmen Luke “Fitz” Doyle. Stacey tore his ACL back in November, busted his ass on rehab and got cleared to play the Monday before regionals. Despite being at about 70%, Stacey consistently drew the other team’s best defender and completely opened up our offense with his hucks and over the top throws. Fitz was a force on offense, bringing in the majority of our offensive goals and spent significant time covering the other teams top downfield threats on D (Dalton, Hidaka etc).

Good luck to all the teams still in contention as of Sunday morning and thanks again to the hard work of the tournament organizers overcoming the crappy weather.

TK

Colorado State Coach

Deep Cutting

Hello avid-readers. As always, my apologies for the huge gaps between entries. I don't have any good excuses, it's just hard for me to actually sit down and complete work on some of them for some reason. However, with the college season starting up in a couple weeks and the Ultimate fire that comes with a new batch of young guys under my tutelage, I really hope to update my blog much more often.

I'll make a deal with you folks. If I can get up to 50+ followers after this entry, I'll do at least one more entry for August and no less than three for September... give me that motivation! Anyways, on to the actual ultimate details:

I'm going to break this down into two(ish) parts. The first will be rather straightforward: getting deep separation. The second section will be significantly more in depth and that will be on deep spacing.

Before I get into any of that though let me make it clear that these are some general deep cutting principles. The best throwers and the best cutters can and do break a lot of these. Some people are exceptionally good at reading the disc. Some throwers can put the disc out at some crazy angles or have no fear of the sideline or fear of the loopy O-I flight path. However, I believe that even the best throwers and cutters have a solid foundation of the principles outlined here.

Deep Separation

Getting deep separation is a simple thing.  You can go about it in two ways. You can treat it like a handler or underneath cut where your attempting to turn your defenders hips and then making a move to the opposite direction. In this instance, you want to get your defender fully committed to the underneath then turn on a point and head deep. 

Doing this is an especially effective way to cut because many defenders will commit extra-hard to the underneath for the glory of the lay-out block, leaving themselves completely out of position to cover the deep afterwards. 

The second way to cut deep, and bear in mind this is quite simplistic, simply run deep. Deep cuts have one special quality that other cuts do not have: you (should) have significant vertical field space to utilize straight-line speed. So for you annoying people that have great speed, if you're faster than your defender then the more straight line distance you run, the more separation you'll get. However, you do not have infinite space to continue to build that separation, so this is where deep spacing becomes important.

Deep Spacing - Vertical


While making a deep cut you have to keep two types of spacing in mind, vertical spacing and horizontal spacing. Vertical spacing is important because you want to make sure you're not going to run out of field length or have to slow your cut down to wait for the disc, which will allow your defender to catch up.

To give yourself enough vertical space to make a good deep cut your deep cut needs to originate from fairly shallow, (vertically close to the disc) depending on how fast you can cover the vertical space on the field. If your cut starts too deep then your thrower will not have the vertical space to put the disc out where you can run it down at full speed.

Think of it this way: the best hucker on your team just got an up-the-line handler cut and has power position. You want to BEGIN your deep move, be it streaking straight deep from your setup position (you speedy guys) or planting on your under cut and turning deep, right as that handler catches the line throw. The disc is in their hands, they have that 1-2 second window where the forward momentum of the cut they made is transferred into their throwing motion and they can put the disc out as far as possible.

If your cut started too deep, then you're going to run out of field length and either the disc is going to go out the back of the end-zone or you're going to have to stop and wait for the disc, which also gives your defender the opportunity to make up ground.

There are so many factors that go into deciding what's "too deep." It depends on where you started, what offense you're running, where other cutters are, and how far down the field your team already is, but the basic idea is,  if you can't run the disc out full speed, then your cut originated too deep (or the throw was bad, but for all intents and purposes here we'll assume quality throws).

Deep Spacing - Horizontal

Horizontal spacing is actually, in my opinion, more important than vertical spacing. It might seem a little odd but an EASY deep throw, read and catch is always in large part due to good horizontal spacing.

A deep cut should originate from the far side of the field as the thrower. This doesn't mean that deep cuts can only come the opposite side of the field as the thrower, it simply means there should be adequate horizontal space for an easy space throw.

GOOD HORIZONTAL SPACING

In this illustration, the thrower (circle X) is being forced away. Assuming a force-side huck, then the deep cut (X) should originate from the break side of the field. It doesn't necessarily mean the deep cut has to originate all the way from the sideline, but with the cut coming from the breakside, both the thrower and the cutter are given adequate space to make a good flat throw, and an easy run-down respectively.

For the cutter, they know where the disc is coming from and don't have to waste a lot of time trying to find the disc for a good read; it's coming in over their left shoulder and they know it, which leaves them in the best position to come down with the throw, especially considering most defenders will begin with their back to the disc. It is natural for the disc's flight path in this scenario to simply meet the deep cutter at a singular point. Difficult reads originate when the cut and and the throw are following the same path. 

If I'm the thrower here, I know I can make a simple flat throw, no oustide-in or inside-out is needed, which is both the easiest throw, and the easiest disc to catch. 

If the thrower is going to make a breakmark huck, then the cut in this instance, should be originating from the away side of the field (mirror the cutter to the opposite side). Everything else is the same idea, there's plenty of space for an easy read and catch. Things get a little hazy on horizontal spacing here, because a thrower may see a cut originating from the away side, and therefore throw a break-mark huck, but the idea remains the same, there should be adequate horizontal space to allow for the easy throw and read.

BAD HORIZONTAL SPACING

In this case the deep cut originated too close to in front of the thrower, who again is being forced away. The thrower is left with three options:

1) A huge, looping, force-side backhand (assuming they're right-handed) around the left shoulder of the cutter. This isn't the easiest throw in the world for starters. Additionally, the cutter will have to change the vector of their cut at some point to make the catch unless the throw is an absolutely ridiculous blade. 

2) The flat space throw to the force-side directly over the head of the cutter. This is an easy throw, but a difficult read. With the disc coming in directly over the cutter's head they must spent significantly more time finding the disc and getting into position for a good read and catch. I've seen so many throws like this that are potentially great catches out in space, but the cutter has to spend that extra time finding the disc and it ends up just out of reach. 

3) The inside-out backhand or around forehand break. This throw will come in over the right shoulder of the cutter. This is the ideal throw, as there is adequate space for them to make an easy read, but it is the hardest throw in the game. If your mark is letting of breakmark hucks to significant space you're either dealing with an extraordinary thrower or a bad mark. The difference here on a breakmark huck versus my top illustration breakmark discussion, is that if we mirrored the cut on the top illustration  to originate from the significant away (break) side, then there is much more horizontal space so the thrower only has to make a slight break huck (inside-out right-handed backhand in that case). 

Don't Vertical Stacks Go Against Your Spacing Principles? 

But Katfish, what about center stack? Isn't the disc in it's best position centered, in front of the stack? Are you telling me you're not supposed to huck from there? And that last guy in the stack, often the one cut in an offense, isn't he too deep vertically to make a good deep cut?!

As far as vertical spacing goes for a center stack, I've always taught my guys and been taught that rarely should a deep cut originate from the back of the stack. If a cutter wants to go deep from that position, they should give themselves a hard underneath first, so as to maintain their vertical spacing.

Center stack is also slightly different from my above horizontal illustration in that the "looping" backhand throw to the force side is not quite so looping;  there is a reasonable amount of space to the force or breakside. Ideally, I'd like my cut to originate from farther to the force or break side, to give me even more space for that flat throw, but when the cut starts directly in the middle of the field there is generally enough space for a pretty easy throw and catch. The throw does have to have a slight curve to it, but not so difficult that it's going to make it significantly low percentage.  This also applies to cuts from a horizontal (split, spread, H), that originate directly in line with the thrower.

Horizontal deep spacing is on the reasons you will never see me trap a center stack team on the sideline. When they're trapped every single one of their cutters has adequate horizontal space to make an easy deep cut, whereas if they're forced back towards their stack the only easy, space huck is a breakmark throw.


Again let me reiterate, that these are not end all be all, do this or you suck principles, this are the basics of deep cutting and deep spacing. Some throwers are incredible at bending perfect throws at crazy angles. Some cutters will come down with discs regardless of whether or not it easy read. Sometimes the flat, space huck isn't the best throw because they've got a Beau on their team that can overtake even your best deeps given enough space. However, these are good general principles, that will make for high-percentage hucks.

As always I appreciate and look forward to comments from my readers, even if you disagree.

Handler Cutting

The Basics


There is a principle I want to start with here that transcends the position on the field that you're making your cut (downfield, handler, whatever). This is probably the most important cutting principle anyone can learn: take what the defense is giving you. If my defender playing off me 5 yards to contain the line cut, I'm not going to cut up line. If my defender is backing me by 10 yards because of my 40 inch vertical, I'm not going to go deep (initially). It's a fairly simple concept, but I see so many young players learn one method of cutting (5 hard steps out and under) and make that cut no matter how the defense is set up. If they're going to play off of you as a defender, then take the open cut, it's simple.

Anyway, back to handler cuts. The first thing you need to learn when making a handler cut is how to position yourself properly. This varies slightly depending on the offense you run. But there are a few things that are fairly universal.

Give yourself a good amount of horizontal space away from the disc. However, don't be so far away (20+ yards)  that your cut is going to take 2-3+ seconds to develop, when the person with the disc is ready to reset, you should be in a good position as soon as they turn or very soon thereafter (depending on whether your team runs a timing system, or is more based on eye contact).  I also like to set up 3-4 yards backfield from the disc so as to have more room to drive my defender up the line.

Exactly what you do with a cut varies based on where your defender is positioned and your own athletic skill-set, but in general your first priority should be to force your defender up the line. If you beat them up line, sweet, you gained yards and got power position (your body is moving in the direction you want to throw, down field). If your defender covers that look, then once they've turned their hips and committed to your line cut, you should cut back for the behind reset. Again, how you get the defender to turn their hips is up to your own abilities. Some people throw a shimmy in there, some people are just naturally quick, some people use their size to make it difficult for the defender to get around them.

One good rule of thumb however is to avoid "dancing." Meaning that you're making 3-4 jukes to get your defender to turn. This takes too long as a handler cut, and if your defender's covered the first 3 or 4 then they probably can cover 5 and 6 or the stall count has gotten too high. Also, remember to be dynamic. I've seen some very quick guys go up against a quicker defender, and struggle to get open with moves that normally work. If one thing isn't working against a particular defender, have other options. Figure out what works for you, but remember, a good handler cut should get you separation in a fairly short timeframe.

Sideline Resets

For the majority of your cuts when the disc is on the sideline one of two things is going to happen. 1) You beat your man up the line. 2) You get the disc backfield for the reset. Up the line is pretty straight forward, you're in a great spot for a huck or break throw and should follow up accordingly.

One thing that people should be mindful of is running somewhat parallel to the sideline when you make your line cut. If you take too hard of angle towards the sideline then your thrower does not have the room to make an easy space throw, rather, they are forced to put the disc in the one specific spot where you as the cutter are going to meet the sideline. The problem here is that you can't catch the disc out of bounds, while your defender can keep going 100% straight through and get the D.

However, the thrower must also be careful of putting the disc too far up the line in the space you've created, because eventually you will run into down field defenders and poaches.

Moving to back field resets, one extremely bad habit that a lot of players (especially myself as I've played less competitively in the last two years) have when making a  backfield dump cut is getting the reset almost directly behind the person with the disc. When the disc is sidelined, this is not a good thing. You haven't put yourself into position for a good swing, you haven't advanced the disc towards the center of the field (which for most offenses is a benefit). Mostly what you've done is lost yards.

A good backfield handler cut should always put you in the position to make a swing or at the very least have gained space off the sideline. In the above illustration you've driven your defender up the line, turned their hips, but you took a bad angle and went straight to the disc. Your throwing "power" position in my above example is pointing towards the sideline and away from the downfield, about the only place on the field there is absolute nobody to throw to.

In this picture you still haven't taken the best angle up the line but you're at least gaining some horizontal space away from the disc in addition to getting the reset. You also have a slightly better option to continue your swing across the field.

This is the ideal way to get a back field reset for a couple reasons. First of all, the cut is practically un-coverable. If your defender stops the line cut then they are in no position to stop a swing cut back across the field. Additionally they are on the completely 100% wrong side of the your body to stop a continuation swing and your throwing power position is facing the entire break-side of the field. If you can successfully execute this cut you will get a continue swing off, or at the very least will have the disc significantly closer to the middle of the field. 

The one thing to be careful of with the above "best" cut that I've described, is the throw is significantly more challenging a dump throw than a simple behind-reset. The reason that a lot of players go for the straight behind reset (as shown in my "NO" illustration) is that it's probably the easiest throw for the person with the disc to make. However, I believe it reasonable that any competitive team expect all their players to be able to make this longer, space throw.

Midfield Resets

When the disc is the middle of the field resets are quite simple as you are not terribly concerned with horizontal positioning, but rather you mostly just want to reset the stall count while maintaining relative position to where the disc started. 

I'll go over the three different cuts I generally use when the disc is already centered, and the strengths of each.

The above reset is straight forward. I'm going to go behind the thrower, either slightly break or open side. It doesn't matter if I start on the force or break side. One of the absolute best spots to set up here is straight behind the disc, as one step to either side and a space throw will get you separation and a reset with a good open or break-side power position look. Yes you will be losing yards, but you've kept the disc centered and you should have an easy continue look.

This is the cut I make when I've started on the FORCE or OPEN side of the disc. Meaning the marker is forcing the thrower towards my side of the field. In this case my defender is playing me hard as the line throw is a slight break-mark throw.  I push them hard up the line, slightly past the thrower then cut back horizontally across the field. In this case I'll be gaining yards and will have open-side power-position for a down-field throw.

This final cut is when I start my positioning on the BREAK side of the field. This is very similar to a sideline handler reset. I'm going to drive my defender hard up the line. If they don't cover it I'll take the line. I gained yards and got power position, awesome. If it's covered then once the defender has turned their hips I'll turn back and angle away from the thrower so as to get the disc out in break-space for a wide-open break continue look once I get the reset.

In summation I think you can equate solid handler cutting to three fundamental principles:

1) Utilize the space you have on the field.
2) Take what the defense is giving you.
3) Don't be content just to reset the stall count, think about where your continuation throw, once the disc is reset, can go.

As always I welcome comments and I apologize for my less than stellar illustrations, I hope they are somewhat clear.

-TK

Katfish is Not Dead

Hey Avid Readers,

Just to let you all know, while the accuracy of my completions may not have been entirely accurate (off by ~4 months) I do still plan on continuing my offensive fundamentals series, and I do apologize for my hiatus from entries again (college season + work are taking their time toll).

I hope to have my next real entry out on throwing sometime next week.

Believe!

-TK