Learning to defend in Ultimate

This is something I had been thinking about last year. I saw so many players that I thought were missing out on huge learning opportunities when they were playing defence that it bugged me sometimes. The issue I'm thinking of is when players give a particular cut for free to the person they're marking (like in a systematic way).

Say for example: at some pick up game or hat tourney - there's a less experienced player defending against some handler who's known for being quite good. And the less experienced player stands like 3 or 4 metres up line of them...thinking the handler is so good that if he gets the disc up the line, he'll definitely throw a score. So instead he gives free back field passes for the entire point. (and this good handler would proceed to do quite a bit for the offence, considering the lack of defensive pressure).

I don't mean to imply an intentional effort to poach off the handler by the way - all I mean is that a defender is giving an offender so much respect that he stops actually trying to defend against him.

(the same thing can happen with marking a recognised good cutter - with players no longer defending properly and just taking away one thing - the deep cut)

Clearly this situation is crazy. And the less experienced player is losing out on a huge learning opportunity. If he marked the other player tightly, he'd possibly get beat a few times, but if he makes an effort to not get beaten with the same move more than once, he should improve his defending hugely and indirectly get to learn some offence moves too.

So my tip for inexperienced players for learning how to defend is.... try defending. As in try to shut down every cut, and remember - if you 'get schooled' - then you should have learned something.

teaching people how to throw a forehand

Teaching people how to throw a forehand is something you'll invariably have to do if you play ultimate with beginners. It's not the most instinctive of throws.

For anyone interested in the topic, I'd recommend a look at this article from the Australian Fyling Disc Association, the book "Essential Ultimate" (amazon link) has some really good stuff about it too. There is even a DVD about perfecting throws - the example footage is about throwing forehands -it's certainly worth a look.

The reason I post about this now, is because of that whole "stick your elbow to your ribcage" approach to teaching forehand throwing. An idea that seems to have some fans. Does anyone know where the concept came from? (possibly it's hinted at in the AFDA article above - but it certainly doesn't say to do this). I really don't like it anyway. As I understand it, people know that it's bad throwing mechanics, but see it as some sort of learning aid to get beginners to focus on using their wrist more.

I think it's of very limited use and what's more it can be troublesome for people to unlearn it as their throwing progresses. Did anyone that reads this learn to throw that way?

To anyone involved in teaching beginners how to throw forehands, I'd urge you to stay away from the elbow-ribcage idea. In my experience, the best way to teach someone how to throw a good forehand, is to teach them how to throw a good forehand. Teach the body position, movements and grip first, encouraging them to focus on throws that spin and stay level.

Teaching your bad arm to throw a forehand can be a useful insight into the process of acquiring such a skill. At first you really have to think about the body mechanics involved, but through enough repetition it almost seems like your arm remembers most of that and your brain can progress onto thinking about the flight of the disc and eventually, just the target. (to reiterate, I really don't think you want your arm to remember the wrong throwing mechanics).

Offence against a poach from an open side dump

In this post I’m going to discuss the open side dump poach. First of all I should clarify what the situation I’m talking about is. I'll try to describe it. Regarding the offence, a player has the disc and a handler team-mate of theirs is set up as a dump (the player with the disc must be far enough away from the ‘forced’ side of the pitch that there is space for this). The defence are basically playing a man-to-man, forcing one sideline approach, apart from one defender. The one with responsibility for covering the dump on the open side is poaching the lane, making upfield passes more difficult, but passes to the dump are free. The intention would be to mark the dump more tightly if they get the disc. The logic would be that this defence wants to force the play towards a particular sideline and get a turnover there. By allowing the offence to go that way, it should help.

I'm sure if you understood what I just said, then you’ve probably seen the situation. It’s a favoured approach of lazy defenders everywhere, perhaps even intelligent defenders, depending on your perspective.

At one stage I was quite a fan of this. When I was playing at a level where players generally didn’t have good break force throws; encouraging them towards the forced sideline meant chances were high they’d just run out of room and turn over. I also liked it as a defender when myself and a DCU team mate of mine (Colin) had a poach-and-switch system going whenever we marked handlers (a defensive sort of rapport – very enjoyable when it worked). As I played higher level ultimate I had sort of decided it wasn’t such a great idea after all. Good handlers didn’t have much trouble throwing breaks away from the forced sideline so it just seemed like a tactic that gives opponents free resets. What’s more, giving good handlers such space allows them time to see the whole field and really take you apart.

I was thinking about what these good handlers do against the situation to really take a team apart. I want to do like them. Thus far, I’ve got 4 offensive approaches that I think a good handler might consider.

1. Ignore it. well be careful, but don't bother making a particular effort to use the poached player in a way you wouldn't do anyway. Look for your usual offence, just don't throw it into the poach. Perhaps a big fake will let you know if they're waiting to lay out. 
2. Move it to the breakside. This could be an opportunity to get an easy break throw off by using the poached player. The poached player moves to the breakside, behind the thrower. The thrower leads them with a pass out to that side and then some easy continuation passes might be available. This will depend on where you are on the pitch and what the offence and defence look like. 
3. A huck from the poached handler. Most throws tend to be easier with no mark, although it might be from a position that's a little too far away from deep cutters. 
4. A give'n'go with the poached player. The forcer is an out of position defender as soon as the the disc is thrown, so the original thrower can go up the line on the open side to get it straight back from the poached player. It's then a really good spot to throw a huck. 

Which of these approaches is best? I don't know! It would depend on the exact situation on the field and the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. The worst approach goes something like the dump going for approach 2 and the player with the disc going for approach 4; a misunderstanding turnover is the likely result. Any approach that doesn't result in a turnover is pretty good for a start. If you can use the opportunity to break down the defence then you're doing really well.

P.S.
I'm still quite unsure of how good an idea it is generally to poach open side dumps as a defensive tactic. I think there are definitely scenarios where it might be useful. Especially if the poach is only early in the stall count and the dump is marked more closely later on. Some of the matches at the world games seemed to have some of that going on (here are some links: 1,2,) and they're all pretty good players!
(although the final point of WUGC-open division has got some closer marking on dumps)

*Update - 5th of March 2010