so for those of you who weren’t able to make it to practice today, here’s what we worked on:
our main offense atm is a basic vertical stack. the most important part of a straight stack is making sure that you clear the lane after your cut, because then at the worst you just wasted a few seconds of the stall :D. if you get looked off, in fact even if you think the handler is still gazing longingly into your eyes but for some reason isn’t throwing the disc yet, clear. clear early, really, really early. memorize the positions in this link (you’ll be tested on it before the game, winner gets a prize from bwray): http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/blog/2011/04/28/vertical-offense-first-featured-play-from-playspedia-com/
now, imagine the other team throwing a cup. three hungry whippersnappers huddling around our handler. this will happen. and we’re probably going to switch to a horizontal stack offense. ho stack is EASY. three handlers and four cutters downfield. now, there are different ways to position the cutters. generally there are two poppers constantly cutting around in the middle and 1 wing on each side. the pairs, poppers and wings, will alternate their in cuts, so that even if your cut doesn’t result in a pass, you draw a defender and create space for the guy behind you to get the disc. w/e, dude. fuck that. ho stack. 3 handlers. 2 cutters on each side. each pair alternates cuts in a circle, cutting in on the inside and cutting out on the sidelines. after you cut in, as you’re curling around to the sideline to cut deep and burn the guy who thought he’d d’d you, prepare to get a short pass over your shoulder. here is a random link on ho stack that won’t help you: http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/blog/2008/05/18/horizontal-lane-cutting/
o also, in addition to clearing: when you have the disc, do not turn the disc. nate, wat are you talking about? are you fucking stupid? that’s obvious. well, now i’ll tell you how to achieve this golden strategy. DUMP. dump the freaking disc. don’t wait till stall 7 and then look around frantically and expect your covered dump to get open in 2 seconds. standard procedure for when you have the disc: you look upfield for 1 second, you see nobody open because they’re all too lazy to cut, you turn around and look at your dump, you do not stop looking at your dump, 5 seconds later your dump gets open, and you DUMP. you throw the disc backwards, resulting in a loss of yardage, and your team gets some open throws in and wins the point, allowing them to win the game. DUMP THE DISC. AT STALL 3.
well that’s the two basic offensive strategies, vertical and horizontal stack. now, we are probably sticking to man defense. apparently we’ve been getting burned deep, which is stupid b/c we can run teams into the ground. do wat billy says and stay behind your guy. stay 10 feet behind your guy if you have to. w/e. do not let them get a freaking huck off.
defending against a vertical stack should be easy. everyone hold the force, we’re all faster than them, stay behind your man and don’t let hucks off, easy peasy. if you see a moron not covering his man, standing in the middle of the cutting lane, pretending he knows what poaching is (me), be prepared to cover his guy’s deep cut: http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/blog/2009/05/11/defense-vertical-switching/
when they realize that they can’t outrun us because they’ve been eating too much ice cream (their social gathering of choice), they will switch to a horizontal stack. or maybe we’ll get bored. either way, be ready to run a zone defense. it is really simple. standard zone defense: a “cup” of 3 guys runs around following the disc, a wall of 3 guys in the middle consists of a center covering any holes in the cup and 1 wing on each side picking up anybody that tries to cut in on their side, and one guy deep who will eat up the disc when their handler gets stalled out and has to throw up a desperation huck. you don’t need to know anything about zone defense. just your individual position. if you don’t know where you’re supposed to be, we’ll tell you. it’s rly simple.
there are some smaller plays that are very important, but we can figure them out later. such as dump cuts, endzone plays, trapping on the line, isolation plays for ho stack where the play starts out with one cutter getting the disc first, etc.
Summary:
1. clear, if you stand around and clog the cutting lane trying to get the disc, 10 seconds will go by really fast.
2. dump. 90% of your throws should be dump passes (if you think that would result in a net loss of yardage, you’re wrong. i am a math major.)
3. stay behind your man. do not let him cut deep on you. ever. if he gets a short pass, that’s ok. only 16 more without dropping it and they’ll score.
4. know the very basic layout of vertical and horizontal O/D. look at the diagrams in the links or ask at the game.
5. do not huck the disc. unless there is one cherry picker deep and nobody within a mile of him. this is a surefire way to lower your dump percentage. and you learned from (2) that dumps win games.
Besides memorizing these 5 important things, work on your throws. practice stepping out, or even have a guy marking you. because you will not be able to throw through the mark’s chest during the game. if you don’t know where to cut, ask kruger. he knows everything there is to know about cutting. see you at the game.