Throwing Workout

Here's a throwing workout that really gets you focused on extending your abilities as a thrower and problem solving your way through mechanics. It's something to take a look at. I think it's great. Thanks to Angie Nelson for the tip.


http://winthefields.blogspot.com/2011/07/kung-fu-throwing.html

3-Man Cup

This is a zone defense.  There are 4 positions: 3 people in the cup, 1 mid-mid, 2 wings, and 1 deep.  This defense only works when there are poor weather conditions with either lots or wind, or lots of rain.

Cup:

There are 3 people in the cup each in one of the following positions.  Only one person is allowed to be within 10 feet of the pivot foot of the person with the disc.

• Mark:  He puts on an incredibly hard force and counts the stall.  He absolutely must keep the force at all cost preventing any and all swing throws.
• Mid:  Covers up field 10 feet away from the handler, generally he is straight up field from the mark, but may shift one way or another depending on communication from the mid-mid.
• Swing:  Covers everything from an arm’s length from the mid as far into the swing territory as he can.  He is not taking away the swing throw (if he does he will leave gaps in the cup…and no one likes a leaky cup) he is simply assisting with the incredibly hard 3-man force

Basic Cup:

Man Defense

The Force:

• When you are guarding the person with the disk, establish the direction you will allow them to throw by orienting your body to stop them from throwing in one direction, leaving the other direction open.
• Forcing home means you are forcing them to only throw it to the home side, not allowing any throws up field to the away side.  Forcing away is the opposite.
• There are a few different ways to force that change depending on various situations

Hard Mark: 

The standard mark that should be used almost always.  The objective is the cut off any and all throws to one side of the field.  Stay mainly on your man’s hip, orienting your body perpendicular to his, and move your feet with him as he pivots.  Avoid bending at the waist because it is easy to make you overcommit if you do.

Straight Up Mark: 

Switch momentarily to a straight up mark when one of the opposing cutters is open deep or someone yells “NO HUCK,” or “Straight Up.”  Stand directly in front of your person about 3 feet away from them and cut off any deep throws.  A good huck requires a small windup, and that will give you time to interfere.  

No Strike: 

When a dump cutter makes a good scorch cut, frequently the defender who got beat will yell “NO STRIKE.”  When you hear this you momentarily (1-2 stalls max) switch to a straight up force giving up everything backfield and to the side, but not allowing the dangerous up field throw.

Guarding a Cutter:

• If the handler is forcing a particular direction, be between the person you are marking and the open/vulnerable side of the field. For example, if the handler is forcing home, you need to be on the home side of your man.
• Also notice where you are on the field in relation to the disk. If you are marking the person furthest away from the disk, stay a little behind him to help cover deep. If you are on the person closest to the disk, stay more in front of him so he doesn’t get open as easily. If he cuts deep and you can’t keep up with him, call for help

Cutting

This is all-important in ultimate!  Without quality cuts you will not get open and will hurt your team.  Here are some important basics

• Cuts must combine sharp change of direction with acceleration.  They are often called “V” cuts because you want to change direction very sharply (like the point of the V)
• Cuts should be made in straight lines away from, or towards the handler
• Generally you want to get to the open side of the field (the side the other team is forcing) because that will be an easier throw for the handler
• And here is the all-important philosophy of cutting: the defense cannot take away everything.  You can get open if you work for it.  A great defender makes you work hard, but with perseverance you can and will get open.  So, the moral is TAKE WHAT THEY GIVE YOU!  If you are faster and they are guarding you underneath run deep!  If you are quicker change directions a few times and make him disoriented, if you are slower and less quick cut when he checks over his shoulder to look at the disc and his eyes aren’t on you or fake being lethargic and immediately run somewhere.  Set up your cuts with planned, intelligent fakes.  Change your body language to mess with them.  Smart cutters can always get open.

Here are some classic cuts and terminology

Scorch Cut:  

An up field handler cut.  The handler cuts diagonally across the field starting at a point level with the disc and gaining 5-10 yards.  

Continuation Cut:  

This is a timing cut, used after a dump swing sequence (or any other time!).  You might hear us call it a “mirror” cut, but we’ll try not to because of some confusion we were having with that terminology.  When the dump catches the disc, fake a hard cut deep.  When the disc is caught by the swing, cut hard and accelerate back towards the person who just caught it.  The moment they look up field they should see you already open and sprinting towards them.  

Straight Stack (Vert Stack) From the Back

This is the other very common offense teams run against us

• This offense thrives on space to either side of the central vertical stack
• There will be 2 handlers who are in the traditional handling position and the 3rd handler will be the very front person in the stack
• The others are considered the 4 cutters.  As with the H-stack, cutters and handlers do not switch with each other

Cutters:  

Cuts are made from the back of the stack, and can be to either the force or break side either deep or short depending on the mark and the defender who is guarding you (take what they give you!).  As the person in the back cuts, the entire stack shifts back filling in the space he left.  If, as the cutter, you do not receive the disc, cycle back into the front of the stack.

Handler with the disc:  

Handlers must re-set the stall count when it gets to 5 or above by doing a dump swing.  The handler with the disc looks at his dump who fakes one way, then gets open and catches the disc.  This handler will then become the new dump.

Dump:  

The dump’s initial position is very important.  He begins directly behind the disc when the disc is in the middle of the field, and directly to the side if the disc is on a sideline.  After making his cut and receiving the disc, he immediately looks for the front person in the stack who should be cutting to whichever side is open for a swing pass.  He then runs to the front of the stack.

Front of the stack:  

Once the disc is dumped, he makes his swing cut and the catch now becomes the primary handler.

Basic Vert Motion:

Basic Vert Reset:

Hot-Cold

This is the exact same as an H-stack with slight variation on the cutter’s positioning.  The cutters are split into two sides.  The cutters are either “hot” or “cold”

Hot Side:  

This is the side towards which the defense is forcing.  These cutters are very spread out covering about 2/3 of the field.  Their cuts are the same as for an H (directly towards or away from the handler), except they have more space to make there cut and get open.  

Cold Side:  

They scrunch together on 1/3 of the field.  Make a cut when defense gets lazy, but mostly be prepared to switch out for a hot side cutter when one of them is tired.

Basic Hot-Cold

H-Stack

The horizontal stack is one of the two most common offenses other teams will play against us.  Here are some basics to keep in mind while running or defending this offense

• The offense thrives on space in front of and behind the 4 cutters, this is why it is important for the cutters to be in a straight line horizontally across the field
• There are 4 cutters and 3 handlers at all times!  There is no bumping out or changing positions between handlers and cutters in this offense
• Handlers play a very active role in moving the disc up the field with more scorch and dump cuts

Cutters:  

Cutters must make cuts straight into the handler with the disc and straight away from the handler.  They act as pistons constantly running away (while clearing or making a dump cut) or towards the disc.  They should be pretty tired by the end of the point.

Handlers:  

When a disc is caught by a cutter, they must immediately get the disc back from the cutter by running to the person who caught it and getting open.  They must also reset the stall count if the stall gets to 5 by making quality dump or scorch cuts.

Basic H Piston:

Revolver

The picture will help a ton on this one.  There are 3 handlers in the middle of a huge box of four guys (also sometimes called a box dominator).  The open space in this offense is in the middle of the field and is reserved for the three handlers.

The Dominator:  They work the disc up.  They are constantly running and cutting and thus get tired quickly if the offense gets stuck.  They are responsible for getting the disc again and again.  They use the space in the middle of the field.

Back 2:  They are essential to the success of the offense as they mix things up and change the angle of attack.  However, this offense dies quickly if we get stuck on the sideline, so their job is to quickly get the disc back to the middle of the field.  Their cuts are up and down the field but they stay very close to the sideline never clogging the middle or allowing their defender to poach.  Generally stay 2-3 yards behind the disc on the sideline.

Deep 2:  They are what makes this offense so powerful and quick striking.  They make tons of continuation cuts.  Whenever the disc is swung from side to side is an opportunity to catch the defender out of position and capitalize by cutting in or out hard and fast.  They do not, however, cut too far into the middle of the field maintaining that space for the dominator.  They stay at least15-20 yards in front of the disc.

End-Zone Iso

End-zone Iso Offense

This involves three handlers, three cutters at the very back line on the end zone, and an isolated cutter who stays just inside the front of the end zone.

3 Handlers:

Their first and highest priority is never ever throwing a turnover.  When we are this close to the end zone we must score every time.  If the iso is called too far away from the end zone they must work the disc up with the person in the iso until they are within about 10 yards of the end zone.  

3 Cutters:  

They need to stay out of the way unless an incredibly huge opportunity presents itself.  Their main goal is to insure the men guarding them cannot poach off on the iso man.  They do this by staying active and faking every cut they can think of.

Iso:  

He must cut back and forth horizontally and get open on the goal line.  Cuts are very hard and very fast.


End-zone Isolation Defense

The opposing team is already very close to the end zone and the objective is to decrease the chances the enemy has of scoring.  This is done by forcing as many throws as possible.  In this defense, a swing is better than a point, thus poaching occurs on the outside handlers.

Handler D:  

The mark puts on a loose force giving up a swing but denying the up field break.  The two outside guys poach hard into the throwing lanes.  When the disc is swung, the two outside handler defenders must cut off the immediate up field throw and always force the disc back to the middle.   The original force is resumed once the disc is back in the middle.

Iso D:  

Stay low, change directions, stay on his hip and beat your man

Back 3 D:  

Ideally we want two of our guys watching three of their players, leaving one of the 3 defenders able to poach and get anything over the top/floaty throws.

Devil's Pitchfork

This is a man defense that sends three “gunners” who sprint down the field to cut off the first throw, guard the other team’s three handlers, and put on immediate pressure.  A second wave of three runs down and guards three of their cutters, while our final player picks up their cutter that is the deepest at the time (he is a safe guard deep).  It shows like a clam which helps disguise the fact that it is a man, confusing offenses.  The number one key is getting all 7 players on a man as fast as possible and avoiding miscommunication by leaving one of them open while two of our guys mark one of theirs.

Clam

The clam is a complex communication-based man defense.  It is commonly referred to as a “junkie” offense, and if not played correctly it certainly is junk.  It is a combination of a man and a zone.  Think of it like a man defense with an incredible quantity of switches going on constantly at almost every position: thus the need for great field communication.  The defense is, by design, situational in nature, however, there are patterns and recurring themes to watch for.  The basic clam is a 3-3-1.

Front 3:  

Priorities for the front three are slowing down the disc, stopping scorch cuts, and most importantly keeping a hard force.  One of the three must be on the mark, while the other two guard the 2 handlers closest to the disc very tightly.  The front three constantly switch positions with each other, or change who they are guarding as handlers rotate out (as in the H-flow) or change sides (with a scorch cut or huge dump cut) etc.  

The middle three all have very different responsibilities and must be discussed separately.

Strong Side:  

This position is played with your butt to the sideline facing the entire field.  Visibility is at a maximum and he can communicate best in this position.  The main responsibility is to keep the disc in the middle of the field by guarding the furthest outside cutter on the force side.  Must not allow anything up the sideline behind his back!

Weak Side:  

Usually played by a taller player.  He has the challenge of balancing his defense between two cutters (see image).  He must decide which cutter is the most dangerous at any given time and take that away.  He must balance helping in the middle when the mid gets sucked in, helping deep when two people are sent deep at the same time and making sure the disc doesn’t get around him to the outside when it is swung (just like strong side mid).

Mid Mid:  

Arguably the most difficult position, he must keep his head on a swivel at all times.  He can’t have his back to anyone (yet is in the middle of the field) and thus must rely heavily on communication from the sidelines, the deep, and the weak side mid.  Simply put he must cut off all the cutters coming up the middle, follow the correct distance, pass them on to the front three and get back to the middle to cut off the most dangerous throwing lane in a timely manner.  

Deep:  

The deep is the man who keeps it all together.  He is the communications master as he can see the whole field and can observe it for long periods of time.  He sees the offense develop and passes on what he sees to the mids.  Obviously he cannot allow anyone to get too far behind him, yet must be close enough to help with the cross field floating hammer in the “short-deep” area.  His positioning is critical not only in being able to get a D on both of those areas, but to discourage throws and force everything underneath.  A good deep makes handlers think two and three times before hucking the disc down the field.

H-Flow

This has been our bread and butter offense since I was a freshman 6 years ago.  Here are some overarching principles to keep in mind while reading.

·         Always maintain the physical shape of the offense.  3 handlers approximately even with each other, and 4 cutters in a line across the field

·         Never make the same cut at the same time as another player (aka field awareness)

·         The H-flow thrives on empty space in the middle of the field in front of and behind the cutters, thus we always clear out up the side lines, NEVER up the middle.  I will emphasize this again because it is so natural to want to clear up the middle.  Don’t do it!

·         This is a running intensive offense so in order to run it effectively we must be in excellent physical condition

In this offense everyone is a cutter and everyone is a handler.  EVERY player must develop his game to the point where he can more than comfortably handle the disc as well as any handler and cut as well as any cutter.  One weak link who lacks in the area of cutting OR handler destroys this offense.  When run correctly it is unstoppable. 

The H-flow uses an egg-beater type motion.  A cutter cuts in to the disc, if he doesn’t get the disc he becomes a handler and bumps out one of the handlers who clears up the field on a sideline (NEVER up the middle) who becomes the 4^th cutter.  And the motion goes on…

Basic H-Flow Motion

H-Flow Deep Cut

Basic H-Flow Reset

H-Flow Line Breaker