Articles on systems for playing
Hex is a new offence which most of your team will not have seen or played before – introducing it can be both fun and exciting, but will certainly come with its challenges. I’ve had experience introducing the offence to a variety of teams and players, from primary schools through University level teams to …
Foreword Flexagon approaches defence from a new angle, bringing together elements of man-to-man and zonal defence. Flex is neither “man” nor “zone” – it’s a hybrid. Pressure is applied to every offensive player, whilst the defenders are constantly working together as a team. Consider a vertical stack. If every defender marks man-to-man, then they are …
About a month ago, I received an email from an ultimate player. His name is Daniel and he was wondering what offensive and defensive strategies I would suggest for 3 on 3 since he had a tournament coming up and had only ever played normal 7 on 7 before. I’ve included my response below along …
About 5 years ago, I was at a practice for the men’s team I was on. We were working on a particular play. What I’ll never forget is how regimental our play practice was. Literally we were working on player movement as precisely as a few feet rather than having general lanes and letting the …
Many of you are familiar with the vertical, horizontal and spread offence but not many of you have heard about the Mexican Offence. It’s relatively new and was developed by Felix Shardlow from Brighton Ultimate in 2012. It’s not for every team but depending on the types of players you have, this might be a good …
Receiving a pull is an area in which a team should be extremely proficient, as it is an event that occurs hundreds of times over a season. It is a mistake to not take advantage of these moments in which the defense is not entirely set. The ideal situation occurs when the offense initiates play …
Malissa Lundgren, Ultimate Canada’s 2011 Female Athlete of the Year, discusses how the Capitals were more successful after changing their team strategy following their 2009 semi final loss in the UPA Championships to Brute Squad. In 2010, they would go on to make the finals where the lost to the powerhouse women’s team, Fury.
I am going to close the idea of a dynamic vertical with several odds and ends that tie the concepts together. Recognize the strength of your thrower. When your thrower is capable of hucking with precision, delay your strike-cut until after possession has been gained. If the thrower is only comfortably throwing 20 yards, leave …
The previous article described using a vertical stack that would shift to a position, within an arbitrary boundary, that was opposite the field position of the disc. The rationale behind the lateral shift is to take advantage of the strengths of both centre of the field vertical and vertical side stack offences, while reducing the …
Whether you’re a player, a captain or a coach, you will have invariably dealt with lines – either being called or calling them. I think there are 4 scenarios for calling lines which depend on the type of game you’re playing: If you are playing a team that is either stronger or weaker than you, …
Indoor ultimate is different than outdoor ultimate for a few reasons: there is no wind, the field is smaller, there are less players on the field, the disc won’t float as much and there are usually walls/ceilings to contend with. This usually means that the games will involve more precise throws, a different strategy since …
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Summary: Using a center of the field vertical stack offence to create better forward throwing opportunities. Compared with standard horizontal offense, the center of the field vertical offense has fallen out of fashion in recent years. There are exceptions, as one elite mens team favors its structure …
Thanks to Bobby Pinkston from the University of Kentucky men’s team for breaking down this offense during the November 2011 USA Ultimate Level II Clinic in Hardinsburg, Kentucky.
Thanks to Ben Greene for breaking down this defense during the January 2011 USA Ultimate Level II clinic in Chapel Hill, NC. This presentation attempts to answer the following questions about zone defense: What are the advantages for the defense in terms of space? What are the threats for the offense? What disc position is …
Defenders can act as a team to restrict a centre of the field vertical offence. The goal of team defence is to trap a vertical stack on one sideline or the other by forcing throws forward, aggressively preventing upline resets and taking away the huck option with a last back. The scenario is quite easy …
Recently I have been consuming quite a bit of Ultimate. After an injury-induced hiatus I am now playing in two leagues and I have also been watching as many games as I can find online, particularly with some great content coming out of Worlds. I have really enjoyed being able to watch so many great …
This is the first of a series of Ultimate Intelligence posts that I hope to write. These posts will hopefully provide some useful information that you can use to improve your game in a variety of ways. For the most part Ultimate Intelligence will be about on-field performance and may include tips regarding tactics, physical …
Michael Lawler takes us in detail through 2 poor endzone points in the Brute Squad vs Scandal game, Boston Invite 2011. Before watching this video, you should check out Ultimate Project #5 first – which shows 4 good endzone points. Watching Project #5 first will show you what good endzone points look like and as …
Michael looks at 3 plays from the Brute Squad vs Scandal game at the 2011 Boston Invite. He looks at what went right and what went wrong in the two plays and offers some suggestions for improvement.
An example of simply outstanding play at the deep deep position in zone D. The game is Brute / Riot at 2010 Worlds. The player the video focuses on is Gwen Ambler of Riot. As good an example of how to play the position as you will ever see.
In episode #5 of Ultimate Project, Michael shows several examples of good endzone offense and how they are good examples based on excellent execution.
