The fundamentals of catching hucks

Let's face it, there are very few true deeps out there. I'm talking about cutters with fantastic speed, great hands, unbelievable body control, and can jump out of the gym (10 ft+). This post is not written for true deeps. They don't need any help catching hucks.

Fortunately, almost every offensive player has opportunities to go deep and catch a huck. Because good offense is about exploiting match-ups, it may even be a relatively slow player with a mediocre vertical jump who finds himself as a deep target when he's covered by a clueless or poachy defender. What I'm saying is that, when your on the field, you must be prepared to cut deep and catch a huck at any time.

Catching hucks is not like catching other throws. For one thing, they are most often caught above the head. For another, they are often contested in the air.

I'm going to run down a list of fundamental things you should do to give yourself the best chance of bringing down a huck.

1. Get there early. When you begin your deep cut, don't worry about the thrower or the disc. Make 5 hard sprint strides deep before you look over your shoulder to check the disc. This should allow you to separate from your defender and give you a cushion to read the throw. Remember, it's a hell of a lot easier to slow down and cut back in at the last second to catch a huck that has come up short than it is to really turn on the jets to catch a huck that is overthrown. Use the first 5 strides to put yourself in the luxurious position of being able to read the disc in a relatively pressure free environment.

2. Read the disc. This is why "getting there early" and arriving downfield before your defender was so important. Hucks, because they a long throws and necessarily must travel at a higher trajectory to get above the defense, are highly affected by wind. They are also difficult to throw and so may not always end up where the thrower intended. As a receiver, you need to recognize the essential flakiness of the huck (and possibly the hucker) and respond accordingly. After your initial burst to "get there early" you need to continue sprinting but also look over your shoulder to find the disc. Figure out where it's going and make a bee-line to that spot. But, continue looking at the disc so that you can adjust your bee-line until the last possible second.

3. Catch the disc at the peak of your jump. So, you've made a bee-line for the spot where you think the disc is going to fall. Now, you have to catch it. Hopefully, it was a good throw and you made a good cut and there is no defender to challenge you. But, let's be realistic, there will probably be a defender bearing down on you. Your goal is to catch the disc at the peak of your vertical jump. Unless he's right next to you, don't worry about the defender. He doesn't matter as long as you catch the disc at the peak of your vertical jump. Concentrate on timing your steps so that you get a good, clean take-off.

4. Get inside. This only really applies if a defender is right next to you and you know that you are not only going to have to catch the disc but also win it from the defender. If it feels like a jump ball in basketball to you, then you know that you are in this spot. As the offensive player in this "jump ball" situation, there are two things you must do. The first thing is to "get inside". Means that you need to put your body in between where the disc is going to be caught and the defender. You MUST NOT allow the defender to put his body in between you and the disc. Making a good read and arriving early should allow you to dictate position. YOU CANNOT BOX OUT. Putting your body between the disc and the defender is different than boxing out. Boxing out involves backing up into your opponent after achieving good position. We cannot do that in Ultimate. However, achieving good position allows us stand our ground and puts the defender in a difficult spot where he will likely foul by jumping through us to get at the disc. If you get good position and he fouls, don't hesitate to call it.

5. Be first in the air. Now, you've "gotten inside" and you're not screened by the defender. As an offensive player in a "jump ball" situation, the second thing you must do is be first in the air. Basically, you need to get up for the disc before your defender does. I know that it may disrupt your timing, but you don't have much of a choice in this case. All that the defender has to do is knock the disc away. In a "jump ball" spot, it is MUCH MUCH easier to knock the disc away than it is to catch it. So, as a receiver, don't wait. Go up early and try your best to bring the disc down with you. The hidden bonus to being first in the air in this "jump ball" spot is that the defender will often jump through you late to try to tip the disc. This is, of course, a foul and you should call it.

I want to emphasize that we don't look to call fouls when we try to catch hucks. We look to put ourselves in the best possible position to win the disc. If we happen to be fouled in the process, we call it. But, our main goal is getting ourselves in the best possible position.

The worst space on the field for a bad defender.

Recently, I've been talking to Robo about finding a defensive balance between aggression and vision. Effective defenders are constantly feeding their brains information so that their brains can make predictions about what is going to happen. Once their brains zero in on a "sure thing", the defender turns off his brain for several moments and uses his aggression to seize the opportunity to create a turn.

So, how do effective defenders do this? Simple: they are always stealing glances at the disc. Of course, they cannot just stare down the thrower because then their man would be off to the races. But, there are certain times when the defender can position himself so that he's able to see both his man and the disc (as well as being close enough to his man to be able to make a play if the disc comes in). These times are precious and good defenders look forward to them and exploit them. The worst space on the field for a defender refers only to those defenders who fail to recognize these opportunities and therefore make the entire defense more vulnerable.

When your man cuts deep, fails to receive the disc, but doesn't immediately cut back in and instead stays relatively deep on the field, you have entered the worst space on the field/opportunity space for a defender. The reason this space is so bad is that most defenders try to front their man from this spot. The rationale being that the in-cut is really the only cut the receiver has. The trouble with this is that the defender is not able to watch the disc while fronting his man. This causes him to fall out of position quite easily and leads to easy scores either for his man or because he cannot help anybody else deep.

At certain times, fronting your man is a great idea. To know the difference between the two, you must ask yourself if you have deep help. If the answer is "yes", then fronting is a viable option because you'll presumably have somebody watching the disc for you and giving you information. If you do NOT have deep help, however, (like when you are already downfield a bit) fronting is NOT a viable option.

Instead, you must do the extra work of backing your man. And in this case, backing your man simply means being far enough behind him that you can see both him and the disc. You'll be anywhere from 1/4 step to several strides behind the receiver. It may seem ridiculous and like too much extra work, but it will allow you control both your man and the field.

Yes, by backing your man, you become more vulnerable to the in-cut. But, keep in mind that your man will likely have to run you through traffic in order to make that in-cut. You'll simply make the proper pick call and catch up. Also, you only need to back him by a tiny amount once you've found the disc upfield. There's no reason to give up several steps once you've established your position relative to the disc. Finally, keep in mind that your teammates upfield of you are excellent candidates for a switch if your man finds a lane for an in-cut. You'll be able to see the entire field and should have a couple seconds to communicate the switch to your teammate.

Conclusion: when your man hangs out deep, he's making a major mistake. Exploit his weak play by backing him. When you do so, you control both your man and the entire offense because you can see the disc and the entire field. Don't be lazy. Don't be stupid. Back that deep man.

Getting separation as a cutter.

Just over 7 months ago, I wrote about what it means to "get open". In that post, I took the 10,000 ft view of the subject. In this post, I'm going to look at the view from the ground.

Let me start by making a couple of commonsense observations about why many many Ultimate players are confused about how to get open against a real defender:

1. In a game where nobody really cares about playing defense (ie pickup), any mildly athletic cutter is going to lose his defender by simply accelerating in any direction. And while this may be "getting open," it has nothing to do with "getting separation".

2. In a game where both teams do care about playing defense, but a cutter has a much slower player defending him, then that cutter is going to lose his defender by simply accelerating in any direction. This is also not "getting separation".

I define "getting separation" as getting open against a defender who is of equal skill and who is trying to stay close to you. The problem is that many of us learn to play Ultimate by playing pickup. Which means we learn quite a bit about "getting open" by merely running away from somebody, but next to nothing about "getting separation". Sadly, as the quality of our opponents increases, the only way for us to "get open" is to "get separation".

Even more sadly, rather than realizing that our tactics are not very useful against good defenders, many of us refuse to acknowledge our poor cutting fundamentals as the cause of our cutting difficulties. If our defender is doing a good job, rather than changing tactics, we simply try to run faster and hope they get tired.

This above cutter tactic of running harder in an attempt to outlast a defender is questionable at best. It wastes tons of precious energy on offense (when you should be conserving) and assumes that you are, in fact, better conditioned than your defenders.

So, if we aren't supposed to just run harder, how are we supposed to "get open"?

Honestly, the tried and true method for "getting open" by "getting separation" is more complicated than just accelerating. It is not MUCH more complicated though.

Step 1: Decide where on the field you want to go.

Step 2: Make a small "false start" fake to get your defender slightly off-balance.

Step 3: Sprint hard IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION of where you want to go.

Step 4: After 7-12 yards, cut sharply back in the direction of where you want to go.

Step 5: While you are accelerating out of the cut, look for the disc.

The above 5 step process is guaranteed to get you open every time, provided that you are playing against an equally skilled defender, you sprint hard, and you cut sharply.

If you practice the above process, so that your every move as a cutter is one of these steps, you will become nearly unmarkable. The key is to not allow yourself to slip back into the bad pickup habits of accelerating mindlessly. When you are a cutter, keep asking yourself "what am I doing?" If you find that your answer is NOT one of the five steps above, stop doing what you are doing and go back to step 1.