Back to the Basics
Basic ultimate information about positions, gameplay and techniques.
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Confidence
For this week, I thought it might be important to go over a largely overlooked aspect of ultimate, and any sport really; the mental game. What I mean by this is the way players can get in their heads and overthink thinks or maybe not be able to find the right mindset going into a game, tournament or even just when approaching a singular play. This is something that is not easily fixed but yet makes the biggest difference on and off the field. Many players, including myself, struggle with this which hinders a players ability to reach their full potential. The most important aspect of the mental game would…
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Self-Officiating
Self-Officiating is one of the most debated rules in Ultimate that many people have split opinions on. In ultimate there are no referees, at least at the high school, college and club level, the AUDL has referees and some slightly different rules that I may go over on another week. Basically these self-officiated games are played much like a pickup game of basketball, you call your own fouls, meaning you call the fouls that affect you. At that point, the player who you call the foul on can either agree (no contest) or disagree (contest), from there the disc my go back to the thrower or stay where the foul…
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AUDL vs College/Club Structure
Today I thought I would talk about the league structure of Ultimate league and games. This will include, college, club and the professional level. I will start with the AUDL (professional) level and then work my way down explaining how games and leagues work at these levels. The way ultimate tournaments are handles is much different than many other spots and truthfully I think needs to change. The AUDL The professional league runs their games and the league in a way that is most common among other sports. There is a 12 game season (was 15 but shortened due to covid for the upcoming season) where teams play their division…
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Back to the Basics: Cutting
Last week we went over what a handler is in Ultimate and what their role is on the field, this week we will be going over the other position: cutter. The analogy I used last week for handler is that they are like the quarterbacks on the field, using the same comparison to football, cutters would be like wide receivers. Cutters can still be great throwers like handlers but typically cutters are the more athletic plays that can go grab a jump ball out of the air and tend to get all the points. Like wide receivers in football, cutters must have great footwork to create separation between them and…
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Back to the Basics: Handler & Cutter
Today I decided to go back to basics of Ultimate and explain one of the two offensive positions. This week I will be going over the role of ‘handler’ and then next week I will go over the position called ‘cutter’. Pictured below you can see the offense in black and the defense in red. The person circled has the disc and is a handler. Handlers are basically the quarterbacks of the offense, they have the most accurate throws, call out what offense their team will be running and typically throw the furthest as well. Contrary to this picture, there is usually more than one handler near the person with…
