USA Ultimate

The Huddle, Issue #11: Cutting From The Middle Of A Horizontal Stack

We've asked our authors for tips on what to do in the middle positions of a flat-stack to maximize your abilities, your's teams offense, or your D.

 

• Use On-Field Cues
  
  
  
  • Cutting from the middle of the flat stack requires good field sense. In my mind, good field sense involves the ability to accurately read three things simultaneously: reading the defense, reading the thrower, and reading the spaces on the field.
    
    I'm sure everyone has heard the phrase "take what the defense gives you." This important concept necessitates knowing what your defender is trying to take away at any given moment. At its most basic level, you have to recognize the force and figure out which direction your D is trying to push your cut (e.g. towards or away from the disc). The next level is understanding whether your defender is really taking away what her positioning indicates she is. If a defender is caught flat-footed, you can blow by her in a direction, even if she has an initial "headstart" by positioning herself with a buffer in that direction. Good cutters have developed a series of jukes or moves to help freeze their defenders into the dreaded flat-footed position. An especially easy one to master is driving directly towards your defense to close the distance between you two, making her have to react to small movements like a shoulder fake or stutter step. If you can't get a defender on her heels, you have to get her to commit her hips and momentum in one direction so that you can change directions and gain separtion.
    
    Against even the best defenders, it is important to remember that from any position in the middle of the field there are always at least three different directions to cut and get the disc. To be positioned correctly, there will always be space for in-cuts to both the open and break side as well as deep. Mediocre defenders may take away one of these options and good to great defenders can take away two, but no one can take away everything. Your job as a cutter is to recognize which of your three options is open, position yourself and set-up your cut to maximize the throwing window in that space, and then attack.
    
    Reading the thrower involves both knowing your teammates' comfort level with various throws and recognizing the clues from your thrower that communicate when to change direction. Knowing that your thrower doesn't have a long forehand doesn't mean that you can't cut to that space, but it does mean that you have to consciously sell that cut (possibly by starting out closer to the disc to make the deep space seem more dangerous) in order to set up another cut underneath. If you are able to set up cuts for the pass the thrower most wants to throw, you are instantly increasing the odds you'll get hit as soon as you are open.
    
    At some point or another, everyone has probably seen a thrower point to a direction she wants her receiver to cut to. That's one way for a thrower to communicate with a cutter, although not the most effective. I am a big proponent of using disc fakes to simultaneously move the mark and communicate for a cutter to change direction. As a cutter in the middle of the horizontal stack, if I'm cutting in one direction and see the thrower fake that throw, I know she wants me to change direction and she will hit me on my new cut. A cutter needs to work hard to get open on her cuts, but ultimately you are at the mercy of the thrower and if she doesn't want to hit you on a certain cut, you need to change direction to offer up a new angle. Note that some people are not in favor of backhand fakes that require you to pivot. A thrower can still communicate to her cutter with shoulder fakes and wrist snaps without fully pivoting.
    
    Last, but not least, a cutter needs to read the spaces available on the field based on where her teammates and their defenders are positioned and/or moving. Often the best cut a primary middle cutter can make is to clear space for her teammate to get the disc uncontested. Additionally, often the worse cut someone can make is one where she's gotten open on her defender right into the space where her teammate is also open--rendering neither of them hit-able. I think that cutting in a vertical stack offense puts a premimum on timing while cutting in a horizontal offense puts a premium on spacing. Know what space you are expected to use for your cuts (likely the middle lane on the field) and know which of your teammates is also expecting to be cutting in to empty parts of that lane as well.
    
    The horizontal stack offense allows for a lot of improvisation and creativity on the part of the downfield cutters. Just like in theatrical improv, to be good at it you have to be able to use the cues available to you. On the ultimate field, that includes clues from your defender, the thrower, and your fellow cutters.
     
  • GWEN AMBLER
• Five Easy Steps
  
  
  
  • 1st: Narrow the gap between you and your defender and engage him. If you get him on his heels then you can cut where ever you please.
    
    2nd: Clear Out! It is much easier to cut from the side positions in the horizontal, as long as the middle is vacated. Make room for your teammates to get open.
    
    3rd: Become a side cutter. Observe the field see who is going to get the disc, get your self out of the way and be aware of where your defender is. A good opportunity to begin a second cut is when your defender tries to poach.
    
    4th: Become a middle cutter again. Do this by sprinting directly horizontal; ideally you are running directly at your defender. This will put your defender on his heels more so than from the middle of the horizontal.
    
    5th: Just look down and run!!! When you cut run!!! Run !!! Don't think about the "correct way to cut." The correct way to cut is different in every situation, let your feel guide you, no mind is required.
    
    Dusty started honing his game at South Eugene High School with Breeze Strout, and has since dominated from flat stack attacks both with Portland's Rhino and Oregon's Ego, where he is entering his final year of college eligibility.
     
  • DUSTY BECKER
• It All Comes Back To Throwing
  
  
  
  • The most important piece to an effective initiation cut is the thrower. To get open, you need to be able to challenge the defender into at least two different places. In the typical flat-stack set, there are three spaces open to the interior cutters: open-side, break-side, and deep. If the thrower can hit all of those spots, getting open is no problem. Fake to one of them, cut to another. Throw, catch.
    
    The biggest mistake I see young teams and players make is settling for the open side, come-back cut. This cut is worthless. It gets five yards and a mark on. Why not just leave it in the hands of the initial thrower? Yes, this cut works great against bad teams. It even works great against the freshmen at practice. So what? You need something that works against good defenders.
    
    How do you get there? Begin by throwing. Move to drills. Finally, challenge your thrower to break the mark in a scrimmage. Challenge them to huck. They will be terrible at it at first. But through demanding they do it, they will learn. When they have these tools, you have the tools you need to challenge a defender.
     
  • LOU BURRUSS
• Sockeye's Wheelhouse
  
  
  
  • Cutting from the middle in a horizontal stack is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you have the freedom to cut in any direction, your defender is on an island with no deep help, and the offense is looking to you to make a play. Awesome.
    
    On the other hand, the flat stack presents some unique challenges for cutters. I'm going to focus on the unpredictability of the flat stack as a cutting problem, and explain a couple simple adjustments that address this issue.
    
    Most downfield cutting happens in flow, off of a moving disc, and not from a stopped position. In a flat stack, cutting opportunities off of disc movement can be sudden and difficult to predict, even for flat stack veterans. In a flat stack, the disc may be thrown downfield from any lateral position on the field, and in many systems the middle cutter(s) will always be the priority target(s). A good opportunity can arise at any time—as soon as a thrower gets the disc with his mark trailing, it's on! There is no easy-to-predict, side-to-side rhythm (like a vert stack dump-swing) that precedes a good cutting opportunity. Additionally, many flat stack offenses operate at a higher tempo than their vert stack counterparts, focusing on rapid disc movement and "team offense" rather than isolating cutters for extended periods of time. This makes cutting opportunities even more rapid and unpredictable, and also puts more pressure on the cutter to hit the cutting window on-time. If the cutter is open but late, the thrower is already looking to the next option.
    
    So, what to do?
    
    1. Keep your eyes up
    Without a sure-fire way to predict good opportunities, you have to make sure you see them when they happen. Always be aware of the disc—keep an eye on it much more than you're used to. It's tempting, especially when cutting deep, to put your head down and just churn for a couple seconds—don't do it! Practice cutting deep while you look over your shoulder. This way, you'll be aware when one opportunity ends and where the next begins, and you'll get there on time and before your defender. Cutters who are aware of the disc in a fast-paced offense put enormous pressure on the defense, simply by being the first to see and react to the changing disc position.
    
    2. Always be preparing
    When opportunities are hard to predict, you often won't have time to see a cut, set up and shake your defender, and still get to the cutting window before the thrower is looking elsewhere. The best way to deal with this is to always be preparing to cut. Make short fakes, move evasively so your defender can't get a body on you, make him constantly think about adjusting his position. But do all of this while staying basically in the same place—don't sacrifice your position by committing to one direction on a fake. You need to be ready to cut in any direction, while still keeping your defender off-balance. This takes practice, but it's not hard to learn. Train for quickness and footwork.
    
    3. Hone your deep game
    This doesn't really have anything to do with tempo or predicting cutting opportunities, but it needs to be said. The big idea behind the flat stack is the deep threat—it gives all four cutters direct access to the end zone and spreads them out so "help" defense is harder. If you can't go deep effectively, you're a liability as a cutter. On the other hand, the end zone is always a good place to cut. If you don't know where else to go, go to the house!
     
  • MIKE CALDWELL
• Understanding Offensive Priorities
  
  
  
  • As a defender this is one of the most uncomfortable positions to defend if the stack is well-spaced and with just the right depth to make both the deep cut and the underneath cut a viable option. If the disc is in the middle of the field (say at the brickmark), and your cutter is on the open side of the horizontal stack, there is a lot of space to cover. Unlike with a vertical stack, where two of the four diagonal direction cuts take the cutter behind the mark, in this situation even the cuts towards the closed side of the field are on the open side early in the cut. This forces the defender to have prioritize between all four diagonals, knowing that the mark doesn't have responsibility for any of them.
    
    In this situation, well-coordinated movement between the stack positions will inevitably leave a defender vulnerable to a not-too-challenging pass. In this situation the defender has to prioritize the cuts to stop based on his own strengths, the receiver's strengths, wind, team defensive priorities.
    
    My priorities, given that I'm a bit above average in height, would usually focus on stopping the underneath pass with my positioning, while knowing that I have to go hard if my guy commits to the deep cut and I have to hope that the pass isn't on the money or that I can get some help on a deep throw. This strategy might change if I know that the receiver is a big target for the other team, or has relatively weaker throws, or if our team has been beat by the long ball repeatedly in the game.
    
    Even though this is an especially vulnerable position for the defense to be in, it also requires some coordinated movement and excellent spacing from the offense to make all options viable. After the first movement it will be come more clear where the hotspots of the offense are, and where my receiver is trying to go. Recognizing these positions early can help you defend more effectively. Also, having defenders in different positions focus on defending different cuts (for instance, the outsides help deep, the insides front) can give the defender some priorities where his help is more defined and his positioning pre-determined.
     
  • GREG HUSAK
• Everything Should Be Intentional
  
  
  
  • If I was teaching a young player to learn to cut from the "hot" or iso'ed positions in the middle of a horizontal stack, I would emphasize a few keys points, which are generally applicable to getting open on a stopped disc within any offensive structure, but are particularly important for a horizontal offense. The points I make are assuming that the defense is not poaching, as cutting against a poaching defense would require a more in-depth discussion of how to run a horizontal offense in general.
    
    Things to think about when cutting from the iso'ed spot of a horizontal offense on a stopped disc:
    
    The 45 angle: Position yourself strategically before you start your cut.
    
    The success of your cut may be pre-determined just by the way you position yourself. On Fury we talk a lot about using the 45 degree angle (and by "we," I mostly mean Sprout [Nicole Beck]). If you set up at 45 degrees from the thrower on the open side, you leave yourself a nice window on the break side to work with. You also put your defender in a tricky positionmdash;if you create enough of a window, your thrower has a pretty easy break option, but obviously your defender can't come all the way over to take it away without giving you the open side. At that point, you have put your defender in a position of having to worry about a number of different possible cuts at once before you have even started moving. The Japanese do an excellent job of using this angle in their cuts and it is very challenging to cover.
    
    What do you want to achieve? Know your role.
    
    If you are being put in the iso'ed position in a horizontal offense, it is probably for a reason and you should know from your captains or coach what you are expected to achieve. You should also obviously have a sense of your own unique strengths.
    
    If you are generally a lot faster than your defender and you are expected to be a deep threat, make sure that you are setting up nice and close to your thrower. A great deep cut can come from setting up on the 45, cutting to the break side, then turning and going deep. Generally if you are iso'ed, you should even have enough time to turn and cut under for a gainer if you are covered deep.
    
    If you are expected to get the disc and look deep to another isolated cutter, you obviously may want to set up your cut to get the disc underneath. You always want to be flexible as you make your cut (see point #5) but you also want to have an idea as you start your cut of where you want to get the disc. You are on offense and in control.
    
    What is available? Know your thrower.
    
    Knowing your thrower and their strengths and weaknesses will help you set up the best possible cut. Even if you are an excellent deep cutter, if your thrower is just not comfortable making a deep throw from a standstill, you won't get the disc. In that situation, if you are truly open deep, you won't be in a good position to make an under-cut. At that point, you should clear within the structure of your offense and create space for another cutter.
    
    Another common example is that you may know that your thrower absolutely loves her inside out. This will allow you to set up at an even more extreme angle on the open side to set up that inside out cut. As a general matter, the more experienced your throwers are, the more places you will realistically be able to get the disc which will allow you more flexibility/creativity in your cutting.
    
    If you are cutting for a thrower who doen't have every throw in her arsenal, you (and your defender) may know that you need to work extra hard to get open coming in on the open side. At that point, you may want to think about trying to set up "poor man's break" situations by having the thrower dump to another handler on the break side and then look upfield to get it to you.
    
    Finally, I would strongly encourage you to talk to your throwers and find out what they prefer; don't assume that you already know. I have gotten so much out of having these discussions with my teammates and it has directly translated into better connections on the field.
    
    Who is guarding you? Know your defender.
    
    At any level, it is only to your advantage to watch your opponents and study how they play. If it's a team you play a lot, you may recognize that certain players tend to cover you, and you can study how they play defense. Do they typically over-pursue on hard cuts? Do they poach? Do they make lay out bids? Are they strong in the air? You can also play off your defenders' expectations of you if you know they have seen you play. If they have seen you generally catching the disc to set up underneath, it's great to make a serious deep cut early in the game (hopefully coupled with a great deep throw!) to keep them guessing. You can often get at least one free deep or underneath look just based on your defender's expectation of what you normally do.
    
    If you're a deep cutter, you may find yourself being backed all the time. I think there are two schools of thought on this situation, and it really depends on the offensive structure within which you are working. On the one hand, you may still want to set up as close to the thrower as possible and cut deep to find out if they are really covering you or just standing there. On the other hand, you may be able to drive your defender quite deep just by backing up (back to the importance of positioning before you start your cut) and get a very easy 20 yard gainer right away. Knowing the structure of your offense and your other cutters should help you make this decision, and it's always good to mix it up.
    
    Be flexible.
    
    Hopefully flexibility is built into your offense. Horizontal offenses can be very creative and dynamic, thus unpredictable, and very difficult to cover. However, on any given cut you will only have a certain amount of time to work. Know within the structure of your offense how long the thrower will be looking at you. Make the most of that time, then get out. Which leads to my final point...
    
    If you don't get the disc, create space for good things to happen.
    
    Your clear can help make the next person's cut successful. Everything you're doing on the field should be intentional.
     
  • BRYN MARTYNA
• Three Keys To Being A Good Middle
  
  
  
  • I can think of three main points that will help you when you are trying to get open in the middle of a horizontal stack. The first is that your team needs to put the right type of player in that position. In my opinion, this is a player who is confident with the disc, is a threat as a deep thrower, and understands how to get open both going deep and coming under. Having a player who is a "threat" as a cutter and a thrower will make the defense have to decide what they are going to take away and in doing so will leave more openings for you.
    
    Secondly, a player's job as a cutter in the middle of the horizontal stack is to engage the defender. This is not a footrace, it is a matter of driving the defender in one direction (my personal favorite is running directly at the defender to get them on their heels and then exploding 90 degrees in either direction). By getting your defender on their heels, even if they are faster than you, you will have a momentary advantage. Also, you will create a better cutting lane for yourself and make it easier to receive the disc. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received is "the best in cut is an out cut" and vise versa. By driving your defender in one direction it will open up a lane for you in a different direction.
    
    The third point is that you need to remember the "shoulders square" rule. This is the mentality that while cutting, you should have your shoulders facing either directly at your thrower or the thrower should be seeing the back of your jersey. By cutting in with your shoulders square, the width of your body will be in front of your defender, which makes it hard to get a D, and you will be able to move laterally to get to the disc. When cutting out, run in a straight line out (you are fastest that way), check over your shoulder around 8-10 steps (to see if your thrower is still engaged with you), and then decide where you need to go depending on the throw. Typically you will be at least one step in front of your defender (because you knew where you were cutting and they didn't), so after the disc is up you can adjust your position to make the catch. Hopefully those points were helpful because one thing is for sure—horizontal stack is here to stay.
     
  • CHELSEA PUTNAM
• Downfield 1-On-1 Defense
  
  
  
  • You're downfield, the disc has stopped, and you're defending a cutter in the middle of a flat stack. You'll need all the speed, agility, and strength you have—long before the point begins you can better your odds by improving your physical ability. Chances are if you are reading this you know how.
    
    Although Ultimate is a team game, the flat stack does a good job at isolating one-on-one matchups. While switching and poaching can work against weaker offensive teams, intelligent ones will be able to change the position of both the disc and their cutters quicker than you can react, and will beat your defense without much effort.
    
    You aren't reading this to figure out how to guard a one dimensional player—the tall, fast runner who can't throw should be backed (defender closer to the endzone then the disc), and the slow lilliputian thrower should be fronted (defender closer to the disc than the endzone). What you should be worried about are the athletes that can be effective either with the disc in their hands or catching longer throws.
    
    So how do you defend them? Frankly, I don't know. After 4 years of club ultimate, I have been beat one way or another by almost every single offensive player. More will get their chance. I have however been taught a few basic tips:
    
    Understand probabilities: A good team will complete all throws to open cutters coming to the disc. These cuts average 10-15 yards, so 5-7 open cuts will mean a goal. Throws to cutters going away from the disc bring a lower completion percentage. Even though one long throw can equal the value of 7 short ones, the chance of a turnover is infinitely better than none. The trick is determining what chance of completion a long throw has, and acting accordingly.
    
    Understand cutter's goals: A cutter with one step separation from their defender coming to the disc is open, however the same cutter with three steps going away is covered. The cutter's differing definition of success should be met with appropriate defensive goals of stopping cuts coming to the disc by more that those going away.
    
    Watch and match hips: Your cutter's hips will tell you where they are running, and yours should be positioned the same as theirs. When defending your cutter, you need only react to changes of direction by the hips, and not to arm, shoulder, or head fakes.
    
    Know the location of the disc: Your position relative to your defender's should also be relative to the location of the disc. You have three choices—watch both your defender and the disc, rely on sideline help to tell you where it is, or (lightly) touch your defender and watch the disc.
    
    Use your body: It is possible at times to position your body in the path of your cutter before they get there in order to prevent their desired movement. This is particularly effective against cutters coming back to the disc after running away. This is risky, as any cutter can use a overly close defender to their advantage when expected. Never initiate contact.
    
    These might help. Remember, perfect offense beats perfect defense. The point is to get as many blocks as possible, which is not the same as stopping every play.
     
  • SETH WIGGINS