Sunday, February 3

pickup

Heckled to put it in the blog, he refused.

Pickup was pretty good today. A full compliment of ex-Pikes plus a whole bunch of the younger Jersey set made the day really competitive, if still turnover-laden. The reappearance of Jaegro seemed to pull folks out of the woodwork to gawk at the slimy freak. All kidding aside, it was a treat to see that guy again. One of the old Pike guys that, for some unknown reason, saw fit to keep me on the team that first key year.

Then he left to play for some chumps out in Seattle... I wonder how that's going for him. I hope well.

I'm starting to feel like I'm in solid early early early season shape in that I can actually keep running for a full point or two without taking a sub or feeling like I'm going to die. The throws are returning while I'm trying to expand my game-ready repertoire to include some fabulous new defense-punishers, but they're not really 100% yet. Cutting is still awkward, but that's still due to not remembering how to from the seasons prior to last year back when I was actually a cutter.

Very strange to me that in one season as a handler, I seem to have forgotten all 8 years of being a cutter. And now I "cut like a handler" as at least one defender told me. Time to relearn real cutting with the new insight into handling from 07. Can't be content to be one-dimensional.

I'm just so happy to be playing these days. With all of the peripheral things going on in life, from happy to sad to inbetween, ultimate is always there, waiting to welcome me back into the fold. I love it for that. Every time I step into that 70x40 box, there is solace to be found. Sure, there is artifice to it, but at the same time there is truth underneath.

Waxing semi-poetically until I can get back on that field again...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

what do you think the differences are between a handler and receiver making cuts? I feel that I was put into a handler role too soon, and would be a better player if I had been cutting for a longer period of time.

while I feel I have an understanding of cutting and trying to create space, my execution is definitely lacking. what do you think?

dusty.rhodes said...

The best way I can put it:

Handlers cut (primarily) to gain control of the disc.
Cutters cut (primarily) to gain control of the field.

As for how to get better as a cutter, it takes time. Watch great cutters. Watch okay cutters. Watch bad cutters. Ask yourself what the difference is. As a handler, think about what you see that lets you know the difference. Emulate THAT key. Think about different concepts of what "open" means in different contexts.

That's probably the best I can do at the moment... this would much easier to explain if this were a face-to-face conversation AND I was a good cutter.

I'm working on the latter.

Anonymous said...

Would you say that handlers cutting to gain control of the disc is a good thing? I feel that the idea that you should be cutting just to gain control again is what stymies a handlers ability to cut. You shouldn't feel like you have to get the disc back. You have to be able to realize when you need to clear out or make space for other cutters.

It can be bad if you're cutting just so you can get the disc again.

dusty.rhodes said...

I feel that you took my comments and applied them specifically instead of generally.

I'll try to address this without getting into specific offenses and their goals and/or expectations of different positions, but what you say is accurate. You generally should not cut in such a way that it prevents others from cutting. This is sports 101 and not ultimate specific.

But, the difference between getting open as a handler and getting open as a cutter is that the relative margins by which you are considered "open" are completely different due to the standard distances from the thrower at which they operate.

That is, short throws and completions to handlers are not generally designed to gain yards, they are designed to maintain possession (and then, depending on the offense, achieve any number of secondary goals).

Longer throws to cutters are specifically designed to gain yards with the tradeoff of a lower completion percentage (and then, depending on the offense, achieve any number of secondary goals).

So in that sense, handlers cut to control the disc and cutters cut to control the field. Now, of course, both do both and rules are made to be broken.

Anonymous said...

i always think about handler cutting as being more opportunistic while downfield cutting is more planned out. probably stems from all the reasons that you state, but when i actually toggle from one to the other, i feel handler cutting is purely instinctive, reactionary (you see an opening and a chance to get the disc again, you go get it) while downfield is actually thought through and methodical.

just a few cents.
bailey