Dump D

Defense is the most exciting part of ultimate (in my opinion). I mean, offense is fun in that there are spectacular grabs, sick puts, great movement, and absolute shreddage; but the defensive aspect of the game successfully combines strategy and execution with the idea of "b*tching" the person your covering in the air, on the ground, on the mark. Throwing or catchign a score is sweet, but nothing feels better then getting a point block on game point, or a lay out bid to prevent a score, or skying some foo in the end zone. 

Time to get boring now... you've had your glory with the upfield D, but now to address defense in the "backfield" or what is more commonly known as Dump-D. Defending a handler is no easy task. Look around the game, you will seldom find a "slow" handler... except maybe from UCLA-B a couple years ago... (just kidding). Their job is to keep the offense flowing while advancing the disc to the upfield cutters. However; we all know that there's a defense covering the cutters so there are times where the defense stalls and the stall count advances. Bring in the Dump! I blogged a couple months ago about the dump, and now I'm gonna talk about shutting that dump down. 

I'm gonna break this down into two categories. Through my experience, I've found that handlers can be broken down into two major categories. Granted, there will always be exceptions to these but from playing the past 3 years, this is my observation.

1. Tall and/or Swift

examples: Steven Lowe (UCI), Matt Khosh( UCI), Keegan Uhl (LA Metro), Marcos Perez (CSULB), Kief Zangaro (SD), Amy Chang (UCSD Psychos) Daze (SDSU), Sam Swink (UC Davis), Tommy Li (Claremont), Enway Hsu (UCI), Brian Chen (UCSD), Barrs Lang (Notre Dame), Adam Simon (Johnny Bravo), Julian Dahl (Colorado). 

The key to their success is partly their size and their first step. In defending these types of handlers, they will take a quick first step back behind the disc for the easy pass, or will burn your ass up the line for the quick power position throw. These guys are usually pretty lanky with long arms/ and or will rely on their body mass and position to gain posession of the disc (not calling any of you guys fat). Their direction is pretty predictable I've found... but they still get the disc because of speed, body position (before and after the release), and their height. 

How to defend them: Your body position needs to be more advantageous than theirs. The critical part of the dump is to not allow the up line. The up-line dump is instrumental in many offenses and granting such a throw to many teams will result in a breakdown in defenses and/or the lethal huge huck. I found that for these guys that are bigger than I am, I really try to give them backfield dump. They'll get the disc on an easy dish from the mark, but they gain -3 yards and I'm right there to set the mark. The dump will most likely push up field initially, running right at you to get you on your heels before blowing by you or cutting back for the dump. This is where the body position comes in. If you allow any sort of daylight between the dump and the up line, you've lost. It is critical to use your own body to deter the upline and force the dump backwards. If they run into your body (assuming you've occupied that space already), and knock you over, it is a valid foul call. If the dump is looking for the up line regardless... sometimes the thrower will throw a high lofty up line pass where these guys can rip it down. [Insert body position again]. The "inside" is prime real estate. If your dump somehow runs on the inside track (between you and the line), the dump throw is made 20x easier. Avoid this... use your body. I find myself always thinking to myself, "Dictate." Defense is all about dictating the offense. You make them go where YOU want them to go. Don't chase. Chasing is for lazy people. Body position the crap out of these type of handlers and make them go where you want to go. Then swoop in for the mark and don't get that swing off. 

If you have the speed to beat them, use your body to your advantage. Deny the upline and if you're quick enough... go mess up their backfield dump, but be aware that they may bust up the line again. I remember getting ridiculously fooled on Dump D against SDSU because I assumed that he was going up and then back. He went up, then back then up-field again. Body position is your #1 friend in dump defense. Speed is secondary. 

2. The f***ing Squirrels  ---->    ------*juke*----*juke*-----*sprint*--->

examples: Tyler Bacon (Cal Poly SLO), Dan Smeltzer (CSULB), Scott Roeder (UCI), Ratchet and DaVinci (UCLA), Bamboo (UCSD), Iris Leung (UCI), Bob "808" Liu (LPC), Ed "Biclops" Melo (UCLA), Jen "Zip" Chen (UCLA), Allen Lai (UCI).

How to cover them: When I find myself marking up on squirrely handlers... It all comes down to what I talked about before (body position, and speed), but also requires an additional knowledge of vision, or discerning between where the squirrel wants to go and where he is pretending he is going. 

Raise your hand if you've ever been juked out of your shoes to the point where you almost or did fall over or totally found yourself completely out of position and 10 yards behind the dump. (raises hand). Yea, I've been there. It's not very fun. The difference between the Tall and/or Swift crew and the Squirrels is that the squirrels come at you THAT much faster and rely on trickery and jukes to get what they want. The disc to them is an acorn (sorry for the poor analogy) and they want the disc in their posession so they'll do crazy things for it. I've seen a dump fall down, get up, and burn his guy who slowed up thinking the guy had hurt himself or a foul was called. 

Being categorized as a "squirrel" myself, the typical dump cut starts with a quick step either back for the disc or directly up field at the dump defender. Let's just assume the defender is playing the no up line. If I cut straight up the line, I will most likely run into the defender so my options here would be to blow by the guy inside for the disc, or cut straight back for the disc. The biggest difference is the rate in which the squirrel can change direction. Many of these handlers can turn on a dime and blow by defenders. This is another importance in body positioning and vision. When guarding these speed demons, I watch their hips/legs and not their upper bodies or eyes. The direction in which their legs go will dictate their path. Many handlers will throw head fakes or shoulder fakes to cause a hesitation in the defender. Don't bite on this stuff! Watch their hips, hold your ground and use your body to knock them off their intended path. 

On the end line, many iso-plays will come from the dump-handler position. In this case, tight defense is required. This is where the squirrel is at his best. They will take quick steps to throw you on your heels and then make their move up the line while you're still trying to get back on your feet. What I tend to do is to fake hard for the backwards dump pass. I make it as real as I can and then when I see the defender bite and commit to my cut, I will change directions and blow up line for the score. See now you know how to defend me.... but even though you know it's coming, how are you going to stop it? Back to basics. Body position (don't let me up that line... backwards dump >>>>> up line dump), Speed (close the gap between you and the dump once he gets the disc to prevent the swing OR the upfield huck), and Vision (watch my hips and my feet). 

It's difficult for me to discuss this topic without any visuals, but I guess all that I write will have to suffice. Defending the squirrels is more physical than most people think it to be. Squirrels will try to just squeak by you on the inside track for the up line and will try to blow through any physical contact you try to put on them. As a defender, you need to have quick feet. Quick small steps so that you're not caught mid-stride while the squirrel changes direction. It's not an easy task, but hopefully I've shed some light on how to guard squirrels. That said... I still have a lot of difficulty defending squirrels... even though I am one myself.

This isn't a full comprehensive way to defend the dump D, but I hope that it has helped. The offensive dump will always have an advantage over the dump defender, but the goal of the defender is to narrow the advantage and deny your dump the disc. If you can prevent your dump from getting the disc, you've overachieved your job and should be commended. Remember... good teams will look to keep the disc moving; so the dump will be activated as early as stall 3 or 4, meaning you need to haul ass and work for 5 or 6 seconds. So if you get burned up the line the first couple times, adjust! Watch the handler's tactics and the way he runs his dumps. Adjust your body positioning relative to the dump and the disc, and then adjust the way you counter his cuts. With practice and experience, it'll become a normal part of the defense, but your efforts will be recognized when the handler has no one to throw to at stall 8. Nothing gets me more pumped up than frustrating an opposing handler and denying him from doing what he wants to do. 

Have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year everyone!

Freakin' squirrels.... ugh

-Hammie #10

Captaining my first team

Several months ago, a friend of mine whom I play pick-up with asked me if I wanted to help him captain the team in the upcoming Chino Hills Fall League. At first I was a bit apprehensive, figuring that I was comfortable with taking a back-seat role on the team and just playing and not worrying about the "captainy" aspects of Ultimate. However; as I thought about it, the more I was up for the challenge and eventually accepted the offer.

So I've been playing competitive ultimate for about 3.5 years now, and it's amazing to look back and see how far I've actually developed in terms of my field sense, disc handling, etc. One thing I didn't put an emphasis on in terms of my development as an ultimate player was leadership. Most people don't really know that I played high school volleyball at the varsity level for 4 years and captained the team my senior year. I knew what it was like to lead a team through tough situations and to encourage unity in a team oriented sport. I believe the reason that I didn't have a desire to lead an ultimate team in the years past was based on the fact that I didn't know enough to lead. Ultimate was and is still pretty novel to me and even now I am still trying to understand offensive strategies and what not. I was the wide-eyed, confused little handler who got ridiculously confused while playing and I had to learn the most out of my mistakes.

Fast forward 3 years later, and I've had that much more experience playing with teams such as UCI, LA Metro, and countless pick-up teams. I picked up as much as I could, learning from the various captains and leaders of the teams I was a part of. When asked to captain this team of pick-up players known as "rocket-sauce," I had to really think about it. This was a group of huge variety, ranging from new first-time players, to people in their 40's who have been playing ultimate for longer than I've been alive. There was a wide range of skill levels, styles of play, and mentalities on this team and I knew that the hardest part would be to get our team playing well together.

We're playing our last league game this friday for 3rd place. We put up a regular season record of 4-2 and lost in the semi-finals 12-15. We did have loose practices, with several drills putting emphasis on dump swings, breaking the mark, and end zone options but for the most part, the work was all done in-game.  The difficulty for me was in calling lines. I had never called lines before and now realize how much is needed to call the right line and the right moment. I had to think about who had which throws, who was fresh, who was playing well, who wasn't... and trying to find a good dynamic with the team. Getting everyone playing time was most important, but I still wanted to call lines that made the most sense for the moment.

Then there was dealing with the heated moments. We weren't playing well, we were dropping, throwing things away, etc. etc. I had maybe 4 or 5 other people telling me what we were doing wrong, what we needed to do... many of those ideas conflicting with each other. I remember calling time out and telling everyone to just breathe. Slow it down and we'll figure this out. 

Didn't work...

Some players were still hot-headed and getting on my case for not putting on the right match-ups, or not exploiting their weaknesses, calling the wrong lines, etc. It was a rough night for me and even though we lost that game, I don't think I would have handled it any differently. I learned a lot from that night, that I can't deal with every single person in the same manner. I'm a guy who's all for teaching through encouragement and discipline, however I realized with some people, I need to be more firey with. It's all about finding a way to get your team to buy into your system and to execute it with them knowing that it works. 

Being in the leadership role for a team isn't easy, and I'm still learning to lead by example on and off the field. I hope one day to be able to captain another group and I still have Rocketsauce this coming quarter to captain. I'll definitely be open to criticism, encouragement, and tips of the art of captaining an ultimate team. I'll keep ya'll posted. Till then, listen to your captains. Play hard, do it for your team.

-Hammie