Scobel Wiggins Photography

Developing college players can be a difficult task especially since many new players don't come in with any Ultimate experience at all. The state of Florida severely lacks Youth Ultimate programs that start teaching kids early about Ultimate. This really is a setback to new players that are trying out for the team because its hard to become effective as a player on the field until they learn how to throw both ways. However, on Florida we were able to get use out of these new players because we would teach them exactly what they should be doing when they are on the field: and that is to dump the disc. When new kids came to tryouts we immediately practiced dumping the disc with them. This was a necessary skill for them to learn if they wanted to make the team and contribute.

Florida's offense system was very simple. We have a vertical stack and would pretty much run a huck play on offense every time, or at least have that option there. For a new player in our system there was not much to learn much offensively as most of our plays were more or less idiot-proof. The only thing new players needed to do was make good cuts and if they got the disc, be the best dumpers in the country.

As far as defense, this is where as a team we got pretty creative. We had many zones that were very effective but mainly our 4-man cup was what made us so successful in adverse conditions. We trained specific players to fill spots in the zone and we worked on it a lot so those players developed a chemistry. While that player may not have a great skill set, they became great at their 'spot' in the zone.

Our strategy as captains/coaches was to minimize our risk on the field as much as possible. This is what you would want to do if you were investing in the market, so why not use it on the Ultimate field? The basic definition of this on the Ultimate field would be for the best throwers to make the most throws, and the best receivers to catch the most discs. This is an easy way to maximize your potential by making the best throwers and catchers to do most of the, well, throwing and catching. We were lucky to have a few great players who could win their match-ups and get open when needed and this made it worthwhile to execute this strategy.

By making even the least skilled players on your roster expert dumpers you can always have confidence in them to make that short and easy throw in big moments in big games if need be. It doesn't do much use if you have an average player that has a big flick because you probably don't want that person throwing it in a big situation. An example of why we would train our players to dump so well was because even the players that are not as athletically gifted can fill that role if they get the disc in a big game. A more athletic player with average throws might not be as good at dumping and in a critical situation you might not want him making any upfield throws but rather dump it to a better thrower. Every player on our team was a good dumper and that was their greatest strength as an Ultimate player. Therefore, even if one of the top players was covered well any one of our players could still get them the disc with confidence.

It may not be cool to say your greatest strength as an Ultimate player is dumping but if you can do that well you can play on my team any day and that is why I would take the players on my team over any other in the country. They knew that this strategy was our best chance to win. This also gave us a consistency that very few teams in college Ultimate have. We rarely had an off game because we minimized the chance of that ever happening.

Now, its a little more complicated than just having your best players do all the big throwing and catching. You have to put them in position to be successful. To do that, they need to be in the best shape possible. Committing to track workouts throughout the whole season was something our new players needed to buy into at the beginning of the season if they wanted to be successful. This was another way we minimized our risk as a team and as players by maximizing our endurance/speed. By eliminating much of the risk in all these variables, we were able to become a very consistent and successful team.

For both younger and veteran players, I believe consistency is the key to becoming a successful Ultimate player. Being consistent throughout all aspects of your game and finding and using the skills you are good at effectively. If you're good at making deep cuts, make deep cuts all the time. If you're good at throwing backhands, throw your backhand as much as you can. Our team serves as a good example of this strategy as well. I'll use my brother Chris Gibson as an example. Chris had great speed and his strength was just being faster than his defender. I (the thrower in most situations that involved Chris) would throw it to him way out in space for him to run it down. If there was even a slight chance that his defender could D the disc if I hung it a little then I would turn and dump the disc. I'll look for another option or a situation where Chris had more separation from his defender on his next cut to throw him a deep disc. The same principle applied to me when I would throw it to him. If I didn't have a clean look or the mark was straight up, I would wait for another look or try to move the mark to get a clean throw. By doing this, I remove a lot of the risk in trying to bend throws around the mark which have a higher percentage of error. Also, this would leave Chris in a position where he might have to sky someone which is something we felt was not a good percentage play. Chris did have a huge Nationals, and was one of the big reasons for our team's success.

There are many more examples that are useful for younger and veteran players trying to gain a role on the team. The main thing is be smart about your throwing choices on the field. Since every throw can be a turnover and a potential goal for the other team, you have to be very careful on your throw choices. Every team will have different strengths and weaknesses but as a thrower you can easily avoid low percentage throws by not throwing it. Simply dump the disc and wait for a higher percentage throw. Hopefully, you will have become an excellent dumper so you can wait for a good percentage throw for a goal.