Issues

Issue No. 29 | Field Vision

Some players, whether through experience or natural talent, seem to understand what is happening on the field at all times. Those players have an advantage with the disc in their hands as they are able to pick out open players, even if the cutter didn't know they were open! They tend to be intelligent cutters and savvy defenders. Why?

Issue No. 28 | How The 2009 Champions Did It

What did the champions do very well? Did their team have a particular strength that they rode throughout the tournament? Do the champions have any weaknesses, or are we left hoping that they somewhat regress? What might you do differently in 2010 in an attempt to beat them? What should other teams do in order to train for victory over these top teams?

Issue No. 27 | Fielding The Pull

How do you field the pull? How many handlers to do you hold back? What considerations do you make based on how deep the pull goes, or which side of the field it lands on?

Issue No. 26 | The Dump Denying Mark

As an offensive player, what do you look for to break this defensive strategy? As a coach, how do you prepare to play against this defensive scheme?

Issue No. 25 | Beyond The Fundamentals: Tips On Marking

Everyone knows how to mark...but what are the tricks that some of the top players are using?

Issue No. 24 | Spirit Of The Game

Big Ideas are hard, and they are complicated. Justice is a Big Idea. If I want to know about Justice, it doesn't help to ask a bunch of philosophy students for one-liners. To really learn about Justice, I want to find criminals, victims, cops, defense attorneys, and those falsely accused.

Issue No. 23 | Catching 50/50 Discs

What does a player need to do catch a floating disc that two, three, or more players have a chance to catch? What skills put you in a better position to win that battle?

Issue No. 22 | Set Plays

We asked our authors to discuss play-calling from a philosophical perspective. What does play-calling mean to your team?

Issue No. 21 | Team USA On Specialities

We were lucky enough to find nine members of Team USA who could answer questions about their specialties.

Issue No. 20 | The Comeback

You're down 11-7, game to 15. You're defense needs to score four times to tie the game up. How do you manage a comeback? How do you call lines? What do you tell yourself and your players?

Issue No. 19 | The Layout Block

You've trained, you've watched film, and you know your opponent. Maybe you've been waiting all game, all season, or your entire Ultimate life to take a layout block from that player in a big game.

Issue No. 18 | Zone Offense

Like a great football team that can't kick field goals, zone offense can be a weakness that dooms your season. We asked our authors for their thoughts on constructing a zone offense, both from a practice perspective as well as how they think about in-game adjustments.

Issue No. 17 | Using Defensive Matchups

We asked our authors for a look into how they think about their defensive matchups. How do you use your pieces against the other team?

Issue No. 16 | Using The Sideline

We asked our authors what they do in their practices to prepare for sideline situations, and how it changes their on-field tactics.

Issue No. 15 | Role Players

We asked our authors to discuss the search for, the value in, and use of role players.

Issue No. 14 | Breaking The Mark

In our first Issue of 2009, we wanted to explore one of the first concepts that every players learns: breaking the mark. Modern defenses rely on the mark to limit the available field space for the thrower. Great players can escape those limitations. How do they do it?

Issue No. 13 | Teaching Team Defense

Team defense (poaching, switching, zone) can be hard to teach, which is probably why so few players are really good at these skills. In a search for insight on this topic, we asked our authors what drills and techniques they employ to teach their players to play together on the other side of the disc.

Issue No. 12 | Endzone Offense

We asked a group of very successful endzone cutters to describe their habits. Be it pretty, ugly, efficient, patterned or random; a goal is a goal, and only scoring matters. Here is what The Huddle has to say. Hopefully something here helps you catch more goals, and win more games.

Issue No. 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.

Issue No. 10 | Throwing For Distance

In this issue of The Huddle we have asked our roster of authors to explore what it takes to get more distance on throws (both hucks and pulls), and some techniques, drills, and exercises players can use to improve their long throws.

Issue No. 9 | Sub-Calling

The most terrifying aspect of captaining or coaching, for many players, is being responsible for deciding who plays, and when. In this issue, we'll discuss the thought processes that go into making these decisions.

Issue No. 8 | Catching

Of the most fundamental skills in Ultimate, throwing definitely tops the list. But close behind is catching. Catching is absolutely vital to playing Ultimate.

Issue No. 7 | Zone Defense

In this issue of The Huddle we asked our roster of authors to discuss zone defense. In particular we asked them to describe their favorite zone—the one they feel the most confident in and the one they like the most—and tell us its strengths and weaknesses.

Issue No. 6 | Footwork

We have asked our authors to discuss examples of good footwork on the field and what we can do to improve, illustrate who they have seen that demonstrates superior skills in this manner, and show us what may be some telltale signs of poor form.

Issue No. 5 | Dump Adjustments

You are in an elimination game against a very strong defensive team, and as the game moves along you find that your offense is having to work extremely hard to throw reset throws. In this situation, how do you get your reset handlers to work more effectively?

The Huddle