In my four years at the great Texas Tech University, I devoted my efforts to studying the theory behind ultimate frisbee game play. Before, during, and after every game I would break down certain circumstances so that I would be prepared for them the next time they came up. Unfortunately most of my teammates were not as devoted to their craft as I was so when said occurrence were to spring upon us, many times I was left speechless at how unorganized our team was. For this reason, I have created a simple graphic representation of the most commonly made mistake that I have observed over my 6 years of ultimate experience.

Exhibit 1:

Lets assume we are playing with 7 offense and 7 defensive players. This is the ideal number for an ultimate match. Our offensive players are represented with O’s and our defensive players are represented with X’s.

Exhibit 2:

The occurrence in question is what to do upon a dropped disc more than 10 yards away from your own goal line. In this example, our offensive players take off down the field in hopes of going deep for an easy score. Our trailer has dreams of his own and stays deep, but simply drifts to the opposite sideline. Quite simply, there is nothing right about this. The only options are to toss it deep and give the defense and equal advantage to make a play on the disc or to drop it back to your safety valve, therefore not advancing the disc.

Let’s take a look at how the situation should have played out.

Exhibit 3:

Option 1 - When proper movement is attained, the long score can easily be achieved if the handler has a decent throw and the route runner has a little better than average speed. I have found that 90 percent of the time this situation occurs, the short side of the field is heavily defended. This leaves an extremely large vacancy on the back side in the corner. With a couple of well timed horizontal routes that create some interference for the defense, the vertical route runner should easily be able to create some separation. When the vertical route is still being ran, the handler should put the disc in the far back corner. The route runner should not make his break until the disc is 25% of the way to the corner. When the route is broken off it is too late for the defender to realize that the throw is to the corner, allowing for the easy grab.

Option 2 - Lets say that the first option was well defended. If our trailer cuts up the short side sideline, a mid range route runner can roll in front of his route and fill void left. This provides a safety with the trailer flashing short-side, but almost certainly leaves enough room for a handler to get the disc up the field for a good size gain, if not a score. The disc should be thrown as soon as the vertical route crosses in front of the crashing trailer.

Option 3 - Lets say that the defense is the ultimate equivalent of the ‘85 bears and this option is defended. The handler still has the option to drop the disc back to the release valve. When this is done, the first vertical route can be brought back up the backside sideline and gives the release valve a target to advance the disc. It is almost impossible to defend this set of throws.

If it is defended, I would recommend calling it a day because you most certainly do not stand a chance to win this game.