USA Ultimate

Minor & Major Adjustments

by Jeff Eastham-Anderson

My first impression of this situation would be to not over-react. There have been close calls, and one turn on handler cuts. If you are getting close to, or are already at the half, this is a pretty good tally to have, and I wouldn't make major changes. 

Some small things to consider:

• If the other team is counting the stall quickly (most likely the case), the thrower should make the fast-count call as he turns to the dump, or earlier.
   
• A typical adjustment would be for the throwers to look to the dumps earlier. However, since the downfield flow is "good," if you start trying to get a short reset at 5 instead of 6, you'll end up throwing more throws per point, as dumps will be thrown instead of downfield cuts that show up from stall 5 to 6. Typically, more throws is not a good thing, and may or may not be balanced by an increased completion percentage.
   
• If you have some other offensive set, give it a try for a point or two to keep the defense from continuing to zero in on your primary set.

If this sequence of events has happened in the first few points of the game, and it has entered the team's psyche, then you should start thinking about making major changes:

• If you don't have an alternative offensive set, think about getting a couple players who work well together to run a dominator or trimanator for a set number of throws or to a call where you enter your normal offensive set.
   
• If the defense is overplaying one or more aspects of your scheme, change the position/timing so your players will have another option. For example, if a team is camping on the inside-out break to the front of the stack, have that cutter fake to the break side, and then go back to the open side.
   
• Emphasize looking for and hitting the first open receiver, even if it is outside of your offensive set. The overall goal being to keep the disc moving, and prevent the defense from settling into whatever set the have worked out.