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Know Your Thrower, Make It Easy
by Kris Kelly
When thinking about cutting in the endzone, the first thing to consider is if you even should cut. You have to assess where the space is and the convenience of your angle to that space. You need to know who your thrower is and what they are comfortable with (if you cut to where you intend to cut, will the thrower have the throw to hit you accurately enough for it to be a score?). You need to know how you fair with your match-up compared to others' match-ups. And of course you need to be aware of how many people are up field and where and how they are set up, which is likely a function of the kind of play just completed to get you within 5 yards of the endzone.
If after this split second assessment you decide that you should in fact cut, your next job is to make it as easy as possible for both you and the thrower. If a handler has possession of the disc, this probably makes your job easier as a cutter because there are more options of places you can go and still be a viable target. Number 1 easy cut: breakside, looking for a leading around break or an inside break in the gut. Number 2 easy cut: from the front of the stack, a few hard steps to the open side with a quick cut back to the center of the field for a short throw right up the middle (this one requires a well spread out stack so that the second person in the stack doesn't find his/her defender tempted to poach).
If a non-handler has the disc, you as a cutter will probably have to work a little bit harder to make sure that the target you are providing is as standard as it can be. This means beating your defender to the open side outright. Run straight at your defender and erase their buffer as quickly as possible, make one juke/stutter step, and sprint right past them on their inside shoulder while they are on their heels. Getting rid of the buffer quickly is really the key because the longer they are able to keep the buffer, the less room you have until the end of your cutting lane and the less likely it will be that you will be open or in the endzone once you are finished with your cut.
In my experience, the overall best thing a team can do when it comes to cutter set up in the redzone/endzone is get in a nice spread out, straight stack down the middle of the field. From here, you have the most options for different people to get open from various places in the stack and the person with the disc can make the call of what s/he wants to see. And even if you want to make it quick and painless to score, sometimes the best thing to do is still to dump it, either because it puts the disc in better hands, because it can be easier to cut from movement than stagnation, or because high stall counts can force poor decisions and a reset helps maintain all-around composure.
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Tuesday, December 1st, 2008 |
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