USA Ultimate

Allowing Mistakes, Deceiving Marks

by Lindsey Hack

What is your favorite 'move' for breaking the mark? How do you do it, and in what situations do you find it most useful? 

To break the mark, I typically like to convince, or deceive, the mark that I am going to throw a different throw than what I want. 

For example, if I am being forced flick and I want to throw the around backhand break, I will get into a very threatening inside out forehand flick position. Since my break flick gets released pretty close to my knees, or the ground, and is on the right side of my body, typically the mark will start to lean over towards that position. Once I have noticed that they have committed their center of gravity to defending the break flick, I will immediately pivot over to my backhand side and complete the throw. 

What is most important in teaching young players to break the mark? 

Younger players can afford to make more mistakes, and I truly believe you are not going to learn how to break the mark if you never attempt to in the first place. Therefore, I think it is most important to teach young players to just do it and do not fret too much if it is a turnover. Whether it is a turnover or not, I ask the younger player to reflect on their throw and recount what made it successful/unsuccessful. 

Which do you feel is more important: Having a lot of players that can break the mark, or having some players on the field that can break the mark very well? 

Tough question. I think it is important to have a lot of players that can break the mark. If everyone can break the mark somewhat, it means every cut is dangerous whether it is to the break side or not. If half your players can not break the mark that successfully, good defenders are going to catch on. If that smart defender is guarding a player who can not break the mark, they may let that player catch the disc in a tough position on the field (sideline, close to endzone, etc). Then, they will hope that their mark could force a turnover and that the other defenders downfield would recognize that the player with the disc can only throw to the open side. Therefore, those players would clamp down defensively and the offense as a whole would come to a complete halt. I would rather have no one that puts the team offensively in that position than have a few people who just dominate marks.