USA Ultimate

One At A Time

by Greg Husak

One thing I remember an old teammate saying was that "there are no four-pointers in Ultimate." What he meant was that you're not going to bridge the gap in one play, so you have to stay with the gameplan and keep doing the things that your team needs to do to play their best. 

The first key is to make sure that your offense is going to score every time they receive, because the worst thing for the team would be to add another break, which only lengthens the odds of a comeback while also being demoralizing. Also, if they are scoring without giving up even a turnover the other team will start feeling some pressure. 

Defensively you're going to have to ratchet up the intensity a bit. One mistake I think is to get away from playing zone or junk because you are afraid of matchups or want to force the other team. After many losses I have thought to myself that we didn't mix up the defense enough in the second half of the game and while our defensive intensity was strong, we didn't do enough to keep the other team's offense on their toes. If your gameplan includes mixing up defenses, you need to keep with that plan even when you are down late in the game. 

As for subbing, I think you want to stay with your team's plan, maybe trying to give your stars an extra point or two. Of course, this depends on the situation. If you're a college team and it's early in the season there is no more valuable time to see what the younger players are made of than to put them into the fire. Even if they don't pull it off, the experience they get will be helpful come sectionals or regionals, much more valuable than burning out your stars but winning the game only to get slaughtered in the next round of the tourney. However, if it is potentially the last game of your season then you may tighten up the rotation a bit. However, I think teams feed off the energy of having everyone in the game and the successful teams I have been on have played all their players, even in championship games.