I want to first point out that the most normal person I know, Kelly Foster, was our CCC Baller Bids winner. That is six feet of glory right there, folks. She is most likely dramatically taller than you. Behold that shit. Along with having a ridiculous vertical on her resume, Kelly can also add that she's capable of being horizontal, too. She can sky you without jumping. She can now also make you feel silly while low to the ground. Multi-directional threat? I think so. You go, Kellay!
(Yes, I realize this photo is vertical. There's a thing called rotate, you know. Why didn't I do it? Because I'm in China. That's my excuse for everything now, deal with it.)
Also, who else is insanely happy that the Get Up Kids are getting back together? Sorry, this has nothing to do with ultimate, but seriously, like 78% of the posts I write have nothing to do with discs. Also, I don't know how many of you have listened to the stuff that's been leaked from "808s and Heartbreak", but Kanye sounds like T-Pain got really depressed and then started doing acid ... and I maybe like it. Sorry, I had to geek out for a second. I have been listening to the same 4000 songs over and over (I know, seriously, how do I even get by?!) and it's getting boring.
Anyway.
I find it really convenient that just as I'm coming around to it, The Huddle's topic is cutting in the horizontal offense. For the first year of my ultimate development, the only type of offense I knew how to play was vertical. I had seen the horizontal stack a few times during my freshmen year, but decided that since I couldn't even play in a vertical offense, I should probably not invest too much of myself in the horizontal variety yet. I began to see and play against more teams that implemented this offense as time went on, but had never actually really played in it until this semester, with Shanghai Hu Wa, which plays primarily a horizontal offense. I will admit that at first, I really, really, really didn't like hozo. I didn't know where I was supposed to be positioned and how I should cut, and I just looked absolutely lost on the field (as opposed to looking just kinda stoned). But the more and more I'm forced to play it, the more and more I see the beauty in it.
As little as I admittedly know about the horizontal offense, I know even less about defending it (I've never actually personally defended against it in tournament play), so I won't even go there. Anyway, all the articles brought up a lot of the same points: the importance of positioning, setting up your cuts, and cutting and clearing hard. Something I've been more and more convinced about is cutting and clearing hard. Sometimes we think if we don't get the disc, we're out of the play and we jog leisurely back to the stack. We should never do that. By clearing out of the lane just as hard as you cut into it, you create space for the next cutter, and you could even be setting yourself up for another cut. Mike Caldwell (CHICAGO WHAT ... sorry, I'm insufferably all about the 312/773 lately) made a great point in his article, saying that horizontal offense focuses a lot on "team offense", and I'm seeing that more and more. Whereas the vertical stack allows players to chill out and idle in the middle of the field, the horizontal stack demands constant movement and the involvement of every player, whether they touch the disc or not. The middle of the field is especially potent, and if you're just standing there, you've become a detriment to your team's flow. As discs get caught and continue cuts are made, if players aren't continually running up field and making cuts happen, then eventually, there are fewer and fewer upfield players the more and more discs that have been caught. Okay, that was a convoluted thought ... but do you get what I'm saying? It's the same in a vertical offense, too, actually, that if you allow yourself to idle after you've caught the disc/after the disc has been caught, you'll find yourself behind the disc and behind the action, and your team has lost a cutter until you can catch up. Constant movement in the horizontal stack, when you're doing it right (i.e. communicating and coordinating with your fellow cutters and timing your cuts perfectly), sets up for some of the smoothest, most beautiful offense ever. Sometimes you can get all the way down the field and into the endzone with each player touching the disc at least once. I remember at Hong Kong, when all our cutters were pistoning like machines in the stack and constantly cutting hard in and out of the lanes, we were absolutely unstoppable, and in a few of our games, our offense had a 100% conversion rate, no exaggeration.
Anyway, I don't know why I'm even posting this; this is essentially a quick n' shitty review of The Huddle's offerings this time around. My point can be boiled down to like ten words: Go read The Huddle. Great articles, as always. And I'm glad I'm warming up to playing hozo. That being said, what do you guys think is the most effective offense?
2 comments:
Interesting thoughts, JWo. I've played for teams on both sides of the spectrum. Texas '08 and Slackjaw both ran 90% ho-- it's fun when you have cutters who can get open at will in the middle. As a handler, I feel like my breaks are more viable and valuable in a vert stack... if I could go back, I would have made our team play a little more vert last season. We killed with it at CCC, but then almost completely abandoned it. I think this was partially due to our inability to beat the triangle defenses that teams like Wisconsin and Oregon were throwing at us. We came up with some set plays to beat these Ds, but come game time, we almost always chose to go ho instead to avoid even letting them set those Ds up.
I feel like a caveat in all of this is that at the college level, there are almost always 1-3 players on the field who are a bit of a liability. O/D choices are often made to limit your own liabilities and exploit the other teams'...
Post a Comment