Positions aren’t as defined in ultimate. In the NFL, teams will draft for players solely due to their position, a position that they have played for years and have perfected. It’s very rare for a wide receiver to step behind the center and snap the ball, putting it deep to a sprinting defensive lineman 65 yards away, who then evades his opponent and dives into the end zone for a touchdown.
Some people ask why. Why doesn’t ultimate take it’s positions as seriously as other sports? There is no excuse- it is simply how the sport works. A player who has ten years’ experience steps onto the field. Let’s call him Player A. His team is a young team, many players that don’t have experience or have never played before. It is likely that Player A will take a handling position- he may cut for a D1 school, but today, he’s going to handle. While handling, Player A can see the entire field, and can make informed decisions about how the offense will be run. From a cutting standpoint, he would leave most of the disc movement in the hands of less experienced players, and it would be much less likely for him to get the disc and virtually impossible for him to control the offense whatsoever with the vision of a cutter. However, this only applies to the most elementary of ultimate playing. Many advanced teams will be in positions where each player has a good enough vision of the field to make a decision, but in Player A’s specific scenario, we’re going to assume this is not how his offense is running. This is not to say that handlers are generally smarter than cutters. It is simply a matter of vision. Cutters are watching the handler and have to judge the mark and how the handler is moving in order to make a correct cut. Cutters also have to judge the offense they are part of, and how the defense is reacting to them. Handlers may be able to see the defensive tactics being employed on the offense, but it is ultimately up to the cutters to do something about it. Split-second decisions is one of the key points of cutting- to explain, we’re going to use another example. College tournament of some sort- the offense is lined up in a standard vertical stack. Player B is on offense, she’s third cut, and as the defense sets up, she realizes she’s being poached. Instead of normally continuing a stack, Player B yells at her teammates that she’s being poached, a sign to change up their offense- and quickly. First cut- let’s say Player C- goes straight deep. Second cut (Player D) goes straight under, and Player B goes break side. The handler swings to Player D cutting in, who puts it to B on the break side. Player B dumps it back to a handler, who sends it to player C cutting towards the end zone, who has managed to beat her mark and makes the catch in the end zone for a score. This example here shows cutters switching gears- it may be a well-rehearsed audible, but nonetheless, it is a difficult thing to pull off in a game. We can see that they have to adjust to basically any situation thrown at them (pun intended) and have to make the adjustment quick enough to keep the offense running. Of course, this does not apply to everyone in every situation. In fact, roles of each position are destined to change at a moment’s notice, based on the game. This is an elementary look at the most basic responsibilities of each position. Ben Kane The Defense Of The Disc September 18, 2016 “Handlers Vs. Cutters-The Grey Area”
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