Ahhh… the fine art of cutting.

Simply put, you want to get to a place where you are open to receive a disc from the handler. If your opponent is marking you aggressively, this can be hard.

There are a number of things you can do to increase the effectiveness of your cuts:

• Don’t fake too much: too much time spent faking leads to stall counts wasted and time spent clogging up the cutting lane.
• Boulder cuts are your friend. Don’t take one or two steps in a direction as a fake — take 4 or 5 or 6. Really commit. Then, if your mark is right on you, a 180 degree turn in the other direction and your defender is usually in the dust. (And if they haven’t bit on your 4 to 6 step fake, don’t make it a fake. Just keep on going. Even easier.)
• One the other side of things from the boulder cut, if you want to run straight in towards the handler and your defender is between you and the disc, run right at them and past their shoulder. In the time it takes for them to turn around, you have a couple of extra steps towards that reception. (A quick head fake to the opposite shoulder often gives you an extra moment here as well.)
• Finish your cut: many players, most notably newer players, don’t continue their cuts far enough. For example, they cut from a point on the break-side of the field and get to just in-line with the handler and give up the cut, before they ever actually crossed into the force-side of the field. Cut all the way to where the cut will be most successful.
• Your mark is always coming up behind you, so don’t stop running. I know you think they’re not. They are. They are always coming. So don’t stop running at that disc until it is in your solid two-handed catch. (I know, I know, you’re certain you lost them on the other side of the field. Just… don’t stop.)
• Watch your defenders eyes: It’s true — the best cut is when your mark is not looking at you. You don’t need to do anything at this point other than make your cut. Easy. Except… you have got to be aware of these moments when they come and at the very moment they happen. You need to be watching your player very carefully and yet still still have a solid picture of what is happening on the field. (It doesn’t help to be able to escape your mark only to run right into traffic.) When you get the field sense to use this, it will be your best friend. (It’s the secret of lazy wily vets everywhere.)
• Most importantly for all types of cuts… commit, commit, commit. Jogging is never the right choice on a cut. When you jog, your defender knows where you are and has no trouble positioning themselves in order to minimise your effectiveness. And if you are jogging, your weak cut is taking up even more time in the cutting lane that could be used for a cut from a teammate. On the other hand, a solid hard cut will either get you in the open or, at the very least, force your defender to take you seriously — hard cuts will keep your defender from poaching because they will have to judge you as a threat. (And if they don’t stop poaching, it’s your god-given right to make them pay for it.)

(P.S. These tips are courtesy of all those players those who have been kind enough to mentor me over the years. Special thanks go out right now to William, whose Ulty articles inspired me to throw up some of my own tips.)

(P.P.S. All of these tips go double for me.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 at 12:53 am and is filed under ultimate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.