Short Film Breakdown - Fury upwind break vs. Ozone (Guest Post by Dan Young)

This post is guest-written by Dan Young. Dan has played ultimate at Case Western Reserve University and in Cleveland for nearly 10 years.  He also coached the CWRU men's team for two years, and helped lead them to their first ever appearance at Nationals, winning the Ohio Valley Men's Coach of the Year Award in the process.  You can find more from Dan on twitter, @dry5.

Short Film Breakdown - Fury upwind break vs. Ozone

I saw this clip from the Fury vs. Ozone semi’s game at nationals in a blog post by Mike Lawler. If you aren’t familiar with his blog, I highly recommend following it for short posts (1-2/week) with excellent examples of individual and team plays from women’s club/world games.

A couple of things stuck out to me in this clip, and I decided I wanted to share a few of my thoughts on the offensive and defensive strategies taken in this point that led to a Fury upwind break. If you want more context, watch the full point here. Subscribe to ultiworld to get access to the full game - I highly recommend any individual/team investing in their footage for fantastic scouting and learning opportunities.

I’ve decided to point out four main takeaways from this clip: (1) Fury’s offensive set play, (2) Fury’s reset handler spacing, (3) Ozone’s missed defensive switching opportunity, and (4) Ozone’s poach block attempt and recovery.

(1) Initial static play

Fury handler (#21 - Meeri Chang) brings the disc in on Fury’s own endzone, and the offense starts with a typical ho-stack clear and fill movement (cutters on the break sideline streak horizontally towards the disc/force side, leading a big open area for a cutter to attack. This initial play gives an open side look (cutter #3 - Sharon Lin), a deep look (#51 - Claire Desmond) and a break look (#47 - Bethany Kaylor). Chang shows great handler fundamentals with the timing of her vision - she starts by focusing on her force side options, maintains that pivot/sight until the break side cut is in a throwable position, then pivots and hits the Kaylor on the break side for positive horizontal and lateral motion.

(2) Handler/Continuation spacing

What first struck me was the spacing on the next movement after Kaylor’s reception. The initial handler, Chang, immediately pushes straight downfield. In offenses that I’ve typically run, this is not a preferred cut because it greatly limits the throwing lanes for Kaylor - she is handcuffed from throwing to downfield cutters because the handler and her defender are in between the thrower and the downfield space cutters might be attacking. On teams I’ve coached, I’d much prefer Chang to hang back after throwing the break throw, allowing a bigger throwing lane for Kaylor and increasing the chance of cutter - cutter continuations.

Fig 1. Fury handler cut limits downfield throwing angles.

(3) Defensive Switching Opportunity

The reset positions and movement of the two primary Fury handlers (middle of the field, in line with the thrower) gives Ozone a great opportunity to bracket and play effective defense on both of the handlers. In this instance, the upfield Ozone defender (guarding the further reset handler) could have stayed upfield while the downfield Ozone defender (guarding the closer reset handler) could have stayed downfield. Based on the offender movement, this would have resulted in a switch between the two defenders, and could have been a more effective way of covering these two threats.

Fig 2. Fury handler positions gives Ozone an opportunity to bracket and better defend both options.

Instead, what happened was the closer defender (#20, white) stays with her person, and the further defender (visor) helps, leaving her offender open enough to receive the next pass in a threatening position. Now - I’ll admit that this was excellent vision and execution from Kaylor to hit Fury handler #8 (Nancy Sun) here. And in most cases, that is a perfectly acceptable position to give up as a defender. However, I think better team defense and communication from Ozone could have helped here. Implementing a bracket/switch on the two handlers rather than helping on the primary option and leaving the secondary option unguarded for a few steps is probably a better, but harder to execute, defensive option.

(4) Defensive help and recovery

As Fury handler #8 Sun cuts upfield, it is fairly clear that she is the only threatening option for Kaylor to hit. Ozone defender #15, Kate Travaglini, smartly helps off her offender to try and defend this long downfield pass. Her defender (the third, farthest reset handler) is in a non-threatening position - almost a full field width away from the thrower with players in between the offender and the thrower. Any throw to her offender from Kaylor would have to be high and long, giving Travaglini time to recover.

Fig 3. Ozone defender attempts a poach block because her offender is in a non-threatening position

However, despite the smart defense, Travaglini doesn’t get the poach block, and therefore needs to recover to her offender as quickly as possible. From this position, I think there were two missed opportunities for Ozone.

(4a) A possible switch between defenders for faster recover from the poach

As #15 Travaglini just misses the poach block, her momentum carries her even further from her previous mark, Fury handler #20 Romano. From this position, she has a very tough path to recovering to her original offender. What may have been better would have been a defensive switch between Ozone defenders Travaglini and #22 Paula Seville. Paula has an easier route stopping a throw from current Fury thrower Sun to open handler Romano, and Ozone poacher Travaglini would have an easier time setting a mark on Romano.

Fig 4. Possible defensive switch opportunity after missed poach leads to poor positioning

Instead, the Ozone defenders stick with their original matchups, and Fury gets a big gainer throw to Romano.

(4b) Improved defensive spacing on the recovery

Finally, there are many instances of initiating person defense where the defenders movement path is important. We often teach “casting the net” - where a defender should move in a way that prevents a pass rather than taking the fastest route to their offender. This is most often seen in as a mark or in zone defense, but also applies in many person defense situations such as after switches or during recovery after a poach.

In this instance, as Ozone #15 Travaglini recovers to to her original matchup (the far Fury handler), she was smart enough to choose a path that was not directly at her defender, but a path that puts her in between the thrower and receiver sooner (yellow path below). Unfortunately, she probably should have been more aggressive in this adjustment, as the thrower still has the time/space to reach her offender before she can recover. If Travaglini had been a bit more aggressive, taking the green path rather than the yellow, she may have been able to better defend the pass, or even make the thrower chose another option.

Fig 5. When moving to cover an offender tightly, it is important to move in a path that first gets in the throwing lane, then closes the gap with the offender.

The point ends with the far Fury handler, Romano, throwing a mostly-unmarked huge upwind huck to #51 Claire Desmond. This huck was picture perfect, hitting the receiver in stride, and especially impressive going upwind.

In summary, I’ve broken down ~20 seconds of the Fury vs. Ozone semifinals game through four different aspects.

1. Fury’s static ho-stack play, which involved clearing offenders near the disc to the far side of the field, and filling a cutter into the vacated space. This demonstrates fantastic offensive fundamentals, and also shows a lot of confidence in their throwers by attacking the break side as a primary option.
2. Fury’s handler spacing after the play hurts their downfield continuation options1. The initial thrower, Chang, pushes downfield and clogs any throwing lanes Kaylor may have had - and also ends up very close (within < 5 yards) to the next reset handler. This spacing making a reset likely and giving the defense an improved chance at getting a block.2
3.  Because the close proximity, and opposite movement directions, of the two primary Fury reset handlers, Ozone had a great opportunity to make a “mini-bracket”. They could have performed an on-the-fly switch, which may have set them up better to defend both the backfield reset and the downfield cut/clear. Instead, the far defender simply ‘helps’ for a step with the backfield reset, leaving her offender open for a large yardage (yet extremely difficult and perfectly executed) throw.
4. Ozone defender #15 Kate Travaglini attempts a smart poach - she’s defending a non-threatening third reset handler on the far side of the field and she helps towards the middle of the field and nearly defends the large upfield throw to #8 Nancy Sun. However, some missed defensive opportunities resulting from this play eventually lead to her offender throwing an unmarked upwind huck for the score. I pointed out two ways Ozone could have recovered from this missed poach

• By switching defenders - leaving Travaglini to mark Sun (the defender she was trying to poach block) and #22 Seville moving to defender Fury handler Romano. This may have helped because Travaglini’s position and momentum left her closer to the new thrower, and further from her original defender than Seville. Switching may have left the thrower unmarked for another ~0.5-1.0 s, but would have put defenders in proper positions faster overall.
• By taking a more aggressive line of recovery - moving into the potential throwing path earlier. This would have made the continuation throw to Romano more difficult, or given the defender an opportunity for a block. Travaglini showed her defensive intelligence by not moving in a straight line to her defender, but her line may not have been aggressive enough and leaves just enough room for the pass and eventual scoring throw.

Thanks to ultiworld for their commitment to making ultimate games accessible to fans and to Mike Lawler for his awesome blog which introduced me to this clip. If you have any comments on this clip / post / blog, please contact me on twitter @dry5.

1. I admit that this spacing may have been a conscious/coached choice. I haven’t analyzed this whole game yet, but it’s possible that this strategy was effective going upwind - throwing the disc downfield, then getting it back to your handlers (who are usually better throwers) for quicker movement as opposed to larger yarder gains.

2. If you want more insight into Fury’s reset movement, check out this awesome breakdown here: https://www.vibby.com/watch?vib=QJUG-1smQ