Ultimate Frisbee Plays

When to Use Plays in Ultimate Frisbee

Once the disc is in motion and players are "in flow" players respond to rapidly changing conditions. Plays are rarely called one the disc is moving. But there are a few times in a game where the offense and defense are not yet in motion. These are times when plays can be useful to bring a little more order to the offense and to open up planned spaces on teh ultimate field that may not occur otherwise. 

When to Use Plays

• Receiving the pull
• A Stopped Disc situation
• Bringing the disc to the sideline
• Near the endzone
• After a timeout

This page is a work in progress. More play diagrams and descriptions will be coming soon!

Pull Plays

Pull plays are often used to get the offense moving. The advantage of a pull play is that you can open up large spaces for cutters that might not ordinarily exist naturally from flow once the disc is moving.

Common Objectives of Pull Plays

• Isolate a specific cutter
• Provide two viable options for the thrower
• Ensure that there is only one continuation option after the first pass
• Get the disc to a good attacking position. (This could be the center or the break side of the field, depending on your strategy.)

The Wheel

The front of the stack goes deep. The Back of the stack cuts in.

This common play takes advantage of the fact that the defender on the person at the back of the stack often starts behind their player. The wheel motion forces the defender at the back of the stack to choose to follow their offensive player in (thus clearing out the defender likely to be able to help defend a deep cut). Or the defender can choose to help with the deep cut and that leaves the in cut wide open.

This play is a simple, but effective ultimate frisbee play for a vertical stack offense.

Fury

This play goes by many names. But I have heard it called "Fury" after the team who made this play popular.

This is a horizontal stack play. It is best run after a centering pass to the center handler. The break side handler cuts upline and the far break side cutter cuts toward the disc.

The purpose of this play is to get the disc to the break side while gaining yards. The receiver will also have a side open lane to look at and there should be little clogging on the break side after the play. 

Things to look out for: Players need to know what the force is to run this effectively. the timing of the clearing cut and the in cut are important, otherwise the break side cutter won't be open. the clearing cut needs to happen very quickly. The clearing cut is also a viable option and puts a handler in the pwoer position. You should take advantage of this occasionally if the clearing cut stops being covered if you run this play several time in a row.

Diamonds

This simple but effective horizontal stack play ensures that the thrower has a break side option and a deep option a the first options.

If those are covered, then the person who went or faked deep is usually open on the open side underneath. and the person who went break side can become a deep option.

This dynamic play allows a good balance of having predictable cuts for the offense with the freedom to respond to what the defense is giving you.

Like Fury, this is best done when the disc is in the center of the field

Counter Plays

Because a pull play is run every time your offense receives the disc, you plays can become predictable.

After running some basic plays, you may run variations to try to trick the defense if they seem to be catching onto and starting to contest your main plays.

Variations can include:

• Changing the cutter. Or position from where the main cut comes from.
• Having a change of direction in the main cut. For example, the cutters in a Wheel play could change direction halfway through their cut. This means that the break side cutter will give and under cut and the open side cutter will give a deep cut.

Stopped Disc Plays

A "stopped disc" is when you need to put the disc back in play. These are all situations in which the offense and defense has time to set up and prepare. In these situations it is more difficult for the first cutter to get open. A stopped disc play can help to prevent clogging (too many cutters cutting) and it helps the thrower to know in advance where the cutters are going. Many stopped disc plays are the same as pull plays. But it is helpful to have plays specifically for a sideline situation when the disc is coming in out of bounds.

When to use a Stopped Disc Play

• After a time out
• When the disc has gone out of bounds
• When there is a turnover in the endzone and the opposing team is bringing the disc to the front of the endzone

Common Stopped Disc Plays

Wheel - for a vertical stack offense. Works best from teh center third of the field. But it can work from the sideline depending on where the stack sets up and the skills of the thrower.

Fury - for a horizontal stack offense when the disc is near the center of the field.

Berkely and Fill - great for getting the disc off the sideline. the "fill" cut can come from a variety of places to keep this play unpredictable.

How to Choose a Play

You're going to run a play similar to a pull play or endzone play.

There are several considerations:

1. Where is the disc horizontally?

Are you in the center third of the field? Are you trapped on the sideline? Your position on the field and the wind direction are factors in what types of plays will be easiest to execute for the thrower.

2. How close to the endzone are you?

Plays that set up deep cuts are not going to be as useful if you are running out of space.

3. Who has the disc?

If a stopped disc play is from a timeout, it's possible that one of your weaker throwers has the disc. I like to have the thrower decide what play to call after a timeout. Because the most important thing is that the play generates a cut that the thrower is comfortable throwing to.

Endzone Plays

Many teams have a system of cutting specific to when they are near the endzone. In addition, there may be set plays for a stopped disc situation near the endzone. These will be different than pull plays and other stopped disc plays because there is no threat of deep throws and there is less space to work with. A common theme of the endzone is figuring out how to keep players out of the way (create space) while not allowing the defense to poach (leave their offensive player and play defense in the cutting lanes) 

Zipper

This is a classic play when you have the disc near the center of the field. The front two cutters split and the cutter who is third in the stack cuts straight to the player with the disc.

This play works because the defender of the third person in the stack will rarely be positioned to defend this cut if it happens quickly.

Experienced teams may try to leave a poacher in the space where this cut would occur.

Berkely and Fill

This is a play for when you are near the sideline and near the endzone.

The reset handler cuts upline. The front of the stack cuts to where the reset handler was. 

This play works because the mark will often try to prevent the up the line throw and that makes the reset swing a very easy throw. Alternatively, if teh up the line cut is open, you can score!

Iso

Very simple. The person with the disc is looking at one player, usually the front of the stack, to get open. 

The rest of the stack will try to create more space for the isolated player to work with. And that player has time to make as many moves as they want to create separation from their defender.

This play works because it is nearly impossible to defend all possible cuts in a small space. It works especially well if the thrower has a large arsenal of possible throws.

To defend an iso, teams will try to pull in extra defenders into the space. Poached players need to be aware when this happens and get to an open space where the thrower has the option to get them the disc.

Mastering Your Plays and Leveling Up

Now that you understand some basic ultimate frisbee plays, here's how to get to work implementing and perfecting them! 

Make a Team Playbook

Instead of using the names above, rename your plays with unique names that only your team will understand.

Creating a team playbook will give your players something to refer to so that they can learn the names of your plays and what they should be doing. A simple google doc can be an easy way to make a playbook and allow you to make modifications and add notes.

For a digital playbook that allows you to show movement or multiple steps of a play, Playspedia and Ultiplays are both good options.

Leveling Up Your Frisbee Plays Game IQ

1. The first objective is that everyone knows what routes to run when different plays are called.
2. The next level is that your handlers understand the basic strategy of when to call various types of plays
3. The third level of understanding is when all players understand the intricacies of timing required to enable the best chance of good separation from the defense in the spaces where you want the disc to go.

Common Challenges with Ultimate Frisbee Plays

Having plays and a playbook can help organize your offense. However, don't be surprised when you run into the following challenges.

A challenge for every team is to know what to do when a play breaks down. Throwers need to recognize when their designated cutters aren't open and start looking for other options early rather than getting fixated on what "should" be happening

A second challenge is to have continued flow after the initial play is complete. In order for an offense to function properly, cutters need to be able to read the spaces on the field and the positioning of their defender to find the next route to getting open. For this reason, I recommend NOT relying on plays early on in player development. Plays are a great addition to a team, but are no substitute for player Game IQ.

Practicing Your Ultimate Frisbee Plays

A 10 Pull scrimmage is a great way to practice pull plays.

A 10 Pull scrimmage means that your D line starts with the disc every point. In a ten pull scrimmage, the defense typically gets one possession to try to score if they generate a turnover.

If you have separate O and D lines, the D line will benefit more from practicing plays from a stopped disc position. In this case, you can do a 10 pull scrimmage, but instead of the D line receiving the disc on pull, they start with a stopped disc in various positions on the field.