Playing smart (as opposed to "playing dumb", I suppose)

I'm all about corporate management buzzwords and cliches. Think outside the square, paradigm shift (personal favourtie - it means "trend"), touching base, taking ownership of the problem, delivering in real-time, etc etc etc. Brilliant to use as filler in 3,000 word essays when you only have 1,900 words of meaningful material, as long as you know what they mean. But the only one that I've actually taken from my Mickey Mouse degree and applied to real life is "work smarter, not harder."

Applied it on the ultimate field, anyway. I still manage to use the phrase 'paradigm shift' in conversation around once a week.

For those of you who haven't met me in person, I'm not exactly a definition of athlete. Despite being quite tall, I'm very slow and unfit, but for every second I'm playing I'm thinking ahead on what to do next. Quite often I'm athletically outmatched by my direct opponent, so I simply need to be smarter in what I'm doing.

A few scenarios for you.

1) Marking the dump. I usually position myself between the dump and the up-the-line cutting path because I see that as the most threatening option. My eyesight will be directed at the ground halfway between the dump and the thrower, so I can keep both in my peripheral vision. Even if the dump is floating around, I typically don't bother "switching on" until the thrower turns to look at the dump.

2) Cutting in. If, for reasons not known to me, I'm playing upfield against a marker that's much faster than me, I'll generally hang about in the stack and not do a lot other than look like I'll cut any second. With any kind of luck, my marker will poach off me. And as soon as they do, or even turn their head to see if it's possible, I take off. If they go in, I go deep. If they go deep, I go in.

3) Positioning on a deep throw. I learned this off Boothy in 2006, but didn't really refine it until late last year after watching this bloke and also seeing how well Amanda did it. When running with the flight of the disc, I always keep myself between the disc and the defender - about six of seven steps behind the disc and about two or three metres to the side the disc is going to fade to. As mentioned previously, I'm not exactly easier for a springy defender to step around with ease - they generally need to take three or four steps, but with one step of mine in the same direction, they often need to add more. If I position myself right, I end up taking an uncontested catch just above head height, out in front of me.

4) Marking a deep cutter. This works quite well at an intermediate level, but it wouldn't fly in advanced level (ie: Regionals/Nationals). Whenever I'm marking someone deepish, I'll always take quick glances back at the disc to check two things - who has the disc, and who is likely to get it next. If I know neither of those people can huck reliably, I'm likely to let the cutter go as deep as they want without me following. It also results in wasted energy for the cutter - they run fifteen metres out and fifteen back in, while I've been doing nothing.

5) Endzone defence. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but if you pay enough attention to the body language of the offence, you can generally tell who is going to be the first option cut. Easiest way - who is making eye contact with the thrower before the disc is in. Other ways - who is turned to face the open side space, who is the most "jittery" (so excited about getting to score that they're struggling to hold back an early cut), and whose name gets called by the coach on the sideline. Poaching off your mark onto the first option, even for a couple of seconds, is enough to shut them down and force teams into a state of improvisation, rather than the drill they've practiced at training repeatedly, and this is where you can generate turns.

6) Endzone offence. I'll let you in on a secret. If I'm in the endzone, I ain't the one planning to catch the goal. I've found it amazing how many teams will instinctively see the tallest person as the biggest threat. I'll always start from the middle of the endzone, a bit towards the back. I never cut first, instead I'll drift towards the breakside back corner and hope that two defenders follow. If they do, someone is poached and there's space in open side. If they don't, I'm open for a hammer.


I always pay a lot of attention to my opponents when I'm on the sideline and pick up on their mannerisms - fakes they fall for, patterns in their cutting, bad habits on defence and favourite throws to use. Then use them to my advantage. Muahahahaha.