We go back through our Tuesday Tips archive to pull out a series of articles that address one of the foundational elements of competitive ultimate.
July 9, 2019 by Ultiworld in Opinion with 0 comments
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One of the staples of competitive ultimate is the utilization of a reset system. Whether it’s the first week of teaching a class of freshmen rookies or trying to step up from recreational pickup to a more organized team, new players very quickly come to recognize the critical value of being able to retain the disc high in the stall count by delivering a short pass to a nearby handler.
Cutting down on reset turnovers improves your team’s offensive efficiency and prevents dangerous fast-break counter attacks. But as the stall count rises, defenses are primed to key in on the backfield space to deny dump options. To beat this trap, it helps to have a variety of moves and throws in your bag of tricks.
In service of that aim, we’ve gone back through the Tuesday Tips archives to pull out some of our best reset advice.
AJ Klopfenstein on Handler Wrap Movement
First things first, it helps to set up a reset system that your handling corps knows and understands. Better yet, run a system that allows any player on the field to cycle through the same set of cuts depending on their positioning so you get your entire roster involved in recognizing and running reset patterns. AJ Klopfenstein lays out one such system for use in a vertical stack offense. It’s a progression of looks that will be familiar to many high-level players, but that Klopfenstein calls the Handler Wrap.
Bryce Merrill on Getting Open Upline (Part 1, Part 2)
One of the key tenets of the Handler Wrap movement (as well as many other reset systems) is to attack upline to generate advantageous power position for your handlers. In a two-part series earlier this year, Bryce Merrill, head coach of both BYU CHI (D-I Men’s) and Salt Lake City Elevate (Club Women’s), goes into great detail describing the advantages of resetting to the upline space, some fundamental rules for how to successfully set up these cuts, and the tactics for getting open when you attack upfield.
Will Sun with 12 Sideline Reset Moves
In one of our most read Tuesday Tips articles of all time, guest author Will Sun presented a series of gifs to highlight a variety of different handler moves to employ specifically in situations where a thrower is trapped on the sideline. Whether successfully squeezing open in the upline space as Merrill preaches or simply creating small separation to get the disc off the line, these examples show many of the myriad ways handlers have devised to deal with this particular trouble spot. You’re sure to able to find something new to add to your dump cutting repertoire.
Alex Rummelhart on Throwing Reliable Resets
It won’t matter how open a reset is if you aren’t prepared to throw to it. Long-time Tuesday Tips contributor Alex Rummelhart knows that a successful dump cut is only half the battle. There are often multiple options developing simultaneously that a thrower needs to recognize and prioritize. There are ideal pivoting patterns and throwing shapes. Revisit Rummelhart’s step-by-step process for throwing a reliable reset.
Keith Raynor on Fixing Common Reset Errors
So you’ve implemented a team-wide reset system, practiced specific short cuts and throws, and drilled them in a variety of different reset scenarios in training. Are you still failing to gain advantages or suffering from too many turns while in your dump set? Keith Raynor takes his coach’s eye to diagnosing some common problem areas and provides advice on how to correct them.
SUBSCRIBER BONUS: Ari Jackson on Initiating and Attack through Resets
Brute Squad’s two-time national champion head coach Ariel Jackson is one of the game’s most innovative thinkers. Over the past couple years, he has been sharing his unconventional ideas with Ultiworld subscribers through his Notes from a Contrarian Coach column. One place he thinks the sport has stagnated is in the common view of dumps as merely a way to earn a fresh stall count. Check out his argument for instead turning your resets into a primary method of attack.
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