Taking a closer look at the offense that has been best-in-class for multiple seasons.
September 19, 2024 by Matt Fazzalaro in Analysis with 0 comments
Tricks of the Trade is a new series dedicated to unpacking the strategies and skills that make for great ultimate.
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Since 2022, Washington DC Truck Stop have been far and away the team to beat. After skating through the bracket at the US Open, the Mighty Trucks1 look like the favorites to add another star on the back of their jerseys. While this year’s edition of Truck Stop is stacked with athletes and throwers feared all over the division, it is once again the mechanics of the offense (rather than simply the talent) that has r/ultimate, discord, and slack channels across the country buzzing.
The Truck Stop offense seems like kind of a controlled chaos at first glance. Chaotic for defenders to try to predict and hinder, but controlled for those inside of it who can see past the noise. In hopes of seeing past the chaos, I’ll be choosing a few aspects of the sometimes inscrutable offense that has been crafted to perfection in our nation’s capital to analyze and explain.
Starting the Truck
Let’s start by analyzing a few of Truck Stop’s pull plays. At its core, the most basic goal of a pull play is to start to begin downfield movement by passing to a player who is not in the handler set. As pull plays become more advanced however, it is not only about getting the disc to your initiating cutter, but it is also about setting up other players to be viable options later in the point. Truck do an excellent job of this because it seems the first thought and action of every pull play is less about a single player getting open and more about several players creating space and waiting to strike. Truck Stop cutters are intentional: either intentionally active or intentionally patient, and their modes shift depending on the position of the offense. This leads to a type of decisiveness that whisks the disc down the field and towards the end zone in very few throws. Check out what I mean below.
this year’s jerseys are an homage to the nostalgic ‘90s movie franchise ↩
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