By adapting their throws and cuts to Queensland's windy conditions, the Firetails played their way to a bronze medal
January 11, 2025 by Sion "Brummie" Scone in Analysis
Sion “Brummie” Scone of Flik ultimate gives his analysis from filmed games at USAU Club Nationals. This content is available for free courtesy of Flik!
While not quite the extreme wind seen in Molly Brown vs Phoenix, the wind was strong enough to have a big impact on the playing styles seen at the 2024 World Ultimate Championships – one game between Canada and Great Britain’s open squads even descended into a game of 500s. Rather than trying to fight the wind, however, Australia’s women’s team, the Firetails, used it to their advantage.
High Releases
The most obvious way the wind impacted the Firetails’ offense is in the types of throws they employed, adapting to the wind conditions by bringing more high-release throws into their playing style.
When playing downwind, high releases are much easier to execute as the disc will naturally drop as the air pushes it down. In contrast, when throwing into wind, the wind gives the disc lift, which is why we often see throws rise uncontrollably when the wind is strong. The Firetails used this to their advantage by popping short range passes over the mark – and over face-guarding defenders:
You will also notice in these clips how the Firetails often chose not to have a reset positioned behind the disc. This is a philosophical option in that it forces throwers to be more aggressive, take on marks, and make ground with every throw, rather than always relying on a safer option. The impact of this approach over a season – or longer – is a team of extremely skilled throwers capable of finding tiny gaps in defensive coverage, and shows how the weather conditions impact the optimal spacing of players on the pitch. In this first clip, Caroline Ma and Georgia Egan-Griffiths play some give-and-go in the tightest of windows before Cat Phillips scores:
Taller throwers also benefit from an extended reach and release points; Ma’s defender has her hands up, but Ma can still release the disc over the top to find Egan-Griffiths. Face-guarding defenders make these types of throws easier to execute, too:
When executing these high release passes, note how there’s very little wind up – since almost no power is required – and the key element is the speed of release, being able to get the disc out before the marker can react.
I reached out to Caro who said, “The high release playstyle came about quite naturally due to the fields being pretty directly upwind downwind and years of chemistry playing together, but also because Colombia and Canada played very good defense on the openside unders which forced us to be more creative on the break side, which G (Georgia Egan-Griffiths) and I especially just ended up using over and over again because it kept working.”
Low Releases
What if you want to sneak a pass under a marker’s arm? How will the strong tail wind impact the disc’s flight? A quick word on throwing mechanics with two examples – the first is Egan-Griffiths with a short backhand to an upline cut. A flat throw would be pushed down, so she chooses instead to release the disc with the outside edge up (“OI”) and lots of torque, so the disc doesn’t fly in a straight line, it flies in a curve, and is therefore less prone to being pushed down:
This time it’s Canada’s Reve Chan with an even more obvious example, thrown low to high as well as with OI:
Away Cuts
The other major way the wind impacts a team’s offensive structure is the relative distance of cutters from handlers. When playing downwind, it becomes a lot easier to throw for distance, so hitting cutters deep is more achievable. That said, it can be hard to control the flight of the disc; particularly when the disc is in front of the receiver, it tends to pick up speed. As a result, to minimize the chance of overthrowing their targets, we saw Firetails throwing quite late and to receivers already very far from the disc.
In this first example, Lucy Deller is nearly in the end zone when Cat Phillips releases the disc from near her own brick mark:
It’s worth paying attention to the curve on the disc: flat throws tend to bounce in the wind, while those with a definitive curve on them tend to bounce less and are therefore easier to read – and to control as a thrower. Throws with an outside-in edge and with the nose slightly up also tend to slow, whereas flat throws can tend to pick up speed (unless the underside of the disc is shown to the wind; I’m assuming a pure tail wind here).
Take this next clip as an example: Ma throws with a clear OI edge which both slows the disc down and the helps it stay further from the defender, resulting in an easy goal for Deller:
While the camera angle isn’t great to show the flight path, this next throw is an example of an extreme curve: Cat Phillips starts her cut to Caroline Ma’s right hand side and runs in a fairly straight line down the middle of the pitch. Ma’s forehand loops out to the right hand side of the field, over Phillips’ right shoulder as she turns her head to look for it – slowing as it reaches the peak of its height – then picks up speed before being caught in Phillips’ left hand. A disc that travels in an arc will take longer to arrive at its target than one thrown in a straight line, so this is another method of slowing the flight of the disc to allow the receiver a better chance of making the catch:
A word from Caro: “Our throwers in Aus also just tend to favor an OI huck/away throw style, so we have a lot of practice reading those types of throws knowing they will likely have a fade towards the breakside as it comes into the receiver.”
These next two examples are lasers, thrown hard and fast to receivers very far away, but the edge on the disc makes them slow towards the end of their flight, giving the receivers a relatively comfortable catch. First up is Egan-Griffiths throwing a perfectly weighted huck to Olivia Carr:
And here’s Deller with a bullet OI forehand to Alexandra Paterson. In this example, the curve on the disc also helps to keep it further from defenders, who have no chance at a bid:
Finally, a rare exception: a disc thrown in front of the receiver which slows down and sits up nicely; the definitive outside-in edge on the disc is clearly visible. This is a superb pass that’s much harder to execute than it might appear. Notice how much closer the receiver is to the thrower than in the other examples, though:
Under Cuts
Of course, if all your cutters are positioned further downfield and their defenders have to respect those deep cuts, it means they’ll be much further from the disc when they start their in cuts. In both of these examples, the cutters are offscreen when the disc goes up so the throws are executed with pace, allowing the offense to gain the most possible field position on each occasion. Notice how these throws differ from the others we’ve discussed, as each is thrown flat and fast, gaining 20-25m on a single under cut:
Conclusions
Effectively, this is an offense focused on breaking marks pushed to the absolute max, focused on hitting tiny windows most defenses can’t cover. Watch back those clips above and you’ll see fantastic defensive positioning, but the areas where the Firetails catch the disc aren’t normally a target because they are usually too hard to hit. With the tail wind, suddenly they become a more legitimate target, particularly when thrown with an outside-in edge to help control the flight of the disc. A tail wind also means cutters can be further from the disc while still being legitimate deep threats, allowing the offense bigger gains on the unders with more conventional flat passes.
I’ll leave you with a few examples of how these principles fit into the larger picture of an offense. The Firetails use a variety of techniques to score here, including some fast tempo movement against poaches and a few high releases to break down the defense:
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that this is the final game of a week-long tournament in hot conditions. Switching the focus of the offense to use throws to hit undefended spaces means less running for the cutters on the downwind points, something that helps to keep them fresh for the upwind points. Watch the winning point in the game for bronze and you’ll see a team capable of hitting all areas of the field with a wide variety of throws, something that makes them very difficult to defend; in fact, the Firetails didn’t give up a single break in the bronze playoff:
