Our newest series on coaching explores coaching concepts from multiple angles. Our third entry examines analyzing the opponents to see how their mental game is holding up.
September 10, 2025 by Ben Wiggins in Opinion
Welcome to Coach Considerations, a new series at Ultiworld where we share coaching concepts and ideas from the perspective of multiple expert coaches. There are so many different viewpoints on how to teach and strategize in ultimate, and while that lack of centralized consensus can create challenges in finding the best practices, it does create a space where various opinions can be formed, refined, and tested. We’ve invited Ben Wiggins to be the primary coach for our first series of articles, so each issue will center around his thoughts and then we’ll share responses to his viewpoints from several excellent, extremely experienced coaches.
Reading Your Opponents (So The Athletes Don’t Have To)
The emotional rollercoaster of competition is something that I want my team to really, deeply understand only half of. Mental strength, focusing on controllables, regulating intensity and nervousness appropriately — these are worth the time to teach every player, hopefully earlier in their career than they might really need them. But what I want to talk about here is something else: what emotions are important to read not just in yourself, but in your opponent? Players typically don’t benefit from focusing on their opponents’ emotions, but the team might if the coach can.
This is germane for coaches because it is an area of sports psychology that we can take up without needing the entire team to lose their own focus. From the sideline, I don’t have to step out and throw a forehand, so I have a bit more mental energy to spend on the other team. No matter how many times I have preached truthfully that ‘What they do doesn’t matter’, I do think there is a place for a coach to pick up on cues about an opponent’s (or opposing team leader’s) emotional state that might help you give your team an edge.
Before getting into what signs to spot, a quick note: all mannerisms are culturally dependent, so some of the specific motions and stances that I associate with emotions are learned from a very North American-sports context. I’m reporting here the ones that seem most applicable to situations also in Asia, South America, and Europe, but your mileage will vary. A headshake doesn’t always mean no, but these examples might still be useful as the kinds of things you can look for.
Emotional State Indicators
Here are some of the things you might notice about your opponent that could tell you they are veering out of their emotional comfort zone.
They’re not interested in playing defense. This happens more than you think, especially for teams that are higher-ranked or experienced teams playing early in long tournaments. I’m looking for players on the sideline with arms crossed or facing each other (and not the field) and talking when their team is defending. On the field, it’s the last three steps between guarding a cutter and then setting a mark after their catch. If those are fast and hips are dropping, then they want it. Slow and high? They’re just hoping for a drop.
Thinking for a moment from the offensive perspective when you see this: this is a great time to remind your team that you don’t have to create scores, just keep the disc in your hands and hit the first open receiver you see.
They’re confused. Like any strong team, we’ve tried several different defensive looks in the first half, and so our opponents are starting to look both ways several times before crossing the street. The on-field motion of a thrower using a stall count or two while rapidly switching their vision to different sides of the field is a pretty good sign; they don’t know what’s coming, and what’s more, they don’t feel prepared for it. The best handling groups don’t care what their opponents run; they will figure it out. But if a team feels that they need this information quickly, then whatever you are doing is working.
On the sideline, I am looking for two players next to each other both pointing at the field to different places; it’s like a conversation but the subtext is, “I think I know what is happening, can someone validate my hypothesis please?” I know some coaches like to hit the “enhance” button and use this as a sign that the specific defense at that moment is the right one to beat this team, but I have always seen these as signs that the point-after-point confusion is growing. For my next person-D, this is a time to grab one handler defender and ask for a weird, early poach. It’s a cheap way to make a person set look like some new zone, and the other team is primed to worry.
They’re tired. It’s easiest to see this in timeouts and half-times…is nobody getting throws in? Are there more sitters than chairs? People who generally wear extra layers taking them off (in some imagined world, the loss of a few grams will be an energy boost!). Now, tired teams don’t necessarily play worse, and they sometimes play with the right amount of care over their decision-making. What I am hoping for is a chance to remind my (probably also tired) team that if they keep working hard then good things are likely to happen. Adding to that; those good things don’t come proportionately, and our opponents might make 3-4 mistakes in a row all at once, so we are never out of the game.
They’re afraid. Feeling nervous helps your performance, but feeling too nervous can tank you in the biggest moments. When that is starting to happen on the other roster, it can help your own optimism (we’ve almost got them!) and can help you to become more tactically aggressive. For years, the refrain of a team getting anxious was the loud, not-to-anyone “Come ON!” whether used after fortunate or unfortunate events. Lately, ‘Let’s GO’ has the same shouting-into-the-void feeling of a team hoping for something outside of themselves to help. It’s the yelling without direction, and the lack of individualization of comments, that tips it off for me, kind of like a child with a lot of nervous energy but nowhere to put it besides just wiggling or yelling.
This might be different than how fear manifests in everyday life as more pulling back and being less likely to act, but fear in an athletic environment (at least in my experience) has much more of this hyperactive quality, possibly because scared people try to recreate the actions that are culturally expected of them in that environment (and in athletics, that is more volume and motion, not less).
When I am looking at coaching decisions, I tend to look for fear in teams not playing deep enough into their rotation, especially early in games where they wouldn’t already have selected for good matchups. They’re worried about outcomes, not reading data. When I think a team might be afraid, that’s generally a time for increasing pressure to make difficult throws; you can do that by tightening onto easier resets or with marks that are straight up, which allow for easier breaks. But nothing seems easy when you’re afraid and all throws feel like break throws.
They’re selfish. This generally isn’t an entire team, but much more often a player or two who is trying to mesh team goals with personal goals like looking cool or racking up stats. My cues are things like wearing loud, non-team accessories or doing the cool walk off the field and letting their celebrating teammates bring energy to their own nonchalance. It’s an act, oftentimes, and that act means ‘look at how I am standing out from my team’. I’ve won serious club games (and tournaments!) by identifying a few players who couldn’t get this dual goal out of their playing style. I recall a particular player who (this isn’t a place to name names) had a love for the aesthetics of having the disc on the forehand sideline, pivot foot on the line and garishly stepping into out of bounds space to throw their pretty, killer forehand. That forehand repeatedly did kill one of the teams, just not the one they expected!
Emotions are real in sports. Probably the biggest reason that I think I can identify these emotions in other teams is that I have had these emotions myself; all of them, many times, over a long playing career where (hopefully) I moved past them. Your own empathetic quality as a coach can do something that none of your players likely have the time to do. I think legendary NBA coach Gregg Popovich was the one that said, ‘”A great player can be stupid or lazy or mean, but they can’t be two out of the three.” You don’t need to be perfect; a great player could be extremely hardworking and fun to play with even if they aren’t the smartest. But it is crucial to have MOST of your mental habits being excellent, and to avoid giving advantages to your opponents. By staying open to the emotions of your opponent, you can help to make decisions where you play in ways that accentuate their worst tendencies and win more games.
Coach Responses
We reached out to a network of great ultimate minds and leaders to get their thoughts on tracking the focus and comfort level of the opponent. Tiina Booth is one of the most experienced ultimate coaches around, with experience at club, college, and youth levels, and as the director of the National Ultimate Training Camp. Zack Kelly (neé Smith) has recently coached Seattle Sockeye and helped them return to the Club Championships.
Tiina Booth
“It’s the yelling without direction, and the lack of individualization of comments, that tips it off for me”
Ben is describing a disconnected sideline here, responding to fear with chaotic instructions. I have been on that sideline and my solution is to practice communicating at practice. This may feel like “another thing to do” and less important than skill and strategy development, but establishing a sideline protocol is fairly easy to implement. and has a high rate of ROI.
Split Sidelines are Non-negotiable
I understand the primal desire to be near your stuff at practice, a compelling force that must be addressed on day one. Players should be on both sidelines, spread out, following the action on the field. This means all the players, not just the bench.
I sometimes declare that the far sideline, the one away from your stuff, should always have more players than the home side. Players should not clump together because clumping often leads to gossiping, which leads to disconnection from your players who are relying on your help. I have also implemented a Two Point Rule at times, in which after two points, everyone not playing jogs across the field and switches sidelines.
Instructions Should Be Identical and Clear
I have heard from players that they know they should say something, but they don’t know what to say. That is on me. Team leaders need to put together a glossary that everyone learns and uses. Brainstorm a dozen terms, and expect to use roughly eight of them frequently. Most of these phrases/words will be used for the defense. Offensive cues will be focused on receivers as I have rarely found it effective to tell handlers what to do in terms of throws. I don’t want them listening for prompts. They should be developing independence and reliance on their own choices. Have I also screamed “no!” emphatically at a player looking frantically downfield for a receiver? Honestly, yes.
How to Practice These Skills
Skip over this next part if you think that using extra running to make a point is punitive and stupid. The rest of you come with me.
If you are in the first point of a scrimmage and the sidelines are not split and the instructions are vague, bring players in and have them run. It’s important to make clear that this is not out of anger, but to emphasize critical points. “Hey I liked the spacing on that point and how you kept the open side clear. Also I noticed that the sidelines were not where they need to be. Captains, bring them down to the far end zone for three minutes of sprints. Your choice. I will let you know when time is up. On the jog.”
By identifying a sideline as subpar, without anger and blame, you are setting expectations for the whole team and empowering each player to speak up when necessary. It is so satisfying to see players encourage each other to switch sidelines on their own and then work the sideline. This is when you know that your protocols have worked and most likely do not have to be revisited. You can check it off on your coach’s to-do list in the first two weeks of practice!
Supervising an active sideline is not the job of a coach. By the time you arrive at your first game, smart and consistent sideline communication should be the norm. It is easy to do, provides real game-time information and is an underutilized tool of competition.
Zack Kelly
10 years ago, Lou Burruss (a former teammate of Ben’s) wrote an article about his favorite sports book – Timothy Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis.
“[This book posits] a split mind with one branch in charge of intuitive, rapid judgements and the other in charge of slower, more analytical judgements…the Doing Mind and the Word Mind.”
To explain this, consider the example of practicing forehand throws with a partner. When you are working on this skill in a focused session, you are likely considering specific cues – the angle of your release, engaging your core, releasing high or low, etc. This work with the analytical mind can refine your forehand so that it feels easily repetitive and natural, something that doesn’t require thought in a competitive scenario. The more skills that seem natural to a player come gameday, the more relaxed they can be while making reads in each unique point.
That’s the ideal side of the spectrum. Whether it’s the first tournament of the season or the last, a team’s leadership is hopeful that the skills and drills the team has repetitively trained to that point are second nature. An individual person in this state could find themselves “in the zone”, while a full team of seven would be remarked as having fantastic on-field chemistry.
Ben is describing what a coach can do as a force of disruption to this mind utopia. Our opponent is listening to “Lofi Beats to Play Ultimate Frisbee and Relax to”, and we’re trying to be nails on a chalkboard. To expand on what he’s talking about, let’s borrow from poker to name the other end of the spectrum: tilt.
“Tilt refers to a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a suboptimal strategy, usually resulting in a player becoming overly aggressive.”
Early signs of a team being tilted can be:
- Individuals doing too much on either side of the disc.
- Lots of voices in huddles, especially those not in team leadership.
- Frantic feedback from the sideline. This sounds like communication with a concerned tone, often attempting to joystick teammates into what’s believed to be a perfect position or decision.
- Any other attempt by an individual to wrest control of a situation that’s impossible to control individually.
Outbursts, particularly within a team, are the tell tale sign of the ultimate form of this, being “fully tilted”.
Below are three strategies that I’ve found can contribute to an opponent playing with more of an analytical and emotional mind, to their detriment.
Offensively, I prefer to teach a style of play where players are put into commonly recurring situations that they can make simple reads out of. Ben has successfully convinced me to not care about offensive formations, and I’ve found offense can be boiled down to pattern recognition and solving problems with your teammates in loosely-defined ways. Teaching players to shrink the game down into simple conditions they can thrive in will allow them to chip away at opposing strategies in a way that can infuriate defensive players and coordinators.
Regarding energy, I specifically focus on not giving another team fuel to feed off of. Some teams, especially young ones, feed off of conflict. Games against those teams feel very adversarial, particularly during discussions after calls. I’ve found that to be unsustainable and if you can coach your team to be calm and nonreactive, the energy of those opponents burn out quickly like lighter fluid on a campfire. When you don’t give volatile opponents energy to consume, they’ll often find it from their teammates.
Defensively, I prefer to use the first half of a game as a fact-finding mission.
Quick soap box: as a coach you should spend as much or maybe more energy determining your team’s defensive identity as you do on offensive strategy. Offense can be beautiful to watch and a joy to participate in, and defense is often left with the scraps at the season arc and practice planning dinner tables. Depending on the make-up of the team and your player’s skills with respect to the division, you should be able to work with team leadership to develop a cohesive defensive strategy – the ideas that capture why your team plays defense a particular way and how it’s accomplished. And, that strategy should be flexible enough to meet the demands of any particular opponent you play. That probably means a greater focus on the individual skills required to play team defense, and less about details like which side a mark stands on or any particular gambit.
As a tactician, I’m spending the first half trying to determine the objective of my opponent. I’m spending little energy on match-ups, and even less on what formation they’re running. My attention is devoted to determining how my opponent wants to score and how their offensive system gets them to the endzone. Some questions I’m asking myself are:
- How do different match defense looks impact the opposition’s offensive flow?
- What is the default reaction to a variety of zone looks?
I’m willing to try a variety of different things in order to reach those answers. At the same time, I’m doing what Ben describes above – I’m looking to fight for control of the game’s pace by mixing and matching defensive strategies. I want my opponent to think more than play intuitively, and I want them to start to worry about where the gamble is coming from. Outside of unforced errors, a turnover at the elite level is often multiple points in the making. Speaking of risks, I’m very willing to take a chance trying something that may not be well practiced just to see the impact on the game. An added benefit here is that you have another tool in the arsenal for later, and sometimes you discover a skill in a player that you would otherwise have not known about.
It’s important here to measure success in a reasonable way. A healthy and resilient defensive mentality isn’t outcome oriented, especially in frisbee which is such an offensively dominated sport. Basing success on breaks or even generating a turn is a surefire way to tilt your own team. Think of your collective group as a boxer landing some early jabs before hitting with the haymaker. Note that sometimes you might find the haymaker early. If you do, I encourage you to take note of it for later and try something else. Halftime is the best checkpoint for an opponent to recenter and recalibrate to how a game is going. If you show your cards too early, your opponent will adjust.
My last note on this is to make sure your leadership is aligned on this approach. You have to balance defensive creativity and risk taking with the strategies and tactics that you’ve spent time practicing. Your team is likely filled with highly opinionated individuals that have a significant amount of experience. Make sure you’re on the same page and give players avenues to provide feedback in ways that make them feel heard and valued.
Go forth and create confusion, uncertainty, and chaos!
