Hucking Upwind

PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANT than handler movement, upwind offenses must cut for, look at, and attempt long throws. While obviously a hindrance to completion percentage, the wind actually decreases the opportunity cost of a single long turnover. In other words, this isn’t no-wind where you’d be giving up prime offense for a single glory shot, but rather an attempt to score a valuable long gain when the alternative is a larger number of more-difficult-than-normal passes.*⁴

Cutters contribute to the choking effect on offenses by failing to cut deep. By saving their personal energy, they are taking away the offensive threat. This guarantees that there are no easy single-throw goals, but it also allows perceptive defenders to poach and help against other players. Worse, it changes a team with two deep cutters and two under-cutters into a team with four under-cutters. There isn’t enough space for all of those cuts, and players will be wasting position or even placing their defenders in closer free help situations.

On the other hand, teams that attack deep when possible against the wind give themselves shots at the upwind endzone. They also have the advantage of being able to catch wayward discs as upwind hucks float to strange places. Crucially, their turnovers will be in the best possible positions on the field. Thrower-led offenses often find the touch throws needed to initiate a cut are easier into the wind as well. Many upwind goals proceed in a “field → huck → turnover → quick turn → endzone O” pattern against D-teams that aren’t ready to be aggressive on their own.

*⁴ This might be a good time to use some math – if every pass the O throws is at a 90% completion rate, the more passes that have to be thrown, the higher the likelihood of a turnover becomes (.9^n). And that average completion percentage only goes down the stronger the wind you are facing.

Revolver’s Cassidy Rasmussen hucks into the wind during the 2012 USAU Club Championships Final in windy Sarasota. Photo: Alex Fraser — UltiPhotos.com

For throwers, the decision of ‘what is a good huck’ can vary drastically between wind levels. There are good hucks in strong wind that would be terrible decisions in a thrower’s wind. There are impetuous huck decisions in no wind that every player (regardless of throwing skill) should be taking in extreme wind.

It is impossible to plan for and drill all of these situations, so this is where good coaches and captains make adjustments during games. This obviously also includes zone offense: if your zone O does not have a way to score in three throws, then you resign yourself to long, difficult upwind battles when the defense brings deep defenders in closer to crowd the play. Keep in mind that the best adjustment might not be an announcement to the team but rather a reminder to a particular player that the odds favor taking the huck when they have it.

Tacking

THE STYLE OF upwind play that puts all of these pieces together is called ‘tacking’, inspired by the sailing maneuver of advancing upwind through a series of crosswind movements. Assuming the standard downwind force, teams should look to move the disc to the breakside (while losing as few yards as possible) to set up situations where the defense has to choose between allowing big throws or allowing easier, yardage gaining throws to the live side. The offense then tacks back to the force side, always looking for big throw or break throw opportunities.

In sailing, the plan is to move in a zig-zag. In windplay, the zig-zag is not intentional. Instead, this pattern of disc movement is a consequence of an offense taking available yards with the force and then occasionally finding opportunities to break or huck when the defense presents them.

Individual players can help this by moving the disc rapidly away from the force line, being aggressive with deep throws on the break side of the field, looking for dishy and YAC opportunities, and continuing to cut deep even for difficult throws.

For coaches, it is common and smart to put strong throwers onto an offense going upwind. Curvy, finesse throwers often struggle more than do gritty, powerful throwers. Additionally, care needs to be taken to keep some dedicated deep-cutters on the field at the risk of choking the offense. You can marginally deprioritize speed in upwind offense, since deep throws are less likely to outpace the cutter. Lastly, it can be helpful to ensure that you have height in your handler group. Because the defense may want to attack deep quickly after a turnover, those handlers will be responsible for more deep defense with less time to switch with taller cutters than in other situations.