¶ Drill 30: Vertical Stack Running and Cutting Advanced
Skills Focussed:
Other skills for which it can be used:
- CUTTING: In-cut (3.1), Deep-cut (3.2), Clearing Space (3.6), Timing (3.3), Handler cut (3.9)
- MARKING: Marking Thrower (4.1), Marking non-thrower (4.2)
Concepts to know before doing the drill:
- Vertical stack basic
- Basic Rules of Ultimate
- Basic Throwing with pivot and Catching
- Open and break side
- Different positions in offense
- Maintaining force
- Basic marking for thrower and non-thrower
Drill Focus:
- Cutting patterns with continuous movement and dangerous clears.
- Handler-cutting Switching
- Moving the stack upfield
- Setting up the stack
Set-up:
- Players: 14 (7 offense, 7 defense).
- Formation: Offense sets up a vertical stack with two handlers (one with disc, one supporting) and five cutters aligned with 3m spacing.
- Initial repetitions should be done without the defenders.
Drill-Flow:
- Cutters initiate runs.
- When a cutter catches the disc: Option 1: Dumps to handler → continues clearing. Option 2: Fakes dump → stays as handler, triggering handler rotation. The far-side handler moves into the stack from the closed side as a cutter.
- The stack should move upfield (run 2). This is the responsibility of the anchor. Anchor should back up, such that she’s 10 to 15 meters away from the throwers again.
- This drill continues until the group has reached the other side of the field.
- Add defense once everyone has the running pattern down.
Coaching Points:
- Everyone needs to pay attention to what’s going on and keep track of their responsibilities. When cuts are coming in at a high pace (that is, there’s an in-cutter roughly every three seconds) then things are going well.
- Encourage team to try out all the options that are available to the vertical stack. Only in this way can the team optimally adapt to any situation.
- Handler Switch: Once a cutter becomes a handler, they stay a handler.
- Handlers should regulalry dump the disc between each other.
- When defense is added, many players start doing entirely different things. They are tempted to fall back into old habits. Encourage them to stick with the system.
Progression/ Regression:
- Once the offense has the pattern down, allow defense to also make switches.
- Introduce the concept of rotating stack: A stack generally has a side with defenders (the open side) and a side without defenders (the closed side). It helps if the stack turns the side without defenders toward the thrower. (add figure) By doing so, it becomes easier for the thrower to throw an inside break pass to anyone in the stack.
- If the disc is near the line and if the stack is then still in the middle, it can be hard to reach. The trick here is to rotate the stack (up to 30 degrees) toward the thrower making it easier for the thrower to throw inside break pass to anyone in the stack.
Source: Page 32 & 33, 135, 136, 137, 138 UTM