This was the first time in a while that I watched a lot of club Nationals (mostly the Men’s Division). I attended in 2018 but was more just taking in the atmosphere than watching with a critical eye. I played in two local leagues, an open beach tournament, and Men's Sectionals this year after being almost exclusively in age-limited play since at least 2010 and noticed some differences, both strategically and culturally.
Wow, what a performance by Rhino in the finals. Everything worked, and everyone made plays. And other than maybe one or two of the long shots being somewhat contested, I don’t think they were even close to turning it over. I remember when Sockeye had a turnover free first half c. 2006 in the finals, that included a greatest and a block that ended up on the prone defender’s back only to be picked up by the Sockeye receiver. There were a few passes caught very close to the lines, but those throws went exactly where they aimed. But you could just see and feel their sense of invincibility.
There were so many laser backhand hucks. Seems like back in the day backhands used to be more towering, which required the long cutter to be closer to the thrower at release so that the disc could still be in front of the receiver when it came down to catching height. I wonder how much of this is due to the marker having to be further away from the disc. With the mark tight, the thrower has to step around more and keep the arm low to avoid the mark, and the disc naturally has more float. Forehands also come out a little hotter than before but there were always some laser long forehands.
Rhino claimed small ball is dead but I still saw plenty of two foot passes and immediate give and gos. I don’t find that style of play aesthetically pleasing to watch though it is fun to play and there is no doubt that it works and is hard to stop without doing something illegal (a little extra bodying on the mark or the cut) or possibly unethical (calling travel for minuscule changes in direction) or with a rule change (how’s this: once you get into the red zone, the stall count drops by one after every complete pass, to a minimum of 3).
Interesting parallel between this game and the 1995 finals, which was the last final with a larger margin of victory (though in a game to 21). DoG 21, Sockeye 10. DoG only had 126 passes that game (six of them long, including all three turnovers). Stats haven’t come out yet but I would imaginer there were significantly more passes than that (especially on a per point basis). D line forced 10 turnovers and scored every time. Sockeye’s O line had a clean hold rate of 50% and their scoring percentage for the game (goals/possessions) was higher than their tournament average. We would have been the favorites going into the final but not heavy favorites. We had won in 1994, our first, but had a poor year, including a loss in the finals of Worlds to Double Happiness (SF) and a 17-6 beating by Cojones (NY) at Regionals. This was Sockeye’s first time at Nationals. They won their pool as a 3 seed and beat Double in semis.
1995 format: 2 pools of 6, games to 19. Two pool play games Thursday and Friday, final pool play game Saturday morning, then all semis at the same time (possibly staggered 30 or 60 minutes), finals on Sunday. Semis and finals to 21. DoG played about 225 points over seven games, or 83 points per player (19 players, which was smaller than most rosters at the time). All games now are to 15, except when they’re shorter, so Rhino played 151 points over six games, or 41 points per player (26 of them), just under half of what DoG averaged.
One of the announcers remarked how different the end zone offenses are now compared to even five years ago. Several things stood out to me. Offenses seemed to have three players standing spread out across the back of the end zone while their defenders were 10 yards in front of them facing the throwers. While occasionally they would get hit for easy goals, these seemed to come high in the stall count and there were also some blocks made. What struck me more was how many goals were scored in the middle of the field, a yard into the end zone, with the receiver cutting toward the thrower. I never actually took stats on this, but I used to say that 90% of non-long goals were scored near the cone. The prototypical end zone offense was a regenerative strike from the back, sometimes followed by a cut from near the back to the same side but a few yards inside the cone, if not open swing to the other side and repeat. Even when offenses updated and had cuts coming from the front and going straight across the field, they were still leading passes toward the sideline. But I don’t know how many times I saw a little backhand flip on a soft inside break pass. Not criticizing it, but I was almost shocked. Even when we ran a ho or a side stack, we’d still revert to a vert in the end zone. I guess this is somewhat driven by the defenses, which are forcing flat or middle more often.
But I do remember c.2006 we had an end zone offense with the setup being one cutter at each cone and two cutters at the back of the end zone spread apart, with the three handlers outside the end zone. It was devastating in practice when we were able to line up that way but in games we found it too hard to get into the set and abandoned it. I wonder now if we couldn’t have tried tweaking it a bit to keep the center of the field open and attack there.
Inside out forehands: These throws have been a pet peeve of mine for some time. Though sometimes it comes across as “all i/o are bad”, there are certain rules I have for them that just didn’t seem to be met. To reduce it to a single heuristic, they’re ok if the receiver is able to square up and catch it in the chest, but if they have to keep running and catch it in front, there are so many things that can go wrong with it. For many years, I’ve seen players try to jam that pass into a tight window and seen blocks, drops, and passes zing by. I really didn’t see that this year. The throws were a little softer, the cutters were to the middle of the field a little more, and there was more distance from the cutter defender. I saw Molly Brown hit three consecutive passes that were i/o forehands, and they all looked like good choices. I don’t know if there has been a collective wising up or if the defenses have shifted such that there is more margin on the throws or if it’s just selection bias, but it sure seemed different this year.
Travels: the casual extra steps taken by so many players just drove me crazy. Handlers catching it flat-footed, and then just stepping upfield. Cutters catching it while running (but not really sprinting) and then taking five or seven chop steps, often using their momentum to deliver their next pass without truly stopping until after the disc is released. I didn’t really notice excessive foot movement once the pivot was set, though.
Spikes: we get it, you scored. Maybe you’re excited, but more often it felt “look at me”. I did once write, “You want to spike the disc? Spike it!! “, so maybe I shouldn’t be the one pointing this out, but it got a bit tiresome to watch. So many were disc-damaging as well.
Manu: hellvua thrower, great competitor. I watched two of the Molly Brown games, plus some of the Worlds. I often heard the commentators talk about the great players and ask, “what can they do to get even better?” To me, the #1 thing isn’t for Manu to learn how to do anything. It’s to learn how to not do something. There were two admittedly sweet-looking breakmark backhands in the semis that soared out of bounds. Some long backhands looked forced (there were several holsters, but whether that’s because they were just fakes or if the marker prevented the throw or if Manu actually decided it wasn’t a good look, I couldn’t tell). It’s a fine line between creating and forcing, and I think Manu needs to explore where that line is and how it changes based on the environment.
Technology: I remember getting a phone call about two weeks after one of the 1980s Nationals I didn’t make and hearing, “you won’t believe how badly the Tunas did at Nationals”. And this was much quicker than usual, since I usually had to wait for the UPA Newsletter to arrive at my house sometime around Christmas. Now, there are complaints (some of them from me!) that not all the games are streamed, there isn’t a single page that automatically shows all the scores, all games should be free, etc. You don’t know how lucky you have it. (Still, the USAU website is not ideal.)
Format: I’m still not a fan of stadiums, turf fields, fields with lots of non-ultimate lines, and six separate rounds of semis (with only a tiny amount of overlap between two of the games). In particular, I abhor the night game. Though many players now play night games through the semi-pro leagues, it’s still a change from every other game of the club season. The Brute Squad/Scandal semis started at 10:15 PM ET. That’s an unfair disadvantage which extends into the finals. Scandal wouldn’t have been able to get to bed until probably 3 am ET, and their bodies were probably still on East Coast time. And hearing that teams were probably fatigued because they had to play two games with their 26 players the previous day. Sure, the game is faster now, but that’s due in part to only having to play half as much. Pat King (NYNY) once told me he played 72 points in the semis and finals on one day.
Now get off my lawn.
(Cross-posted to rec.sport.disc, I mean, the ultimate subreddit. Thinking also about putting it on X.)
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