Thoughts on Handlers and Efficiency
The largest problem about this team is our lack of quality handlers. We have one relatively solid handler (Mia) who throws over 50% of our goals (70 assists out of 134). Our next best handler has 22 assists. Excluding Mia (who doesn't have great TO numbers herself), the assist-to-turnover ratio for our handlers is pretty bad.
Zac and I are very impressed with the Femme's ability to consistently beat teams with superior handlers. How do we do this?
1. Our defense focuses on shutting down throwers rather than cutters
We force straight up and deny deep throws. We put our strongest marks on the opposing teams handlers rather than cutters. We can afford to do this because we have several quick and tall defenders (Amanda, Beth, etc) who we can stick on opposing deeps while we put Mia, Sarah, and Linh on the other team's throwers.
2. Our offense minimizes cutter decisions thus limits cutter turnovers
Our offense's goal is to put the disc in the hands of our better throwers as often as possible. Just take a look at the numbers we had for last fall and this spring. The personnel was virtually the same:
2005 Fall
Turnovers Per Point (Handlers) - 3.43
Turnovers Per Point (Cutters) - 3.34
2006 Spring
Turnovers Per Point (Handlers) - 2.49
Turnovers Per Point (Cutters) - 1.31
Other than our team just having less turns in general, our turnovers per point per cutter dropped dramatically. Most of our handlers' turns are also on deep throws as well, while our defense forces plenty of turns that are not deep throws (point blocks, turfed hucks, contested in cuts).
Right now, our cutters do not consistently throw upfield and rarely have tough decisions to make. We will need to change that when we make a run next year at Nationals, but this year that is one of the big reasons (as the numbers show) why we're a better team. If you examine our game with Iowa State, where virtually everyone on their team had vastly superior throws to our team, we were at 7-7 with them due to playing hard defense and smartly limiting turnovers.
Next year, if we can slightly improve our strengths (team speed and defense) and dramatically improve our weaknesses (inexperience and throwing) it is scary how good we could be. It really depends on how many of our players join a club team this summer. Not many people remember how Mia became so good--it was her stint with Blackout, and we weren't even close to an elite club team.
posted by Ken @ 12:43 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
if not club... summer league.
if not summer league... picking up at tourneys (every team needs more women).
if not picking up... pickup.
if not pickup... throwing.
if not throwing... running.
if not running... thinking.
if not thinking... quitting.
The summers make a HUGE difference. If you want to succeed at something, you need to WORK.
Pike is adapting the Handler-Motion offense to its own devices. No "handlers" or "cutters" just rules that prioritize choices dependent on field position. Interesting. At Terminus, we had far fewer dumb turnovers than last year, despite losing in the semis instead of winning the tourney. We also had a team with far less talent and team familiarity (last year: 2 tryouts out of 20 players. this year: 13 tryouts out of 20 players). I think the offense works at making the hierarchy of choices clearer to both throwers and cutters. This breeds confidence. Confidence breeds success.
Interesting strategy on D. Good use of team strengths.
If I remember properly Drew's TO/P went from about 4 to 1.5 over the course of 4 months. The effects of having a true coach who can illustrate the damage of turnovers (if nothing else) can dramatically improve a team.
Have y'all been seeing the amount of Zone I have been told occurs in women's ultimate?
Dusty, there's been a good amount of zone, but not as much as I expected. As far as the Femmes are concerned, I like our straight up man in most -- but not all -- situations. Our marks are getting there and they understand about fronting. They lose track of last-back responsibility sometimes though. Now we're working on using their bodies to gain the position on the player their guarding to force their cuts to the sidelines.
dusty, we can focus on shutting down throwers because it's simply a matter productive turns. in womens ultimate especially in wind, it's exponentially more effective to generate opposing turns on dumps and in cuts rather than hucks, for obvious field position reasons. thats why we put our best marks/defenders on their throwers rather than cutters, even if their throwers aren't as athletic. denying people that can huck the disc or point blocking them leads to short fields and easy scores.
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