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Training Focus – Weeks 1 & 2

During the Saturday 8th, 15th and 22nd sessions we are working on offensive chemistry and communication.

Offensive Chemistry is all about developing intelligent awareness and understanding that could allow any of us to join a new team and fit it immediately.

This video from GB v Colombia Men’s from WUGC 2016 gives some examples of effective offensive chemistry around the reset.

So we’re looking to develop some fundamental concepts that fit with any offensive structure or group of players. On Saturday these were:

– as throwers we want to use fakes as a way of communicating to a receiver that we are not going to throw the option they are presenting and that we want them to change direction (or start moving if they were standing still). – as receivers we want to react to the communication (verbal or fakes) of the thrower.

We also talked about how important it is for the thrower to fake downfield before ‘engaging’ the reset because:

– it moves the mark, making any break throw reset easier – it acts as a countdown (-2 fake downfield, -1 pivoting to face reset, 0 reset engaged) to the reset being engaged, allowing the entire team to anticipate where the thrower will be looking.

1. The thrower fakes downfield. This moves the mark, making the swing throw easier.

We also talked about using space throws, throws that place the disc into an empty area of the pitch. These throws are particularly valuable when defenders are blocking a flat throw directly to the intended receiver.

2. The reset cut is very close to the thrower and well marked, so a flat throw is not an option. Instead the thrower places the disc into the space back towards his endzone for the receiver to collect.

3. Similar to 2.

4. When the thrower pivots for the swing, the receiver is directly behind the mark. Instead of squeezing a throw through the mark to the receiver, the thrower places the disc into space for the receiver to collect.

5. The player catches a back pass into space and an unmarked players cuts into the break side. The thrower fakes the break throw because the receiver is directly behind the mark, when he could’ve completed a space throw as in (4).

6. At 00:54 the thrower could’ve thrown a space throw back towards his own endzone as in (1) and (2).

We talked about the ‘Cycle’ call, communication from a downfield receiver to the reset receiver that can be used when the downfield receiver wants to attack the swing space.

7. The reset receiver hears ‘cycle’, cuts upline and the thrower places a throw into the swing pace for the receiver to collect.

9. Disc is swung to the middle, far side cutter calls a ‘cycle’ and the reset receiver cuts downfield and into the middle of the pitch to create swing space on the far side of the pitch.

11. The far side cutter is unmarked so calls a cycle and cuts back into the swing space to receive a reset.

12. The near side cutter is unmarked so calls a cycle and cuts back into the swing space to receive a reset.

13. As the disc swings to the middle, the near side reset cuts downfield and one of the middle downfield cutters moves back into the now clear near side swing space.

14. Similar to 13.

15. Rather than forcing a downfield throw into a tight window, the thrower waits for the cutter to become level with the disc and the reset to cycle downfield before throwing a simple reset pass.

(16 & 17) are examples of a cycle used off static as a way of completing an easy pass and creating both player movement and disc movement immediately.

In Pre-Season and Week 0 we worked on aggressive downfield cutting. In (10) the thrower receives the disc with the downfield cutter allowed lots of open space to attack. This clip just shows how easy offence can be when a player is given lots of space to cut into and makes fast, confident cuts.

We’ll be working on downfield cutting and creating big cutting lanes throughout the season.

18. This final clip touches on a concept we’ll be looking at more on Saturday, when can a reset receiver initiate the reset herself, and when should she wait for a fake (or swing throw) before attacking downfield. We will also be looking at times when a reset receiver can change direction without seeing a fake from the thrower.

Andrew Hillman

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