Felix & Darryl Stanley analyse a “terrible point” from U24 2019 Worlds Final

Manuela Cardenas Dribbling Technique

Manuela Cardenas uses dribbling to work the disc the length of the field, and Felix provides a breakdown of how her technique makes her so difficult to stop, and what everybody can take away to add to their game.

Felix loses it at Ring’s defence

Full livestream recording available for $1 Patrons: https://www.patreon.com/posts/livestream-20th-46601972
Surrounding Stacks 15min video: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44001487 – also available on YouTube.
Flex Part 4: Communication – coming soon to Patrons only.
… reddit post & comments about this video…

Tyler Kinley on Ho-stack Poaching

Sockeye’s Tyler Kinley joins Felix to talk about a series of tweets he posted on 29-30 Dec, specifically the frustrations he feels when defenders fail to poach effectively against a horizontal stack offence. We then see an example of a successful deep poach, and talk about how teamplay can be used in different ways to cover for the poach – to afford the defender the liberty to leave their 1-to-1 matchup, and keep the offence contained effectively. Full interview/analysis available for Patrons.

3 Star Players – PoNY v Machine – USAU 2019 Nationals Semi

Full video: https://www.patreon.com/posts/45837640
Felix analyses the plays and the impacts of Joe White, Sean Keegan, and Sam Little before drawing conclusions. These are excerpts taken from the full 10 player analysis video, which also features analysis of Gibson, Bansfield, Mickle, Garvey, Jagt, Lindsley & Hou.

Top 5 Goals – PoNY v Machine – USAU 2019 Nationals Semi

Felix provides quick analysis of the Top 5 goals from the USA Ultimate Frisbee 2019 Men’s Club Nationals Semi-Final between New York PoNY and Chicago Machine. Keen to see more? These clips were taken from the Every Goal (25) analysed + stats video which provides 14 minutes of similar entertainment for just a buck, plus some actual conclusions / takeaways!

… reddit thread & comments about this video …

Top 3 Plays from Disc Space Inaugural Final

Felix takes a look at the new Ultimate Frisbee computer game Disc Space, available for free on Steam, and picks the Top 3 Plays from the Grand Final of the DSL Inaugural Tournament.

Get Disc Space on Steam
Check out Villanueva’s Meta Analysis

…reddit post & comments about this video…

Top 3 Notable Turnovers + quick analysis – PoNY v Machine – USAU 2019 Nationals Semi

Full video – Every Turn + analysis: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44251596
Felix provides quick analysis of the top 3 most notable turnovers from the USA Ultimate Frisbee 2019 Men’s Club Nationals Semi-Final between New York PoNY and Chicago Machine.

reddit post & comments about this video…

Justin Foord’s Masterclass in How to React to the Thrower on the Force

Justin Foord’s Masterclass in How to React to the Thrower on the Force from r/ultimate

Here’s the link to the full video analysis of this turnover from the UK Nationals Open Final between Clapham and Chevron in 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15Lc-dPLvDs

Japan v USA p08: Pointing, Field Balancing, & Player Counting from Koike

Extremely detailed analysis of a few seconds from the Worlds final in 2016 – breaking down Japan’s unique defence. In this clip Koike appears to player-count and then move to ensure the field is balanced, meaning every defender has a nearby offense player to mark. High levels of communication and field awareness are seen in Japan’s not-quite-zone defence.
Takeaways: (1) Point to communicate! (2) As a central defender deciding whether to push under or deep, count the players on the field to ensure your movement keeps the field balanced!
Part of the Japan v USA WUGC 2016 Analysis Series!

reddit post & comments about this video…
… full transcript …

The first thing I notice is the Japanese defender #3 Yasuo Takahashi at the top of the screen, passing off an offensive player (Schlacket) as they run down the wing – pointing in their direction as #81 Masatsune Miyazaki picks them up.

Watching #81 Miyazaki from the start (on the very left of the screen), you notice he allows an offensive player to move away from him across the width of the field, but he points in the general direction they went, which alerts #19 (Koike) to the potentially unmarked player. Miyazaki tracks Schlacket for the remainder of the clip, continually checking in with the disc and the other defenders around him.

#19 Koike in the centre also points towards Schlacket as he moves down the line, and later gesticulates towards the deep space as he moves towards it. Why does he prioritise the deep space? In the backfield at that moment there are three defensive and three offensive players, meaning the situation is balanced. In the deep space however there are 4 offensive players and 3 defenders – until he arrives to help. I believe Koike is player-counting, and that this is an important job for whoever finds themselves in the central defender position. By keeping track of the ratio of downfield vs backfield players, the central defender is able to position themselves to keep the field balanced, and prevent a heavy concentration in any particular area – which often leads to a defensive breakdown. It is of course critical for them to stay in constant communication with the rest of the team whilst doing this, as they act like the central node in a network.

A fairly clear ‘rule of thumb’ for the Japanese defence which we can extrapolate from this clip is one which we also identified in a previous clip: communicate the location of offensive players through gesticulation and vocalisation – especially important if those players are potentially unmarked (i.e. when you let your mark leave you). This would fall under the general defensive principle of: communicate. Less clearly, it appears the central defender is trying to maintain the balance of players on the field by player-counting and adjusting his positioning accordingly, which essentially leads to every defender having a mark / every offensive player being covered / no area being overloaded. Whether this is a rule of thumb, a principle, or part of a more general principle being adhered to is currently unclear, although the next clip I will analyse shows it is definitely an area of focus for Japan.

These two elements of the Japanese defence work very well together – through each defender communicating where the potentially free offensive players are moving around the field, and trying to maintain field balance, the team can work together like a network, and is able to flex in order to cover the offensive team’s movement & positioning, as commentator Bryan Jones makes note of during this point. This level of teamwork lifts the ceiling off what is usually expected from traditional approaches to defence.