One of the best ways to learn a craft is to copy the greats before you and make their actions, strategies, and methods into your own, something unique to you. This is a particularly great way to learn Ultimate.
Let’s specify what I mean. Does watching Nick Lance’s callahan video allow you to throw scoobers like he does? No. Does seeing Dylan Freechild’s game saving layout D allow you to make the same play? No. But watching a player go through an actual game where they might do such things can allow us to identify some of their thought processes, strategies, goals, and ideas that they incorporate into their top level game and try to reflect them in our own ways.
Seeing the field, deciding which throws to attempt, poaching on defense, applying a force; all of these can be done a zillion different ways, but by watching some of the best players in action could allow us to copy their successes and make them our own.
The player we are looking at today: Dylan Freechild [Oregon ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, Callahan winner ’13, RHINO/NexGen player].
The game we are watching: Oregon vs Pittsburgh (Open Semi), May 26 2013 College Championships.
We will watch the game today solely focusing on Freechild to see if we can’t point out some cool, unique, successful things that he does on the field to help win a game of Ultimate.
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- 7:52 – Help defense.
Let’s start with an easy one. [Most] Everyone in the nation knows the deep threat of Tyler Degirolamo, including Freechild. So on the first point of the game, he knows to watch out for the huck to 81, and sure enough, it comes on the fourth pass of the game. Freechild was looking to help on that cut the entire way, and is in position to deny an albeit probably unattainable disc.
You probably won’t always know who is a threat on your opposing team, but being aware of what all is happening on the field on defense allows you to help your teammates when they get beat.
You can see him make the same kind of help defense a few minutes later [watch the replay after the play to see that Freechild has his eyes on the handler when the stall count is getting high and his mark is far into break side space and mostly irrelevant].
- 8:51 – Checking your surroundings when a disc is in the air.
This is another basic element of Ultimate that can make the difference between getting sky’d going for a disc or beaten by an easy throw on defense when applying the mark. On offense: seen here, when the disc is released. Freechild can see that he is going to have to run with this disc, and that it is floating a little bit. He abuses that fact and takes a quick look over his left shoulder to see if any defenders are coming to attempt to make a play on the disc. If they are, he is going to have to go up and try and get the disc ASAP, maybe before he gets in the end-zone. If they aren’t coming, or won’t be there in time, he can run with the disc all the way for a score, which he does. Even if you don’t get the disc initially, the quick cut after a throw can allow for enough space to make another additional cut or two while your defender is trying to catch up, and can allow you to run a good route within your offense.
The same thing can be done on defense: if you are guarding a handler, and you give up a swing pass, you can take a really quick look over your shoulder to see if any cuts are developing behind you so that you can apply your mark accordingly and hopefully stop the opponent’s first/best option.
- 13:01 – The Give-and-Go.
This is a move that Freechild has been using his entire college career to score points and gain power position as a handler, and it is probably my favorite thing to do in Ultimate. It really abuses the advantage that players have on offense in knowing what cut to make next and being decisive. It’s also something that both handlers and cutters can do beneficially. I haven’t seen a lot of it in my short college Ultimate career, but it is something I have recently adapted and utilized for great results even with my limited handling abilities. It gives you space to throw comfortably, and that is a powerful thing.
If can also be done in succession, a feat that is featured in Freechild’s 2013 Callahan Nominee video and this game against Las Positas earlier this year.
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There is a bit of a lull here in discussion as Pitt goes on a long offensive run, and Freechild doesn’t do anything too noteworth.
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- 51:26 – Communicate with fellow cutters in-game.
Here, after a quick turnover from Pittsburgh, Oregon looks to move the disc quickly. You can see Freechild [10] twice give the go ahead for his teammates to take the open up-line space, and then eventually gets the disc himself, working a little give and go, and Ego eventually scores.
Communicating physically or verbally is hugely beneficial for running a smooth, tight offense. Before a possession starts, make sure you know who is going to cut first, or what your teammates are looking for/trying to do. This allows you to give them the time and space they need, or allows you to take the time and space that you want without a teammate crowding you.
There is almost never a time while a game is being played that you don’t want to be talking with teammates, both on and off the field.
- 1:34:15 – Push your advantages.
Here, off of a backhand fake from Freechild, the mark loses his balance while biting on the fake and is on the ground. Recognizing this, Freechild dishes the frisbee quickly and pushes straight for a deep cut, since his defender clearly can not stop him. There is a help defender, but he is too late as Freechild gains the deep space and catches an easy flick huck for a score.
There are many ways to create little advantages while we are on offense, mainly faking throws or good, quality cuts. Sometimes your defender will bite especially hard, and when they do, you need to push your advantage and take everything you can from it while you can. Even if you don’t get the disc, you can create other advantages elsewhere on the field.
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Oregon would lose this game 12-14. While this is in no way Freechild’s best game ever, it is a great game to watch, and there are always good things we can take away from his playing.
What did you see in this game that you liked? Maybe some things that you didn’t like? Leave a comment below for further discussion of the game.
DeKalb Ultimate 
I’ve been using that Give + Go move a lot more recently and I have seen it really help jumpstart our offense when people are tired/not cutting. Having a handler getting open and the disc with their defender trailing them allows the disc to move a lot more fluidly than from a standstill.
Love his play – he’s not just your typical player as he really can exemplify all the dimensions of successful ultimate
Right! Not only does it allow for one player to kind of take over for a couple throws and gain some valuable space/yards/time/separation, but it also allows your teammates to sort of catch their breath, get back into position, and probably make a good cut once the give-and-go’er finds his power position.
Why would anyone want to learn how to play like one of the least spirited players ever…. if we agree (as per USA Ultimate) that spirit and self officiating are what makes our sport great than this is one player who definitely doesn’t embody that. He was nice when he played my team but I personally watched him spike a disc on another player (not near, ON) and have seen many videos of him acting like this.. maybe when he grows up a little or if his Oregon coach (Ian) would teach him better, but I’d never want to “play like him” until then.
People should model their game after Freechild because he just very well might be the best player in college Ultimate right now. He does tend to show poor spirit when scoring big points, but he is a perfectly reasonable player outside of that almost all of the time.
People get amped and aggressive when scoring or performing well in every sport; Ultimate is not exempt from those people. There isn’t anything terribly wrong with it, and you even get punished for it while playing at the highest levels, so I see nothing wrong with trying to play more like Dylan Freechild.
And just because you copy the way he throws and IO flick [just an example] doesn’t mean you have to also spike discs on people.
I would definitely want to be able to play like him, no doubt.