Drill themes: Vertical Stack23 drills

Cyclone is effective when chaining together multiple cuts, as in this drill

By starting on the open side and cutting towards the break side, the receiver's momentum takes them beyond the mark, generating simple continuation

A simple yet effective mechanism for generating and maintaining offensive flow

A crafty little move that was extensively used by the Japanese womens team who won WUGC 2012, this is a coordinate movement between the upfield dump ("3H") and the backfield dump

Linking together 3H movements into a game scenario

A brick play popular with the British team Chevron Action Flash in the early 2000s, this movement utilises a break throw to the front of the stack to set up a long throw.

One of the simplest movements in ultimate, and a frequent option in any offence

A useful move for any front of stack handler

This can be a difficult throw to execute as there's little margin of error for the thrower, but it is ideal in small areas such as in the endzone

A dynamic method of moving the disc off the pull that utilises a give and go

Good offences have lots of options from just a few basic movements. Here, we combine dynamic handler movement with downfield cutting options to give a dozen options in a short space of time.

Japanese teams use narrow space and quick throws as a way to nullify the size disadvantage they tend to have when playing internationally. They also seek to maximise the advantages gained by motion, looking to attack into areas that are difficult to defend and which make it difficult for defenders to prevent continuation.

Japanese teams use narrow space and quick throws as a way to nullify the size disadvantage they tend to have when playing internationally. They also seek to maximise the advantages gained by motion, looking to attack into areas that are difficult to defend and which make it difficult for defenders to prevent continuation.

This is a coordinated cutting pattern aimed at moving defenders to create an undefended away cut.

This is a coordinated cutting pattern aimed at moving defenders to create an undefended under cut.

Use this drill to teach your team to move downfield in vertical stack early and effectively in order to maintain flow

This drill works on repositioning the vertical stack in response to disc movement across the field.

A coordinated cutting pattern that gets the disc out of a sideline trap efficiently

A coordinated cutting pattern that gets the disc out of a sideline trap efficiently

Chicago Machine's Brett & Goose bring together multiple cutting options to show the power of the vertical stack formation

Practice maintaining flow and swinging the disc in vertical stack

The idea here is to get three or more cutters working together, all running the Triangle Cutting patterns, to provide lots of options to throw to in a short space of time.

Allows the cutter to either cut deep or under on the open side, and teaches the thrower to react quickly to opportunities. Ideal for continuation cuts.