Be ready for the pass at all times
An important skill for cutters is to be ready for a pass at all times. I don't (quite) mean that literally, and I'll discuss some of the qualifications later. But far too often I see someone who could be open but isn't even thinking about the fact that they could be catching a pass two seconds from now. If you've read my previous posts, you've seen that I learned some of my cutting tricks on the basketball court, while others I learned playing and studying frisbee. My "readiness" journey began with one specific basketball memory:
My awakening
As a young teenager, I played basketball at the YMCA for a few years with a young man named Ralph. I was pretty good at basketball for being fourteen-ish years old, but Ralph (who was probably in his early 20s) was on another level. To me, he was like Chris Paul or LeBron James: able to pass it to an open teammate, anywhere on the court, without giving the defense any prior indication of what was to come.
This was a bit of a difficulty for me, who had never really played with someone like that before. He sometimes knew I was open even when I didn't know I was open. I have these memories burned into my brain, of basketballs bouncing off my hands, or bouncing off my body or whizzing right past me when I wasn't ready for his pass. They were perfect passes...except that I wasn't ready for them. I had to make up rules for myself when I played with him: if he had the ball I would: 1) never completely take my eyes off him, and 2) move around the court with my hands up and ready to catch a pass.
In retrospect, it's kind of like I can split my experience playing sports into the pre-Ralph and the after-Ralph periods. It was like an awakening. Buddhist enlightenment. I look back now, and I'm like, what was I even doing on the court if I wasn't ready to catch a pass? I must've thought I was playing the game the right way. But looking back, I was out there sleepwalking compared to the awareness I play sports with now.
Now I'm a thirty-something who's played sports my whole life, and I've graduated to mostly being in the position that Ralph was back then. It seems like every game there's someone who I'd love to throw it to, but they're literally not even looking at me, for multiple seconds in a row. I would love to throw it to you guys.
I hate to get all "hex offense" on you guys, but I do think this originates in the way many people are taught to play frisbee. We have our vertical stack, and the person in the back of the vertical stack is ""cutting"", and the other people in the stack are, more or less, standing around. The lesson of always being ready for the pass was beaten into me at an early age, and I really think this is one skill that has set me apart as a downfield receiver on the frisbee field.
Qualifications
Of course, there are a couple situations where it makes sense to not be ready to catch a pass immediately. When I commit to a deep cut, I might not look back for the disc for a few seconds, and I have no choice but to trust that my handler will only throw me deep and not hit me in the back of the head.
Perhaps the most important example is moments when I need to take my eyes off my handler to look around the field and see where the other players are. In this article I've mostly focused on being aware of when your handler wants to throw it to you, but you'll also need to have an idea of where your handler wants to throw it to you, and in order to do that, you'll need to look around the field sometimes.
And being ready all the time doesn't mean cutting all the time. I take pride in sharing the field and the disc with my teammates, and finding my opportunities within the flow of the offense. But when the handler's first option isn't open and they start looking around the field at stall four, or when the defense is cheating too much to the open side and the handler wants to immediately throw something loopy to the break side, I'm ready to reciprocate their eye contact, instead of leaving them frustrated when I'm not ready for the pass they want to throw me.
Eye contact + footwork
Outside of those exceptions, I spend a whole lot of my time on offense just noticing the person with the disc and being ready for them to throw it to me. Perhaps another way to rephrase the title is: make lots of eye contact with your handler. Watch your handler's eyes, and you can learn a lot. If you see they've already locked onto an open receiver, you can start getting ready to make a cut to get open for that person. But at some point, they'll make eye contact with you, and that's when the magic happens. The two of you can use your hands and/or eyes to let each other know where you should cut to, and suddenly you've got an open catch.
A second skill that I'm convinced is important for readiness is footwork. I may write a full article on this someday, but for now, here's a preview: In order to visually 'check in' with your handler over and over again while moving across the field, you need to be able to backpedal, to shuffle side to side, to jog or run while looking sideways or over your shoulder.
Growing up playing basketball and football, I endlessly practiced backpedaling, shuffling, and turning my hips to move from a backpedal to a sprint. I see some beginner frisbee players who are only comfortable either (1) looking straight forward while running forward or (2) looking at the disc in the air while running forwards. That's an extreme example, but even experienced frisbee players are often short of the optimal level of backpedaling skills.
Conclusion
If you want to catch a lot of passes, you need to spend a whole lot of time being ready to catch passes. When I put it that way, it almost sounds goofy, but some of the most important truths are the simple ones.
I wanted this post to have a montage of NBA players being thrown passes that they weren't ready for, to highlight the experience of my fourteen-year-old self. Sadly, I couldn't find a video like that on Youtube. As a consolation, here's one of the few examples I could find: LeBron getting the worst of a pass he wasn't expecting.