Catch the centering pass facing forwards
Refining the "next pull fielding meta"
Let's talk about handling the first pass after the pull.
First, a note on the title. As I've written before, "centering" passes are overrated. If the defense is leaving the sideline open, you should gain as many yards as you can by working the disc down the open lane near the sideline! Medellin Revolution does exactly that here:
So: gain those yards! And don't send the disc right into the teeth of the defense until you have no better option—and a wide open sideline is a better option. Yes, being on the sideline is slightly worse than being in the center of the field. But if you're a skilled team, you trust your ability to get the disc off the sideline, and if you do, you should obviously be happy to take those extra 20 yards.
The Valeria technique
That being said, there will always be some sort of first pass after the pull is caught or picked up. What's the optimal way to handle that pass?
Hive Ultimate (and others) have pointed out the great way Valeria Cardenas of Denver Molly Brown catches pulls and moves directly into a give-and-go with a second handler:
I really like this strategy, but we can refine it.
Don’t get Callahan’ed
A quick detour: one of the biggest challenges with pulls is when the defense sprints down for a first-pass interception. A recent World Beach Championships highlight video gave us multiple examples of this:
Anyone who's played frisbee for long enough will have experienced a few of these. In fact, look who's attempting to catch the centering pass in that 2nd clip: Mario O'Brien, who, as the founder of RISE UP Ultimate is one of the world's most well-known frisbee teachers.
It's a little jarring to me that even one of the world's foremost frisbee thinkers can be victimized by a play that "everyone knows" is the risk in this situation.
Another suboptimal technique
Sometimes, players are aware enough to avoid getting Callahan'ed, but still put themselves in suboptimal positions. Watch this pull from the 2024 Men's National Championship.
PoNY's Harper Garvey catches the centering pass. While the pull is in the air, he walks a few yards downfield. But when he sees how close the defense is getting, he ends up running back towards the disc in order to safely catch the first pass:
But I think this is clearly suboptimal—he'd much rather catch the disc at the same spot, but running from the opposite direction. That would allow him to both (a) gain extra yards while he stops his momentum and (b) have better awareness of where everyone else is downfield ("face the space"!).
Face forwards
So, I've been working on a solution that gives you the best of both worlds:
You reduce your risk of getting first-pass-Callahan'ed, AND
You get the yards and the give-and-go momentum provided by Valeria's strategy
(There are other—smaller—benefits, too, which we'll get to soon.)
So, here's the trick: catch the centering pass facing forwards—that is, facing the endzone you're trying to score in*.
When your teammate catches the pull, you should be almost even with them**. As they catch the pull and look to you, start running forwards and signal to them that you want them to throw a leading pass.*** (Of course you should also discuss this beforehand, so it isn't a surprise to anyone.) Yes, this is a slightly higher degree-of-difficulty pass, but it's no problem for a skilled frisbee player.
Then, you'll catch the "centering" pass with as much forward momentum as possible. Optimally, you gain a few extra yards in the process of slowing down. Basically, do what Valeria does, but in the role of the player catching the centering pass instead of as the player catching the pull.
*(Notes on "facing downfield": Perhaps it's slightly more correct to say you're facing the spot between the oncoming defense and where the pull is getting caught, so each of those important factors are on opposite sides of your field of view. I.e. if the opposite end zone is 12 o'clock, you might be facing 10 or 2 depending on which sideline the pull is heading to.)
**(Notes on initial positioning: adjust based on the oncoming defense. If the defense is far off and there are many yards to be gained, set up downfield of the pull catcher and have them throw you even further downfield. If the defense is arriving quickly, start further back and closer laterally to the pull catcher.)
***(Notes on communication: I LOVE talking to the pull catcher as the pull is coming in—they can fully focus their eyes on catching the disc, while their ears are passively informing them exactly where I am.)
Because you start standing facing downfield, it's much easier to see the oncoming defense. Adjust your upfield cut based on how close they're getting. If the defense is getting close, you can angle your cut to take you closer to the disc, and cut off the angle the defense has to make a first-pass-D. If the defense is far off, have the thrower lead you further downfield and towards the center of the field. Those two options look something like this:
In Valeria's method, she catches the pull, then tosses it forwards to Saioa Lostra who throws her a stall zero dump pass without ever turning to face downfield. There are two areas where my method is slightly more optimal:
First, I like the stall zero dump as much as anyone, but I'd rather not waste time on two passes when one pass could achieve the same result. My method provides the same outcome (a "center handler" catching a disc with forward momentum) with one pass instead of two, giving you an extra second or two.
Second, Valeria’s method doesn't solve the problem of first-pass-Ds. Lostra generally catches the centering pass facing back towards the thrower, just like the teams who got Callahan'ed in the examples above:
This works for them in all the examples we've seen, but leaves them vulnerable if they go up against a team that puts more pressure on the pulls.
Side benefits
There are a couple other factors I like about handling pulls this way.
First, my method saves a bit of energy for your "main" handler compared to what Valeria does. If she's the one catching the pull, she has to sprint forwards the maximum distance, regardless of how far away the defense is.
However, if she instead was catching the centering pass with forward momentum, she could choose—based on her read of the oncoming defense—to set up 5-10 yards downfield of the disc, and still have the pull catcher throw a leading pass. She could then give-and-go with a 3rd teammate, instead of requiring the pull catcher to sprint forward every time. Saving 10 yards of sprinting 14x/game seems worthwhile to me.
Second, the defense is forced to slow down sooner if they know you'll be moving downfield. If they don't want to get completely left behind, they have to slow their momentum earlier in order to meet you in the spot where you'll eventually set your pivot foot, not just where you are right now. (To put it another way: they could still attempt the “run through D”, but if they fail, they’ll be an extra 5 yards out of position due to your forward momentum.)
A defense that expects you to be maximally aggressive will be less able to pressure your centering passes on the possessions where you choose to be a little more conservative. If they know the "10 yard gain" centering pass is a real threat, they'll be less likely to pressure the "zero yard gain" centering pass.
My main worry in suggesting this technique is the risk of a big collision between a cut and defender moving quickly in opposite directions. But I'm not too worried about this because a main motivation for this technique is to give the offense a better view of where the oncoming defense is. Use this extra information to cut to a safe space. (And hopefully rational defenders will slow down to be careful around moving players in a way they don't have to when the centering-pass-receiver is completely stationary.)
Is this the best possible way to handle pulls? I'm not completely sure. But I think it's obviously better than the Mario O'Brien strategy of "just get Callahan'ed sometimes". And I think it's better than the Harper Garvey strategy of "run back at the last moment and catch the centering pass facing the wrong way". And I've discussed why I believe it's a slight improvement on the Valeria Cardenas method. Let me know your thoughts!