Catching with momentum towards the break side

AKA the "functional break"

In a few pieces of ultimate media I've consumed recently, I've seen mentions of the power of catching a pass while your momentum is taking you towards the break side. (Or from the thrower's perspective, throwing an "open side" pass to a receiver moving towards the break side.)

One thing I like about writing blog posts is the ability to give one specific idea the focus it deserves, instead of it just being something mentioned-then-forgotten for 2 minutes of a 16-minute video (or 90-minute podcast!). So let's look at a few places this idea has shown up, and a few motions you can use to work this tactic into your offensive flow.

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In others' recent content

Here it is in episode 4 of Pod Practice:

Quote:

It's a horizontal cut across the field and it's basically not even a break throw, you're just throwing it pretty straight—but the receiver's trajectory carries them to the break side... And that next throw can be a break as well but the mark isn't going to be there [because, we assume, they're trailing behind the cutter-turned-thrower]. So it's a huge break—but there's no mark, so it's easy.

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Rowan McDonnell also mentions the concept in his video covering the US's strategy in the 2024 WUC Men's Final against Japan:

Rowan says his team calls this concept a "functional break"—i.e. it serves the same function as a break throw, while not requiring the throw to actually beat the mark. He mentions that there is (or will be) some content on this functional break on his platform.

The cut is actually coming from the player in the handler position, but you get the idea.

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Finally, this type of motion was mentioned again in Episode 48 of Pod Practice, where the guys talked about "common actions" in ultimate:

Quote:

You don't need to actually break the mark for the disc to end up on the breakside. You throw this straight (upfield), the receiver catches it and their momentum takes them to the breakside—it's gonna take them 3,4,5 steps to slow down.

To restate the explanations above, there's a few things the offense likes about this type of motion:

• When the throw is released, the thrower feels like they're throwing an "easy" throw—they're just throwing straight downfield, and they don't need to break the mark

• The receiver's momentum is bringing them onto the break side, which means that:

  • Best case scenario, they can then themselves throw another immediate breakside pass

  • Even if that doesn't happen, getting onto the breakside means the offense will have more easy options—a bigger field—to work with

  • Because the receiver is catching with dangerous momentum, their defender will often need to maintain their momentum. That defender's momentum can often be taken advantage of

• By design, the downfield defense is weaker on the breakside. So, successfully getting the disc there is good for the offense. The functional break is one way to make that as easy as possible.

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How to use this cut

Let's look at a few of the common variants of this cut.

[Notes on the diagrams (for all images):

—Orange is on offense, attacking towards the top of the image

—Black is on defense (mark defender is shown as a flat line to emphasize the force direction, following the diagrams in Pod Practice)

—Dashed red lines are the path of the disc

—Blue lines show the path of the cutter (before catching the disc)

—Purple lines highlight the receiver's continued momentum after catching the pass

—I didn't draw out all 7 players on each team. I think you'll still get the idea.]

1. Slash from downfield:

A downfield player turns an under cut into a cut that slashes across towards the breakside. This can work from ho stack (as in Pod Practice's diagram above) or vert stack:

The cut that gets the disc in the sequence is a rough example, although it's more of a "break throw" and the cutter has less momentum than the perfect example of this concept:

1b. Slash from downfield — "out then in" from front of stack

I think I've seen Brown University Men's use a variant of this downfield slash across. It starts with the cutter from the front of the stack attacking the open side. If their defender stays to the open side of them the whole way, they're eventually far enough out that they can then attack back in for this "functional" break throw:

If the cutter attacks towards the sideline and the defender sticks with them, there's lots of space to attack back towards the middle for the functional break.

Leo Gordon's cut here is a bit out-and-in, although the defense seems a little confused about which direction they're forcing (when Leo's running the "out", he's going towards the open side, but by the time he's back "in", the mark has switched sides and gives up an open side throw to the other side...):

Here's another two examples of Brown getting to the breakside with momentum, although neither of them have exactly the "out-then-in" pattern diagrammed above:

2. Slash from open side handler:

This is the cut we saw Rowan diagramming above. Very similar to #1 above but the cut is coming from the handler on the open side.

3. 45 degree slash from open side handler:

Very similar to #2 except the cutter makes an angled downfield cut directly towards the breakside instead of pushing downfield then coming across. As a lefty backhand specialist, I love throwing to this cut.

Update [2025-01-24]: Here’s an example of this cut I spotted in a different Pod Practice episode. Note how they throw the continuation pass before the mark is in position to stop it:

4. Open side handler cuts behind thrower for a dump pass:

Pod Practice also discuss this cut later in episode 48. But I don't think they mention how it has this same quality of giving the new thrower momentum towards the breakside. They call it a "pepe" cut, I have no idea why. I like to use this one by throwing a dump pass then immediately breaking into a give and go behind the thrower.

To be honest, I've never been a big fan of having a dump handler on the open side. However, these options for functional break opportunities have me reconsidering that opinion. As a defender, I've always guarded open side dump options by sagging into the lane and encouraging the thrower to pass it to my person. Passing to that dump option where they are is worse for the offense (they've lost yards and gotten closer to the trap sideline). However, if that dump handler responds to a poach by attacking the space for a functional break, I think it could be a benefit to the offense.

Often the defender of an open-side dump handler will poach the lane to make downfield passes harder. Option (A) is a bad pass for the offense—they lose yards and get closer to the trap sideline. But if the handler cuts for a functional break (B or C), there's an opportunity to generate good offense as a counter to the poach.

Update [2025-01-05]: Here’s an in-game example of San Francisco Fury using this cut when the open side handler defender poaches. It doesn’t quite get them a free continuation pass on the breakside, but it makes the defense work:

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A few more random notes on using the "functional break":

To rephrase what others have said in my own words, the key concept is that the defender guarding the cutter catching the pass is forced to choose between two unappealing options:

• They can give up the essentially unmarked break throw, or,

• They can try to work hard to "seal" the breakside before the thrower is able to release an easy break throw

It's obvious why the first option is unappealing. What's so bad about the second one? In my experience, quickly sealing the break side requires overcommitting. The defender will often still be running hard while the thrower is slowing down. The offensive player can use the defender's momentum against them, which often looks like either:

• Fake a breakside throw, and when the defender overcommits to stopping it, you can throw an "open side" pass to the same spot (I think Pod Practice mentions this at some point)

  

  (After a first functional break is caught) In order to stop a 2nd consecutive break throw, the defender has to commit hard, and can't recover in time to stop an easy straight ahead throw to the same spot

• Or, you can stop hard, then throw-and-go back to the open side, leaving your defender far behind if you time it correctly. (Very Dylan Freechild-esque)

Another nice thing about these cuts is that you're not losing yards in the process of slowing down, as happens with traditional "under" cuts. You also have slightly better field visibility, as you're not looking completely at the wrong endzone.

In Pod Practice, Mike Lun also points out how it's a little harder for the mark defender to know exactly where the receiver of the functional break throw will stop. On an under cut coming back towards the thrower, if the receiver takes slightly longer to stop, they've lost extra yards but, from the defender's perspective, they're still right in front of them. On the other hand, when the cutter is slashing across the field, the mark defender has to pay careful attention to where they're stopping and also stop at the right spot to do their job preventing easy throws. (Not sure I've explained this part well).

Quinn Finer & Alex Atkins of Pod Practice are big fans of this type of motion. More teams should make it an intentional part of their offense.

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Updated [2025-01-24]:

Functional breaks were also mentioned on a December 2024 episode of Pod Practice, which came out before this article but I didn’t see until a few weeks later: