I definitely agree with your skepticism (about TOs helping) but maybe for a somewhat different reason than you articulate here.
You said: "The downside of timeouts is the signal it sends your players." I think the main downside of timeouts is that they provide the other team an opportunity to set up and get ready to defend. That is, calling a TO on a turn loses you the initiative. I assume the thinking is that, after getting a turn, your D line (who now has possession) is discombobulated and out of breath, so taking a TO to let them catch their breath and get organized (and ya, maybe sub on some O specialists) will help. And all other things being equal, I'm sure it does help. But the question shouldn't be whether the TO helps your team. It should be whether it helps your team more than it helps the other team. And I think there's a strong case that however out of breath and discombobulated and not-good-at-O your D-line is in that moment, the other team's O-line is probably even more discombobulated and more out of breath and more not-good-at-D.
Anyway, I think taking TOs after winning possession with a block/interception (which one sees all the time in regular ultimate, not just the leagues where coaches can call TOs and make subs during them) is very often a terrible idea for this reason. People under-estimate the value of having and keeping the initiative.
I think I worry that I'll bore my audience by harping on the same subjects over and over again. So I kept this article pretty short and one of the things that I didn't include was more of the explanation/theorizing about why timeouts might not work so well. But if I had included that, I would've written more or less what you've written here...so hopefully interested parties will scroll down to the comments and see your contribution :)
I definitely agree with your skepticism (about TOs helping) but maybe for a somewhat different reason than you articulate here.
You said: "The downside of timeouts is the signal it sends your players." I think the main downside of timeouts is that they provide the other team an opportunity to set up and get ready to defend. That is, calling a TO on a turn loses you the initiative. I assume the thinking is that, after getting a turn, your D line (who now has possession) is discombobulated and out of breath, so taking a TO to let them catch their breath and get organized (and ya, maybe sub on some O specialists) will help. And all other things being equal, I'm sure it does help. But the question shouldn't be whether the TO helps your team. It should be whether it helps your team more than it helps the other team. And I think there's a strong case that however out of breath and discombobulated and not-good-at-O your D-line is in that moment, the other team's O-line is probably even more discombobulated and more out of breath and more not-good-at-D.
Anyway, I think taking TOs after winning possession with a block/interception (which one sees all the time in regular ultimate, not just the leagues where coaches can call TOs and make subs during them) is very often a terrible idea for this reason. People under-estimate the value of having and keeping the initiative.
I agree with you!
I think I worry that I'll bore my audience by harping on the same subjects over and over again. So I kept this article pretty short and one of the things that I didn't include was more of the explanation/theorizing about why timeouts might not work so well. But if I had included that, I would've written more or less what you've written here...so hopefully interested parties will scroll down to the comments and see your contribution :)