Getting open by stopping
Stop cutting? No: stop, cutting
Getting open against an attentive defender usually requires you to use your defender's momentum against them.
Often this means accelerating to a high speed while they're still at a low speed. Other times it can mean changing direction—switch to going left while your defender is still going right, or switch to cutting under while your defender is still guarding your initial deep cut.
But perhaps the most under-used version of playing with your defender's momentum is simply stopping at the right moment. It's the reverse of accelerating away from a low-speed defender—decelerating away from a high speed defender.
This isn't an original idea. A 2016 Ultiworld article suggests "stop on a dime" as one of the best moves to get open for a reset off the sideline. Unfortunately, as with many older Ultiworld articles, the GIFs are no longer viewable. Justin of Tobu Fitness also recently shared a clip of getting-open-by-deceleration, which you can see here:
So I didn't come up with this idea myself, but I wanted to cover it briefly to both (a) share a few of the clips I've found and (b) continue to raise awareness of this perhaps under-utilized technique.
Here are a few clips for your enjoyment:
This cut (also seen in the GIF above) by Calvin Brown from his 2023 Callahan video is perhaps the purest example of the "stop cut" I've seen. Filthy:
This clip highlights something else I like about the “stop cut”: the cool factor. There’s something very baller about being both (a) wide open and (b) standing still.
Here's one from Justin Burnett's 2023 Callahan video. I like the way he slowly continues to fade away from his defender after coming to a stop. He's not exactly cutting to the left away from his defender, but just walking backwards to continue to maintain a little extra separation:
Here's Levke Walczak from Brute Squad's 2023 national semifinal game against Fury:
I've previously pointed out her tendency for moves like this in my article The "fake clear" cut. The examples in that article show how you don't always need to get your defender moving at high speed before stopping. You can get open by stopping against a low-speed defender if they're not fully focused on you:
Finally, here's an example from Anne Worth's 2020 Callahan video:
There are a few things I really like about her cut here. First, there's the elite-level deceleration that's the focus of this article. But after she comes to a stop, she reads the mark defender's position. She sees that the mark is stopping a forehand throw, and realizes she needs to cut to the backhand side. Finally, after reading the defense, she throws her right hand out to the side, using a quick signal to get on the same page with her thrower.
It's not quite a pure "stop cut", but to me it counts. She clearly was prepared to catch the disc standing still—she only re-accelerates when she sees that's what the position of the mark defender calls for.
PS I also love how low she gets on her cuts. Picture-perfect athletic position:
When and how to use it
The clips here will give you a feel for when this cut is most effective. There are two situations where the "stop cut" is most common:
Cutting upline and then stopping (Calvin Brown, Levke Walczak)
Cutting from the front of the stack when going left and right are both viable options (Justin Burnett, Anne Worth)
Smart defenders care more about stopping you from getting open in the endzone than they care about stopping you from getting open in the dump space. Because of this, cutting downfield and then stopping will generally be more effective than cutting towards the dump space and stopping.
Why just stop instead of cutting hard in the opposite direction? Anne Worth's cut shows us one of the answers: you want to find a spot where your thrower can get the disc to you. Cut too far back, and the thrower will have to find a way to get it around the marker. But stop at just the right moment, and the thrower will have an easy 'inside forehand' (for a righty) that the mark won't be trying to take away. Here's a little diagram:
The other reason I'd rather stop than cut back: it lets me gain as many yards as possible. I'd rather catch the disc closer to the goal, all other things being equal. So if the defender doesn't force me to cut backwards to get open, I'm not going to cut backwards.
I see a lot of players who can recognize the moment to start running fast, but don't recognize opportunities to stop fast. I'd love to see more of y'all adopt this move. Get out there and start stopping.
Update (2024-12-02):
Here’s Chris Kocher of PoNY:
Update [2025-01-05]: Here’s one of Fury’s Anna Thompson. Clearly the most common spot to use this is on an upline cut:
I just decelerated my reading with elite quickness