How will you play against someone better than you?

David didn't just let Goliath sky him

Feb 13, 2024

How do you handle playing against someone better than you?

The game plan is straightforward when you're matched up against someone who isn't as skilled athletically as you. They're slower than you, with worse stamina? Outrun them. They're shorter and can't jump as high as you? I'm sure you can successfully sky them. They have a slow throwing motion and shorter arms than you? Enjoy getting a few handblocks.

But how do you manage a matchup against someone more athletic or skilled than you? For too many players, the answer seems to be I guess I'll just get scored on now. But having a plan to deal with a skilled opponent makes you a better player. Without improving your throws, your speed, or your vertical jumping ability, knowing how to make the most out of a bad matchup makes you more valuable to your team.

How do you shoot over someone taller than you?

I grew up playing basketball, and before hurting my knees I had hoped to play in college (D-III). At some point in my youth basketball career, I had the following realization:

Sure, I can make a layup against the 5'8" guy guarding me right now. But if I ever want to really be good, I'll need a shot that I can reliably shoot over someone who's 6'5"—or taller.

I came up with a solution: I'd learn to shoot a "skyhook", Kareem Abdul-Jabaar style.

For those of you who don't follow basketball closely, allow me to explain. A layup is a shot released from within a few feet of the basket, usually while moving. In a "standard" layup,

you're moving towards the basket, and
you shoot by extending the ball forwards & up towards the basket (in the direction you're moving)

A screenshot from this tutorial video is below:

But there's a common problem with this technique. If your defender is good, they're staying between you and the basket—so you're raising the ball up right towards them.

If you've already blown past your defender, there's no problem since they're now behind you and not between you and the basket. If you're taller and jump higher than your defender, there's no problem either—they're not getting high enough to block your shot even if they're right there. But what was I going to do against a good defender? Just not score?

The skyhook was made famous by NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabaar. Instead of directly raising the ball towards the basket (and defender), he raises the ball on the side of his body away from the basket—and away from the defender. His outstretched hand arcs up, and he shoots the ball over his own body—and well out of reach of the defense.

A screenshot from this video is below:

I learned to shoot the skyhook, so I'd have a skill I could use against defenders who were too quick to dribble past and too tall to shoot over (using the standard layup motion). My "serious" basketball career ended early due to injuries, but I can still shoot layups over just about anyone at the playground with my skyhook.

How do you throw past John McDonnell?

Of course, the same phenomenon exists in ultimate frisbee. Many techniques will work against players worse than you are, but not against players better than you. But some techniques will work (as well as possible) against players who are taller, quicker, or better conditioned than you are.

Last year, I had a conversation with a friend about cutting. She didn't start playing ultimate until after college, and recently "graduated" to playing in the club division (after previously only playing in local leagues). She told me that in summer league, her general strategy for getting open as a cutter was to just keep moving, steadily jogging around the field without much sprinting. Eventually her defender would be more tired than she was, and she could get some separation.

The problem is that this will only work against opponents with less stamina than her. When a better-conditioned defender guards her, that moment when the defender is more tired than her will never arrive, and she'll just...never get open. It'll work against lots of summer league matchups, but it's a recipe for disaster in a club tournament against a better team.

I suggested using bursts of acceleration. Because all humans have non-zero reaction time, this technique is robust to the quality of your opponent. Even if your defender is quicker than you, sharp acceleration will generate some separation.

I also see this phenomenon when I'm marking a thrower who's less experienced/smaller than me in a league game or at pickup. I get handblocks that only happen because the player I'm guarding throws exactly the same throws they use against weaker defenders. There was really no need to get handblocked—they could've chosen another, safer throw. But they lack the ability to adjust their style to the level of the opponent that's guarding them. Without doing any work to improve their throws, they could have been more valuable to their team if they simply understood how to adjust their play style against a strong opponent. There are better plans out there than I guess I'll just get handblocked now.

Some suggestions

Here's a far-from-complete list of ways to manage your matchup against players who are taller, faster, etc.

When possible, work as a team—use help defense and switching
Allow them to catch completions for small yardage gains, to better protect against letting them get wide open in the end zone.
Accelerate fast—our non-zero human reaction time guarantees that even against faster defenders you'll generate some separation.
Develop more release points and increase your step out distance (the ultimate frisbee version of my skyhook strategy). Even someone taller and quicker than you will struggle to block a throw released from ankle height at a full lunge:

Learn to use pre-throw positioning to box your defender out from the space you want to catch the disc in. Even if they're faster than you, they're forced to run a longer distance if they have to run around you.
A quicker throwing motion is always helpful (It's just like accelerating sharply as a cutter: due to human reaction time, if you can release a throw fast enough, even people who are supposedly quicker than you will have trouble blocking it).
Although I've focused on individual skills in this article, team-level strategy can be very helpful in these situations too. For example, play zone against teams who'll easily win individual matchups, or pick up the disc quickly against defenses that will shut you down if they get a chance to set up.

I said above you can use these skills "without improving your throws, your speed, or your vertical jumping ability". Obviously some of these tips require practicing new types of throwing (so in a sense you are improving your throws), but they don't require you improve your accuracy or throwing distance.

Practice your "strong opponent skills" against less experienced opponents

To be ready to face strong opponents, it's helpful to practice these skills against the weaker opponents that they're not needed for.

As a basketball player, I shot my skyhook even when I was being guarded by the 5'8" defender. I needed to make it an instinct so I'd be able to use it naturally against the 6'5" defender. It actually made me a slightly worse player against weaker opponents (the skyhook is harder than a regular layup, so I'd miss more of them). But what I sacrificed in effectiveness against weak opponents I more than made up for by having a skill that remained effective against taller, stronger opponents.

So practice that quick release and that huge step out even against markers who can't block your normal throws. Practice accelerating fast even against opponents you can get separation from simply by jogging around for a while. You'll thank yourself when you go up against an elite athlete and you have skills you can still rely on to be effective—or at least as effective as possible, given the circumstances.

Final thoughts

You can provide more value to your team by learning how to be as effective as possible against competition with more physical skills than you. You can get better in ways that matchups who are weaker frisbee players than you will never notice. These skills won't make you any more effective against those opponents, but they're still extremely valuable skills to have.

I've written a lot about playing smart frisbee, but I've tried not to bring those topics into this essay, although preparing to play against athletic opponents is certainly one aspect of being a smart player. Of course becoming a smarter, more aware player will make you more effective against every opponent, including the athletic ones. But some of the skills highlighted here are things we generally wouldn't think of as "frisbee IQ" (like a big step out on your backhand). It's the context of being robust against a talented opponent that makes them "smart".

If you take the time to prepare, there are much better solutions to the problem of a skilled opponent than "I guess I'll just get scored on now" or "I guess I'll just never get open now".

PS, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, though I never got around to reading it.

Edit (2024-02-28):

Here I mostly discuss individual strategies. For more on team-level strategies, check out this Kyle Weisbrod Ultiworld article from 2016: The Playbook For Underdogs. (Some of what he mentions is, IMO, just good strategies in general.)

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