Let your teammates be open

The skill of realizing someone else is more open than you are

I've written a lot about the small, subtle things that great cutters do right (click here to see other posts tagged 'cutting').

Frequently, the most valuable thing a cutter can do for their team is to recognize that one of their teammates has a better opportunity than they do.

On-field awareness is generally a hard problem, and I don't have any easy solutions. Hopefully drawing awareness to these situations will make them a little fresher in your mind—and thus make you slightly more likely to notice the relevant patterns in-game.

If there's one conclusion I drew from the clips we'll see below, it's this: don't stop attempting to be aware of your surroundings just because you've started a cut. Continue to keep an eye out for your fellow cutters throughout those critical first few steps. (And, as we'll see below, your teammate might not even be cutting. They may just have a defender who is sagging off of them.) Be willing to abort a cut when you see someone else is already open.

As always, these clips shouldn't be taken to suggest anything negative about the players featured. These are elite players—but it's a long season and no one can literally make the perfect play all the time.

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In flow

The first situation I'll highlight is just when the offense is generally in flow. Players are spread across the field, and some defenders might be slightly out of position. Here's our first example, from the 2022 women's club national championship game:

The disc is swung to the center of the field, and within a second or two, an under cut comes from the center of the field. But that cutter is running directly towards the player who swung it to the center of the field (Maggie Rudin), who is completely unmarked. If I'm that downfield cutter making the under cut, I want to (1) see how open my teammate is and (2) leave the space free for them to work in. They're much more open than I am:

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Our next example comes from the 2024 WUL semifinal between Utah and the Bay Area. After the disc is swung by Utah, two downfield cutters start to cut towards the same space, looking for the 'continuation' pass.

I would've liked to see the cutter who's coming from further 'underneath' abort their cut here. They had one step of separation. But a quick peek downfield would've shown them they had a teammate who had nearly ten yards of separation.

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End zone transitions

I've previously written that Putting your whole offense in the endzone is bad, actually. If your teammates have the disc near the endzone and you're behind the play, often the best thing you can do is stay where you are. Give your downfield teammates the space to play 3-on-3 in the huge endzone. Here's a few examples I've found of cutters moving into space near the endzone that could’ve been left for a more open teammate.

We'll start with another example from the same recent WUL game, this time with Bay Area on offense (in the above video). A huck brings the disc 10 yards from the endzone, and Bay Area has something of a 3-on-3 fast break. A fourth cutter comes in from behind the play and nearly D's their own teammate as they run through the passing lane. I'd have liked to see them recognize their open teammate, and slow down to give them space to work. (It could have been a good opportunity for a stop-and-go. Slow down so the open teammate can catch a pass, and then explode towards the endzone for their continuation pass.)

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A similar play happened in another WUL game a few years back. This time, it's Arizona and LA back in 2022.

It's a little freaky how similar these two plays are:

• The offense, going right-to-left on our screen, completes a long pass and gets the disc right near the "20" on the football field (on the bottom of the screen from our perspective).

• There's a 3-on-3, with one cutter streaking towards the corner of the endzone

• The other cutter stops for a short pass on the backhand side—open because the mark defender sold out to stop the forehand

• A player coming up from behind bring themselves and their defender uncomfortably close to that open receiver

This example seems a little less egregious, as they stay on the back side of the cutter instead of running right through the passing lane. But I still see this as a clear missed opportunity. There's no need to bring a defender that close to an open teammate.

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On deep cuts

A final situation where you can "let a teammate be open" is when you see them starting a deep cut. If you yourself are in a relatively deep spot, there's a risk your defender peels off to play help defense. Accelerating towards the under space at the right moment can keep your defender engaged with you just enough that they don't see the opportunity to play help defense.

I haven't found a perfect clip to exemplify this yet, so here's a mediocre example from Chicago Machine's 2019 Nationals highlights video. Watch the cutter in the deep space (at the bottom of the screen from our perspective). Another cutter has beaten their own man deep. But the deepest defender could still peel off to play help defense.

The deep cutter here sees the open deep cut developing from 'underneath', so they get out of the way and take a few steps towards the under space to keep their defender attached to them:

The defender had their back turned to the deep cut, so I doubt they were going to play help defense no matter what the cutter coming under did. But hopefully this clip's still useful to approximately show you the context where you might be able to "let a teammate be open" for a deep cut.

In a situation where your defender is in a better position to be aware, you can still win the battle if you're just a little more aware than they are. Notice your teammate's deep cut before your defender does, and you can make a quick action towards the disc that draws your defender's attention towards you and away from thoughts about playing help defense.

In situations like this, I like to play up my role as the decoy by putting my hands up and/or using my voice to call for the disc. A good thrower will see I'm not actually open (or even trying to get open), and will quickly consider their next option and huck it to the deep cutter.

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Final thoughts

Let your teammates be open. Challenge yourself to notice when another teammate is more open than you are. Don't be afraid to tell them "[X], you go!" (a phrase I teach the team I coach).

There are a few patterns to look for:

• Draw your defender away from the deep space when a teammate starts their deep cut

• If you're behind the play when the disc is advanced to the red zone, look for opportunities to stay out of the way to let the active players do their thing.

• Don't commit your eyes to only focusing on the thrower until you really need to. Often it's possible to abort a cut when you see a teammate has the bigger advantage.

• Challenge yourself to notice when other players are being poached off of.

I often hear teams saying that "we want to avoid double cuts" (or various variants on that phrase). That's a closely related concept, but really only one of the five examples above is something you might call a "double cut". More often we saw only one cut, but it was being made in a way that clogged up space for a teammate who had an even better opportunity. If you can quickly recognize those opportunities your teammates have, you can turn your cut into an attempt to create more space for them instead of an attempt to get the disc yourself.