The go-to give-go resource
Get your give-and-go PhD
I've never written an article on the give-and-go move, but that's not because I don't like it. I love to give-and-go. But there are already so many articles & videos about the give-and-go — there's not much to say that hasn't been said already.
So here's a compendium (big word!) of resources on the give-and-go. The list is in no particular order. My comments highlight small points I found particularly interesting and don’t necessarily reflect on my thoughts on the article/video as a whole.
How to Dribble: The most unstoppable move in ultimate — Luke from Hive Ultimate narrates this how-to video. I like the suggestion to purposely make a small jump as you're catching the disc. This gives you more time to change your grip and allows you to land with your chosen footwork.
I'm not a huge fan of the drills—I've personally felt that the footwork was simple enough to learn that I didn't need to break it down into simplified motions. Get good at give-and-gos by practicing give-and-gos.
"The second pass give go" — See point #2 in the article. Ian from bettereverday talks about the "second pass" give go, in other words you throw it to someone, they throw it to someone else, and that person throws it back to you.
To play devil's advocate, at some point it's not really a give-and-go anymore, and it's just "playing good offense". But I like the point he makes about how a well-defended give-and-go can sort of stall out the offense as there's an offensive player and two defenders mucking up the space right in front of the thrower.
Give Goes are a Cheat Code — Alex Gan wrote this article for InsideOut Ultimate. Lots of good discussion and some good visual examples.
He pointed out one thing that felt interesting to me and that I'd never thought about before: the advantage you get (compared to normal cutting situations) is not just that you start cutting while your defender is still thinking of you as a thrower. But your defender is also *starting right next to you*, which is often not the place a good defender will be when you're cutting downfield. A good defender will be triangulating & taking away the dangerous spaces instead of staying right next to you.
Perfecting the Throw’n’Go – Hive x TobuFitness — Felix's YouTube video stands out for having LOTS of good video examples. He points out yet another way that the defender is out of position — the mark is, obviously, marking you on the breakside, so once you become a cutter you have an advantage getting open on the open side. You won't have this same advantage cutting without the disc, as your defender will stay on the open side.
Perfecting the Throw’n’Go [EXERCISES] - Hive x Tobu Fitness — Part two of a collaboration with the video above. TOBU Fitness talks about the biomechanics of the throw'n'go. I like his idea of using gravity to just let yourself "fall" into a deeper position, that's a concept I still think about sometimes.
One thing I'd add to this video: "just practice your throw'n'go a lot" is also a good way to build up the strength you need. I'd guess most of the elite players shown in the video have never done workouts specifically meant to develop their throw'n'go muscles.
Mastering the Forehand Throw & Go ft Jack Williams — Jack & Rowan McDonnell share a few tips on doing the throw & go on the forehand side. I don't ever flick into a give-and-go because my lefty backhand is very strong, so it's good we have someone else creating this content! In short:
Use a more compact throwing motion on flick throw & gos (more wrist/less arm). He says it helps with balance (i.e. staying in a good athletic posture to accelerate from), which makes sense.
Practicing one-leg throwing can help develop this ability
Jack says he often throws backhands on the forehand side (BBQ backhand) instead of using the flick throw & go — but it's easier for a good defender to block.
Dribbling Analysis: Tyler Kinley - Sockeye v Revolver — Not surprisingly, Felix is featured often on this list. Felix stresses a few times the idea of being careful to not even have the appearance of traveling. I'd hope opponents don't make dubious travel calls just to slow the offense down, but it's best to not give them any ammunition either way.
In a Reddit comment, Felix suggested a few other videos:
Flow point at Uni Nationals 2018 + brief analysis and
How to play Hex: Flow - Analysis of 14 passes in flow from Stevens IoT
These videos are focused on "flow" more than on "give-and-gos" specifically.
HiveUltimate.com may have a few more give-and-go videos that I missed. I found a few videos describing give-and-go related drills (available to paid members)—check out their 'dribbling' tag for more.
Let's be Frank Ep 7; Dribbling redux — Felix put together this montage of dribbling clips with Frank Huguenard's narration. The description Frank added to the YouTube page is delightful:
Felix took the effort to create this montage. I've got to say, that while he put work in to cull different examples of dribbling, it's all technically dribbling but extremely crude, unrefined, highly illegal and not very impressive so I don't want to give you the idea that I'm giving my endorsement that what these players are doing is what I would consider dribbling.
I'd like to highlight this video for having a good number of clips that I've never seen anywhere else. There's seemingly more dribbling-related content if you look for the "Let's Be Frank" posts on Frank's videos page.
Give-Go Moves | RISE UP Ultimate S1 Ep6 [Full Episode] — YouTube video by RISE UP Ultimate. Some solid discussion, although I'm not sure I agree with Ben that it's actually important to be "smooth, not fast". You can have infinite smoothness and it won't help you if you're not, at some point, moving faster than your defender. (And what does it mean to be going "straight away from your defender"? If the defender is on the downfield side, somewhere "straight away" from them must be in the backfield...but that's not where the cutter cuts!)
This video also highlights why some people (myself included) are anti-"drills". Check out, for example, the drill they're doing around the 7:00 mark. The dump defender has to literally watch the disc fly right past him while waiting to start marking. In a real game this would be a turnover, not a give-and-go!
Ultiworld has published a few articles on the give-and-go:
Tuesday Tips: Five Great Give-and-Go Situations — Not my favorite article as it doesn't have any video examples (or even diagrams), but helpful if you'd like to know a few specific situations where you should look for the give-and-go.
Going Against The Grain: Teaching The Break Side Give-And-Go With Flik — Sadly I can't get the video clips to load, and that removes a lot of value from the article. One comment I like is the idea that being able to get the mark out of position is built on the mark being used to you throwing that same throw previously. Let them learn your habits and then take advantage when they overcommit:
The key to the break side give and go is getting the mark to over-commit. They aren’t going to unless they have seen you catch the disc and throw immediately to the break side; something Bart does a lot...
Dylan Freechild And Give-And-Go Moves: Video Analysis Powered by Agility from Five Ultimate — Long title! Again the video clips are broken for me. This article highlights a move I really like. They call it a "Strike-Around Give-And-Go"—in other words, you catch a dump pass (the "around") and then immediately throw it back to the person who dumped it to you and cut upline (the "give-and-go"). You can start this sequence off with a faked upline cut before catching the dump pass, if necessary (the "strike" in "strike-around").
This will work especially well if your defender is rushing to try to stop you from throwing a second 'around' pass to the breakside.
This would be a GREAT resource if the clips were still available, there are so many video clips.
Tuesday Tips: 5 Handler Moves Guaranteed To Get You Open — #4: Give & Go. I don't love this one— I find it a little too hard to follow the text description without any video clips or diagrams, and there isn't much there that isn't already covered by some of the other resources.
Flik Ulti — There are a couple give-and-go related pages on Flik Ulti if you have a paid account, namely here and here. I don't have an account so I can't tell you any more about them.
Understanding Ultimate — Give – and go where? and Give – and go where? (Part 2). As Benji says in the article, the concepts he's discussing are "really intuitive for most players after a while (though, inevitably, I include my usual overcomplicated analysis)". And that's how I feel about them at this point—I didn't learn too much on a re-read but the detailed descriptions may help some newer players wrap their heads around the concepts.
To give-go or not to give-go? — An interesting Reddit thread where commenters discuss when to, and when not to, give-and-go.
Those are the sources I've found on the give-and-go in ultimate. If you're aware of more resources that I haven't included here, let me know and I'll update the article.
I agree with all these creators that the give-and-go is very powerful. Whether you've been playing frisbee forever or you're just starting, make this technique a part of your game.
Update (2024-02-28): Here’s a new video from Felix, Tobe Decraene's Run'n'Gun Loophole. The loophole is that, at least in WFDF rules, you don't need to attempt to slow down as long as you (a) don't speed up or change direction and (b) don't make three points of contact with the ground after establishing possession.