You don't need to stare down your dump receiver

It's not what the best players are doing

A comment I've often heard at introductory (or even sometimes higher) levels of frisbee instruction is that a dump thrower should turn towards the dump cutter and "activate" them by making eye contact to start the process of making a dump pass. For example¹, here's an older Tuesday Tips Ultiworld article that says:

Throwers should signify readiness by “addressing the dump”: turning their shoulders, pivoting towards the dump, and making eye contact.

Another comment on Reddit agrees with my intuition that this is generally how dumps are taught, especially at lower levels:

Most of the time, we teach this dump as a handler initiated dump. That is, the dump basically doesn't move until the handler turns around and looks for them.

And RISE UP Ultimate's video on The Dump-Swing, while being a bit better overall , still suggests that the first step in dumping is to "square up" to the dump receiver and "find" them.

---

This 'turn, pivot, make eye contact' sequence is not what the best players are doing (not all the time!). While someone else has probably already broken down what these high-level dumps throws look like, I can't remember having seen such a breakdown, so here's my version. I've had this post in mind for a long time, but a sequence from the US World Games team at last weekend's 2025 London Invite inspired me to finally write it up. With enough time, I expect I could add endless video clips to this article, but for today we'll start with just one.

Here's the play in question:

And a slo-mo version of the critical moments:

Here are a few things that stand out to me about Kami Groom's dump pass to Anna Thompson:

• Kami doesn't "square up" or "make eye contact" before being ready to throw. In one motion, she twists her head and torso towards the dump space, brings the disc across her body, and uses a half-pivot backhand to release the disc before she's completed a full step.

• Anna is jogging upfield before Kami ever looks at her. Admittedly she's doing this at least partly because she started so far behind the disc. But I think jogging like this has another benefit—it gives just a little downfield momentum to your defender, making it slightly harder for them to stay close to you when you accelerate towards the dump space.

• Anna's got her hand up calling for the disc in the dump space, like, a third of a second after Kami first begins to initiate a motion towards looking to the dump space:

  

  
  She's only able to do this so quickly because she's been planning for & predicting Kami's turn towards her. This is what the best dump cutters are doing—setting up their cuts with an expectation of when the thrower will look to them, then exploding into the cut and signaling at the first moment they see the twitch of a thrower's shoulder turning back towards the dump space.
  

• It's harder to say for sure but it's also possible that Kami saw Anna slowing down out of the corner of her eye and chose to turn because of this. Great players should be reading the whole field as much as possible, and having a feel for what your dump cutter is doing while you're still mostly looking upfield is certainly part of that.

I've mentioned the theory behind why I don't like staring down your dump receiver² many times at this point, so as a quick recap: it's not good if the defense knows exactly what you're doing. And while eye contact "activation" gets you on the same page with your teammate, it's such an obvious signal that you're just letting the defense get on exactly that page, too—canceling out all the benefits to coordinating with your teammate. Real teamwork/chemistry needs to be a bit more subtle than that. These quick-hit dump passes are also another way to play with speed, and speed makes it hard for the defense to keep up—the longer you stare down a dump before swinging the disc, the more time the 5 other uninvolved defenders have to re-optimize their positioning.

---

Summary

So, as a dump thrower, you should be turning towards the dump space with the expectation that you'll be able to turn, look, and throw all in one smooth motion. As much as possible, maintain awareness of the dump receiver out of the corner of your eye, as there will be moments when it's particularly easy to turn and throw a quick dump. Develop your half-pivot/no-pivot throws if you need to. Of course, you shouldn't expect to always get this throw off. But you shouldn't be missing opportunities for it because you're stuck in the elementary-level "turn—eye contact—activate" mindset.

And as a dump receiver, you should be setting up your cut before the thrower looks at you. Often by using a jog upfield to put them a tad more on their heels when you cut back. You should be predicting /prepared for your thrower to turn towards you, and you should be exploding into your cut and calling for the disc at that very first moment you see them start to turn. Optimally, the thrower should look towards the dump space and by the time their eyes have made it there, you're already an open target who's calling for the disc.

---

Bonus content — structure vs. flexibility

I thought the ending of this same goal line sequence—the US score—provided a great example of the benefits to valuing flexibility over structure. After Anna catches the dump and swings it to Marques Brownlee, he looks upfield and sees this combination of cutters in front of him:

If your team didn't have a rule that "endzone cuts come from the front of the stack", which cutter would you want cutting to the breakside here?

• The one at the front of the "stack" whose defender has orbited around to the breakside?

• Or the one at the back of the stack whose defender is still guarding them on the open side?

I'd say it's obvious you want the one who can simply accelerate directly into the open space with their defender already on the wrong side of them—the one at the back.

After Marques dishes it back to Anna, the US successfully scores on that tougher cut from the front³. But I'd argue their over-reliance on structure turned an easy goal into a somewhat harder goal (and while it didn't happen in this case, those marginal difficulty increases will sometimes turn into actual turnovers).

Even within a "cut from the front" structure, great players at the back of the stack should be zealous about spotting and seizing opportunities—always vigilant, always looking for their moment—and I see a missed opportunity here. (But how to not get run into by your front-of-stack teammate? 1. Cut early when you see they're still setting up—there was a clear opportunity for that here. and 2. Use your voice—a "me me me!" at the second you explode into your cut should successfully call off a teammate who isn't consumed by tunnel vision.)

1. admittedly it was a bit harder to find examples of this online compared to how frequently I've heard it in person

2. or other things of that nature

3. After all, offense has the first-mover advantage in general. Plus this is a World Games team against a U24 team.