Friday, February 10, 2006
There are good bad hucks, and bad bad hucks.
I occasionally get accused of throwing floaty, piece-of-shit hucks. OK, more than occasionally. But I would argue that my huck completion percentage is a fair bit higher than a lot of throwers who have "prettier" deep throws than me. Why is this? Simple, really.
The ideal huck is one that leads the receiver enough so that they can run full out, maintain their separation from the defender, and catch the huck in-stride. Assuming you get the throw off and into space, there are basically two ways a bad throw can deviate from this ideal. At one extreme is the "uncatchable disc", which flies out of bounds or just too low and fast to be reached. At the other extreme is the "hospital pass" that floats above the receiver and defender for an eternity, forcing the receiver to win a jump ball.
So, when I mess up a deep throw, I nearly always err toward "hostpital pass" as oppose to "uncatchable disc". While this doesn't make me look that great (and in fact, I am not that great), it has a positive impact on my stats. I'd guess that last weekend, I had something like three nice hucks (all caught), four completed hucks that were too floaty to catch the cutter in stride, five turnovers on floaty hucks, and one uncatchable huck. In my (lukewarm) defense, probably six of those nine floaty hucks were in wind games where getting the disc down the field was priority. Still, even this rather unflattering line highlights the value of giving your receiver a play on the disc, as almost half of my floaty mistakes (or intentionally floaty punts -- whatever) were converted into goals by the receiver.
The point is not that you should lean back and toss up garbage all the time. Rather, the point is that, as a thrower, as a cutter, and as a designer of your team's offense, you should think about how your bad hucks will end up. If you are constantly cutting deep (and/or throwing to cutters who are going deep) at tight angles, with the priority on getting the disc out in front of the receiver, then you should expect lots of turnovers on uncatchable discs. Think about setting up your offense such that your receivers will have a chance to redeem your throwers' errors.
The ideal huck is one that leads the receiver enough so that they can run full out, maintain their separation from the defender, and catch the huck in-stride. Assuming you get the throw off and into space, there are basically two ways a bad throw can deviate from this ideal. At one extreme is the "uncatchable disc", which flies out of bounds or just too low and fast to be reached. At the other extreme is the "hospital pass" that floats above the receiver and defender for an eternity, forcing the receiver to win a jump ball.
So, when I mess up a deep throw, I nearly always err toward "hostpital pass" as oppose to "uncatchable disc". While this doesn't make me look that great (and in fact, I am not that great), it has a positive impact on my stats. I'd guess that last weekend, I had something like three nice hucks (all caught), four completed hucks that were too floaty to catch the cutter in stride, five turnovers on floaty hucks, and one uncatchable huck. In my (lukewarm) defense, probably six of those nine floaty hucks were in wind games where getting the disc down the field was priority. Still, even this rather unflattering line highlights the value of giving your receiver a play on the disc, as almost half of my floaty mistakes (or intentionally floaty punts -- whatever) were converted into goals by the receiver.
The point is not that you should lean back and toss up garbage all the time. Rather, the point is that, as a thrower, as a cutter, and as a designer of your team's offense, you should think about how your bad hucks will end up. If you are constantly cutting deep (and/or throwing to cutters who are going deep) at tight angles, with the priority on getting the disc out in front of the receiver, then you should expect lots of turnovers on uncatchable discs. Think about setting up your offense such that your receivers will have a chance to redeem your throwers' errors.
# posted by Tarr : 2/10/2006 09:07:00 AM
