Observations on Offense

I still love this photo. Sick nasty grab by #21, Drew Mahowald. Ah, to have a 30+ in. vertical. (Sigh)

I am in the process of trying out with Beachfront Property, the new Open team in Chicago, and hence went to South Bend, IN this Saturday to watch the team play its first tournament together. I say watch because I yet again injured my hamstring, this time thanks to Long Field's wonderfully smooth surface. Getting thrashed by Sketch and his band of Fratstars was salt in the wound. Anyhow, I was very curious to see how this ragtag team would perform.

Beachfront is comprised of players ranging from talented youngsters to experienced vets. The roster generally pulls from the Midwest schools in the region; Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana, Western Illinois, etc. Though a core group of players have played together in the past, this team is for the most part a shotgun project. They've had two practices before this tournament and it definitely shows on offense, which is not necessarily a bad thing because...

Offense is hard. I've had this argument with many in the past, and they claim I'm biased because I am an Offensive Asian, but I believe offense is harder than defense. To be flawless, to be poised under pressure, to be consistent is incredibly demanding of your mental game. This is why offensive players tend to be older and more experienced players. And even though offense has the advantage in ultimate, they have the added pressure of needing to succeed. The o-line has to score and put the defense on the field so as to shift that pressure on to the other team, force their offense to remain collected and cool. An efficient offense needs to score at least 75% of the time. If the offense is caught in a rut because of smothering defense, or a breakdown in flow than it becomes imperative to stop the bleeding. Call a timeout, switch the players up, change something.

Now defensive players would argue that offense always has the right of way, always has the advantage and that's what makes playing good D so hard (that's .. what ... she said? Never mind.) But that's exactly the difference. Once you accept the fact that a good offense is going to score on you most of the time, that they are supposed to do so, than the pressure is off. That is not to say you can be like "fuck it, I'm poaching and playing lazy D." You need to keep running hard, capitalizing on any play you can make, making it as hard as possible for them to score, and if you can succeed just one or two times in breaking the offense then you can win the game. If your offense is doing its job, then the defense literally need only succeed 10-15% of the time to win the game.

But obviously, games that play out this way are rare. The best example was probably the 2006 Club Finals that pitted Furious George (Vancouver) vs. Sockeye (Seattle). There were maybe 5 or 6 turnovers in the whole game. The offenses retained a 90%+ success rate, and Sockeye's defense only needed to succeed twice to win the game 15-13. That is quite a rare and exceptional game (note: boring, though impressive).

Seattle Sockeye Highlight Video 2007

(Not of the final, but still a cool video and a decent look at what elite ultimate is like for those of you who don't play at all or for those who are still unaware.)

Ultimate is more often a game of runs. Teams will open strong, trade points for a while, and then very often one mistake or one huge play will ignite a defense and set off a run. The offense will be slightly shaken, a little less confident and out of rhythm, and give up 3-4 breaks in a row. This is where defense becomes very difficult. The offense fucked up and now the defense must ride in on its cavalry and save the day. Though anything is possible the odds are stacked against them. Another reasons why offense is hard. They have the pressure of never letting that situation happen. And if it does, then the team that is down has to hope for defensive inspiration, and the offense then ABSOLUTELY cannot be broken. And the team that is up has to keep the offense high percentage, and never let the opponent's defense back in the game. I feel that's a lot of shit to worry about.

Now back to my original point of Beachfront's early offensive potential. It definitely will be strong, but requires a lot of gelling and refinement. A team with only two practices and no prior experience playing together is going to struggle to get that going, especially at a tournament like this one. Basically, the teams that attended were scrubs; high school teams with coaches who play Disc Hoops (Frank ... you suck), and collections of small alumni teams who were more concerned about how many kegs were going to be at the party later. The true test and reason Beachfront came was to play Machine, Chicago's #1 Open team that placed 9th at Club Nationals last year.

Machine came split squad in to this tournament and Beachfront was looking at a Round 5 match up against Machine-Y, or Pulley. In very standard ultimate fashion, the game started close. Clearly, both teams had not met any real competition all day and were adjusting to the sudden spike in intensity and skill (see Central Plains Sectionals, every upset that NUT has ever had/suffered). Beachfront's handlers suddenly weren't getting open at will, but Machine could not count on the offense to just give them the disc, they were going to have to earn a turnover. Machine opens with a break, but Beachfront responds and manages to trade out making the score 5-4. Then the critical moment occurs...

In this instance, Machine didn't get a sick D, in fact they got very few D's throughout the game. All of a sudden though, Beachfront started giving the disc to them, turning it over on unforced errors and not getting it back. The captains correctly identified this as a result of shift in mentality towards anxiousness. The offense lost its confidence and was being broken multiple times in a row. This is where, I believe they should have made a change. The same players were going out there getting tired and beaten, something needed to be adjusted. Machine takes half 7-4, and continues to pile on defensive pressure.

Some slight adjustments were made, and Beachfront has some success with them, but inevitably Machine wins out 13-6. I think the biggest problems Beachfront faced were that Machine played with very fast handler movement and were able to stretch a strong deep game that they had not faced all day. Also, Machine presented a very athletic team. But there looks to be great promise for the new Chicago guns...

I'm not sure what my future with this team will be like. They look a little handler-heavy and I could understand if they didn't want another handler (especially Asian handler from Northwestern, thanks a lot Jenga, Wilson). But I wish them the best for now, and remain confident that they will achieve their goal of being the #2 team in Chicago, above those punkass Haymaker kids and Chris Schroeder (grumpy, old bastard).

EP #6