Adjustment Repertoire

We might as well continue along the theme of the previous post - A repertoire of play styles that allows a team to adjust and force the other team to adjust.

I remember a friend of mine, a sports psychologist, saying, "If your not putting pressure on your opponent, that means they're putting pressure on you" (Note this could be a famous saying). One way for a team to prepare to put pressure on the opponent is to build a repertoire of play styles that allows you to switch games and keep the opponent off-balance.

So what are some of the necessary components of a teams plan that need to be added to the repertoire. Here's a list of possibilities:
1. Offence =
a) Possible green space setups Vertical, Horizontal, Lane, Germans
b) Plays or "Frameworks" from each green space setup
c) Modes of play (see "The Rainbow of Ultimate")
2. Defense =
a) Man positioning and Forces
b) Choice of help positions
c) Junk type defense
d) Zones to contain
e) Zones to hold in conditions or weaker teams

I'm sure there are a number of other possibilities, but this is a start of what a team needs to have available to them. The plan should revolve around making sure that all of the repertoire has been hashed out in the play book, and practiced/taught. Finally, each part of the repertoire should be used in game situations.

The real trick is figuring out when to make adjustments to respond to pressure from the opponent, and when to make adjustments to put pressure on the opponent.

Two classic scenarios come to mind:
1. Opponent calls a timeout because your style of play is crushing them = great time to switch to a new style so their timeout is relatively useless - SUCCESS.
2. One of your styles of play was consistently working = the opponent has adjusted, but your team is stuck in a rut of going to what worked - ERROR.

This type of planning is similar in many if not all team sports. Football is the most classic comparison, but I can think of similarities in basketball and hockey. That's why those sports and their literature is so relevant to advancing Ultimate.

PJ