One of the first things to remember when cutting is who are you cutting for. It is not much use being ten metres free on the break side if the thrower is a beginner who is not even going to try to break the force. If you have a thrower who likes to throw the break throw, sometimes an effective cut consists of heading straight for the break side, assuming your defender will be a few steps behind. This is more effective the more your defender marks on the open side. Try and know what throws the thrower likes and make your cuts accordingly.
The next thing to look at is your defender. There will be some times when you can simply run past your defender. This is not great practice for when you are being marked by a good defender, but hey...open is open. Other times you may be being marked by someone who is fast, but slow to change direction. A hard run one way followed by a quick direction change always loses them. In general, though, you will be marked by someone of roughly your own ability, and the rest of the section will assume that.
Chances are your defender will set up a few metres in front of you, and slightly on the open side. The defender's aim is always to be able to watch you. As a result, an effective cut generally makes the defender have to turn around. The best way to do this is to run directly at the defender. The defender will back away, but assuming you can run faster forwards than they can backwards, they will eventually have to turn. When this happens, put in a fake or two until the defender, who should be looking in the other direction, goes the wrong way. You should then be open.
The mistake a lot of cutters make is to start faking sideways while their defender is still able to watch them. The defender can just stand and watch and when the cutter finally goes one way the defender will follow without any trouble.
It is important to build up a repertoire of cuts. Everyone has a couple of favourite cuts they make successfully over and over. But in top competition or against difficult defences, the old favourites may not work. You need to be able to adapt your cuts to the game and your particular position and, most importantly, to keep the defence guessing.
Everyone on the team should be able to perform all of these cuts, regardless of how often you might use them.
Remember, cuts can be made from ANYWHERE on the field, in ANY DIRECTION, at ANY TIME.
The basic cut to the disc is a side-to-side variation. The cutter fakes going to one side and then turns hard to cut to the other side. Variations include throwing two or more fakes.
To turn as rapidly as possible, remember:
- Keep your weight low
- Take fewer, more powerful steps
Either taking off quickly or running fast can simply get you past your defender.
This involves getting your inside shoulder and leg in front of the defender and then protecting you cut with your body.
When the defender is overplaying your forward cut, you can fade out to the open side and away from the disc at about 45 degrees. The throw is a high, loopy, slow, leading pass which you run down. The defender is stuck in no-man’s land, and is often unsighted.
This is similar to the cut from behind the disc. Run towards the thrower and end up close and on the break side, effectively eclipsing the thrower with the marker. Then button-hook around and flare out on the open side to receive a leading pass.
This simply involves a rapid change of pace and/or direction, which the defender fails to respond to quickly enough. Refer Sally Basten.
The circle of death simply involves a 270 degree + spin and rapid acceleration into space. Refer Dan Wilson. Believe it or not, this can actually work, because you are translating your circular motion into forward momentum, while your defender is standing flat-footed.
This is a head fake. Watch the imaginary disc going up-field and past you. As soon as your defender looks around, make the cut to the disc.
Run to one side, jump and pretend to receive the disc at about head height, then turn and cut in the other direction.
From the back of the stack, fake to cut deep (and away from the stack to avoid a pick), and then turn sharply back to the disc and run parallel with the stack. The throw should be slow enough to make it a simple catch and allow a larger margin of error.
From the front of the stack, fake forward to the open side and then turn sharply to run up the break side of the stack and then look for the huck down the open sideline. You should be attacking the disc with a good sight of it coming over the shoulder, not watching it floating over your head.
Start off standing out on the open side of the stack and at least 10m from the stack proper. Make sure you are reasonably close to the thrower (15m at most). You then have the freedom to make any cut you like to get free. The most usual cuts are to fake short and cut long, or vice versa. This is EXTREMELY difficult to stop if the cutter makes hard turns. It is especially useful in a line trap situation, and can make for massive gains with a good huck down the line.
Stand on the open side 5-10m from the thrower. Establish eye-contact with the thrower. If your defender is looking at the thrower rather than you, then you should initiate a short cut to one side to receive an easy pass. If the defender is looking at you, then the thrower should initiate with a thrower out to one side, which you then chase down. If the defender is standing side-on (since most people know this play now), then you need to turn them around by shifting to their blind side first, or simply move to box them out from one side and have the thrower throw to that side.
Stand behind and to the break side of the thrower. Fake going for the dump and then run forward and slightly across to the open side. The throw should be early and slow, so that the receiver can easily run it down. Alternatively, fake the cut forward and come back for the easy dump. This is a valuable cut for when the thrower is trapped on the line where it is called the "cooee" cut.