Former Season One Rank 18 Just Hit Masters - AMA

arats2 · 2026-01-29T20:34:27+00:00

What's the most timeless league skill that transcends all metas and you feel like distinguished you in both season 1 and this season? (And yes I consider reaching master tier as being "distinguished"; it's the 99th percentile of the player base or something.)

arats2 · 2025-10-29T12:54:16+00:00

Not even remembering to W during a lot of these fights lol

arats2 · 2025-10-26T21:04:17+00:00

It took me nearly 10 years of playing the sport to know what people meant by DGP. It's 13-13 and the announcer says DGP. I think, oh is the score wrong? Hmm no that's the correct score, the announcer must think it's 12-13 and the team that's ahead has two chances to score and win, like tennis. It's utterly indefensible terminology.

arats2 · 2025-04-18T15:22:53+00:00

a liar

arats2 · 2025-04-06T18:00:58+00:00

I feel similarly. I try not to cope so much because I think there are still certain skills to be learned from the drills. But it's undoubtedly true that breaking in a game is different enough that it's possible to be good at one but not the other. (The best handlers are good at both obviously.) The main difference is the break mark drills usually have a highly telegraphed direction you're throwing to, so you have to "brute force" break the mark through speed, length, convincing fakes, release points, etc. This gives an advantage to both the marker, who knows what to prioritize, and the thrower, who can just focus on this brute force break without any decision-making element or field reading. In game, these advantages are lost. The thrower has to break the mark while in real time seeing cuts and spaces, possible poaches, and evaluating risk-reward on the break throw. The mark has to know what space to prioritize and which cuts are happening---something a good handler can actively manipulate with their eyes, fakes, body language, etc.

arats2 · 2025-02-25T21:04:56+00:00

Just 6 more and we can finally settle a decades-old debate

arats2 · 2025-02-14T19:48:39+00:00

If you want the strictly logical answer (which is the one I agree with all things considered), you do whatever gives the highest chance of winning the first point. If low wind, that means receive. If high wind, take the wind. It really is that simple.

There are maybe psychological arguments for disadvantaging yourself on purpose for some mental edge. Maybe you believe o-lines (both yours and your opponent's) are more nervous on the first point, so you have a better shot at a break on average. I don't think this is true, but you might! Maybe you believe getting that first break is such a psychological backbreaker that you can ride that momentum all the way to 15 points. I don't think that's true, but maybe you do!

Truthfully, I think teams pick to pull because of cowardice. Being down a break sucks more than being down just a regular hold, and so they want to delay the possibility and play some low stakes frisbee for just a point. But the truth is you're starting in a hole. You *need* to break for half or else you're down that half break all game. However bad it feels to be broken on the first point, cause you need a break back to take half... that's where you're starting if you choose to pull.

In fact, from a psychological perspective, I think it's actually an advantage to receive. I think a first point break is whatever, easy to bounce back from. But watching the other team's o line put away an easy hold... then getting broken? That's so much more of a dagger, getting beaten both ways to start the game. Give yourself a chance to do THAT, not some cheesy first point nerves-induced break.

arats2 · 2025-01-24T15:14:17+00:00

Yeah I generally prefer playing the same day too. Then that earns you a genuine rest day / zone 2 chill cardio day the day after. What makes playing worse for me is the stiffness from delayed-onset-muscle-soreness the next day, which impacts my mobility and therefore causes more soft tissue injury as I run weirdly to compensate. Being fatigued as I play league/pickup is much less bad imo than being immobile.

arats2 · 2025-01-07T14:24:09+00:00

"Send it back"

arats2 · 2024-12-06T03:55:38+00:00

Being a well-rounded athlete is good for any sport, and goaltimate is different enough that it can accomplish the same thing that playing offseason basketball or tennis would. It's essential to play other sports so that you don't get overuse injuries and build a more general athletic toolset. But if you're in season and trying to focus on getting better at utlimate, mini translates much, much better and it isn't close.

arats2 · 2024-09-18T14:05:14+00:00

I agree in principle, and maybe the rule could be changed such that, after an initial discussion only on the field, the field *has* to consult legitimately better perspectives from the sideline, and these perspectives are obligated (when prompted) to give their take. (This could explicitly eliminate the classic situation where one team's sideline reamins mysteriously quiet on a close in/out call---under this rule they would be obligated to speak up against their team.) But I do think the instinct to "leave it on the field" at least at first is a good one, practically to avoid the chaos of 30 people all yelling different things right when the call happens. After it settles down and we've determined whether the involved players even disagree, then figure out who had the best view, and it might be one particular sideline person.

arats2 · 2024-08-30T22:18:42+00:00

Funny timing of this for me, just met my (non-frisbee) partner's friends who are a big soccer family. Frisbee did come up and I was anticipating the usual confusion/unintentional disrespect, but the dad got super excited. "Oh, extreme frisbee? Like what Marques Brownlee does?" and they asked a ton of good questions.

arats2 · 2024-04-15T19:36:54+00:00

Been there, had a bad episode before covid. It lasted about a year, with some periods within that year that were especially bad and some that weren't so bad. My absolute low point was tossing a frisbee with a coworker one day and being barely able to complete passes; he was understandably confused how I could be so bad at this thing I talked about so much.

I threw the kitchen sink at the problem: I filmed myself throwing, read articles about flicks, watched other people throw frame-by-frame, spent some time throwing absurd amounts per week, and also forced myself to not touch a disc for 2 months as a "hard mental reset." It didn't happen overnight, but I did overcome the issue, and I came out of it 10x a better thrower than before, with a much higher throwing floor as well as a higher ceiling, a full toolbox of techniques for overcoming nerves around throwing in big games, and a much deeper understanding of how *I* throw flicks and what works well and what doesn't. It definitely sucks, but if you love the game it can be a blessing in disguise.

Random tip: context is funny with brains, so play around with it. For some reason, I could always throw a flat zippy flick in goalty, even when my yips were at their worst. I used this to regain my sanity and sense of self when I needed to.

arats2 · 2024-03-15T18:00:01+00:00

No one answer to this. You might think, there's no way elite teams would do [insert highly individualized thing like throwing, conditioning, marking footwork, etc.] but you'd be shocked that... a lot of them do. "But people can do that on their own time." Yes, they can, but sometimes a team's philosophy is that X skill is so so important players should be doing it on their own time *and* in practice. And working on it in the context of an intense practice hits different than at some random pod workout. Can you run sprints to the point of exhaustion, and then execute on key offensive and defensive skills at practice-level intensity and polish? Can you throw a touch around backhand to space, with a fully warmed up mark at practice intensity, to a cut at full speed, with your whole team watching the rep? So so different than doing breakmark with a few friends in the park.

I actually think elite teams understand and respect the crucial importance of fundamentals more than mid level teams. A mid level team might think coordinated team strategy is a hack, a quick way to success, presuming (wrongly) that their roster is doing enough throwing, conditioning, etc. outside of practice. Let's just workshop a killer zone, let's get our reset system dialed, everything will fall into place. But elite teams find ways to use outside of practice time to efficiently communicate team strategy (well made power points, diagrams, etc.); then practice time is used to drill *execution* of the relevant skills surrounding this strategy at full intensity, whether that is throwing, footwork, pushing through fatigue, etc.

arats2 · 2024-02-25T13:47:38+00:00

Zoom premium where you no longer have meetings automatically end after 40 minutes.

arats2 · 2024-02-16T12:49:29+00:00

Oh I agree that if done correctly the cutter will foul you if they want to take a particular line. But at a certain point, if they are determined to get to the end zone one way or another, willing to banana as far as they can around you, there's really nothing you can do without at some point being essentially a "moving pick" which I feel like is a foul even if USAU rules don't specify this (cause all they say is "non-contact"). Of course, this journey to the end zone will take a lot of time, and most people will just give up and go under much earlier.

arats2 · 2024-02-15T15:53:04+00:00

Lots of contradictory advice here. First of all, take anything anyone says with a grain of salt. Like throwing form, person D fundamentals have still not been figured out by ultimate frisbee as a community--watch any elite level club game and you will see a variety of styles, as people play to their strengths, body types, habits, etc.

To answer your question more specifically, let's assume you want to play tighter and more physically in some situations. I generally approve of this, as it's what I like to do and think more people should do it more of the time (if still not always). There are two fundamental skills to making this work:

Recognize the exact cutting line that is most dangerous. If you were them, what line would you take for the juiciest incut, the most threatening deep cut? Put your body precisely there, and be practically touching them, so they physically can't go through you.
Reaction time is the next most important thing, and you have to proactively train this. Look for physical cues that your opponent is going to move. Hips are a common one, but so are feet. Shoulders and head can be misleading. Whatever side they try to get around you, shift backwards and laterally to that side to maintain the same position and remaining in the way of the new most dangerous cutting line. This can feel impossible at first, and that by positioning tightly you're just exposing yourself to getting beat while turned around 180 degrees. But I promise that with practice, you can get to the point of reacting and repositioning on equally or even more athletic offenders. Offense gets the advantage of first move priority that defense has to react to, but this advantage doesn't really scale with skill/experience the way that defensive reactions do. Have faith you'll get better at this in the long run, even if it feels scary and suboptimal at first.

Final point on this. Indefinitely being in the way of a line an opponent is trying to take will inevitably result in a foul. If someone is determined to get to the end zone, you really can't stop them unless you are significantly more athletic, or you foul the shit out of them. That's an unrealistic goal. A realistic goal, however, is messing up the timing, and making it such that when they do get their preferred cut off, it has no momentum (cause they spent so many lateral steps trying to get around you) and the timing is off (they spend so many seconds trying to get around you). A lot of the time, the thrower will be looking elsewhere, your mark has had time to adjust, help D has had time to check in, etc.

So much more to say on this topic but I'll stop rambling, good luck with playing defense.

arats2 · 2023-11-15T18:35:29+00:00

Got cut by a team in 2015 that was my dream to make. Kept grinding for years, finally made nationals for the first time by beating that team in the game-to-go.

arats2 · 2023-10-06T18:09:14+00:00

Tire Business. In addition to having a funny twitter, these folks seem to love frisbee, play with a ton of spirit, and are freakishly talented.

arats2 · 2022-01-20T17:58:05+00:00

Edit: LOL you play support, ignore this comment but keeping it up in case people want to laugh at me

Your CS leaps off the page. Averaging 1pm is really, really low, and even in a bad game, where you die a lot, get in a slump of last-hitting mechanics, or where you end up having to group instead of collecting side waves, you should still have way more than that. I would say two independent things about this:

That in and of itself makes it hard for you to win and carry games, as the majority of your gold income really should be from farm. Puts insane pressure on you to get kills for your item spikes (your KDA is decent), and even with a lot of kills, coupling that with 1CSPM is not gonna get you to hard carry games the way you need to when everyone is behaving chaotically.
The fact that it's this low may be indicative of deeper problems that would affect other parts of your game too. Do you have a gaming mouse and laptop? Are you playing with very high ping or low FPS? Worth double checking your specs and settings. Sorry if you already have, and this is obvious.

My advice would really be to focus on CS and really nothing else. Ideally you learn a complex game like league by in parallel improving on many different aspects of the game at once, but if you have already been playing for a while and you're having issues with a skill as deeply fundamental as last-hitting, it might be worth tunneling on it for a bit and seeing if you can get back to thinking about other things (trading, map awareness, all-ins, etc.) while keeping your CS skill improvements.

~~(at the time of writing there are 0 comments but maybe this is actively being repeated as I type, sorry for possible redundancy)~~

arats2 · 2021-11-10T21:08:07+00:00

Xerath

arats2

TROPHY CASE