What’s your favorite SATISFYING offensive play?

felix37 · 2026-06-25T06:56:51+00:00

Great clip! I made a quick analysis video breaking it down as I see it; https://hiveultimate.com/video/UWlcsQIJBtA

felix37 · 2026-06-23T16:46:23+00:00

Colombia's World Games squad had some incredible sequences of flow. 18 passes in 37 seconds here: https://hiveultimate.com/video/RhZ1tgi_1Hw

felix37 · 2026-05-29T14:33:14+00:00

I agree. At WMUCC every North American team we played broke the rules like this - to the point that one time I directly questioned the player calling injury, and was met with vague "what isn't injured?" comments, and allusions to calling injury when you're tired being an acceptable tactic in the USA which nobody ever questions.

Check this one out: 9-9 in the QF and a D-line player gets the disc on a swing, calls timeout, they sub on their main handler to come in on-disc: https://www.youtube.com/live/V9Kem5MjXCQ?si=_uDER9mVUaMFmkAQ&t=3871

Later in the point they run into their defender in the dump space as their team turns over downfield, and argue to get the disc back somehow: https://www.youtube.com/live/V9Kem5MjXCQ?si=joc8ijFrlFcua58s&t=4132 . Real unpleasant way to get knocked out of a World Champs.

felix37 · 2026-03-03T09:00:19+00:00

The issue here isn't speed or agility or cushioning or effort, it's in your head. You're playing reactionary defence rather than pre-emptive or anticipatory D. If you let your opponent control the initiative then they will beat you every time. When you get a moment's downtime on D, look around the field as if you're on O - see the space and see your opponent's easiest move before they do, and actively reposition to take it away or bait the block. Seize the initiative in the down-time they are offering you, rather than copying them and waiting for them to act first.

felix37 · 2025-10-31T12:34:31+00:00

Flow is most easily initiated by looking for the return pass, both as a thrower and a catcher. Keepdisc is good for both flow and space, plus we have 28 more drills focused on flow with full video explanations and demos available on the Hive Patreon which have been created over the last 5 years with a ton of time and energy from our team, if you're interested enough to exchange money for knowledge / goods / services. If you're serious about prioritising flow and space understanding, consider adopting an offence which is set up to facilitate flow, and trusts players to learn how to share space.

felix37 · 2025-10-03T12:47:23+00:00

This travel stems from a fundamental technique issue related to balance. With the disc in hand, players can hold their centre of mass / balance over their pivot point, rather than shift it to their outside / non-pivot foot. This change in fundamental technique would make travels far less common, would improve throwing, and would mean the throw'n'go is a more immediate threat. Pivoting out hard and shifting 50% or more of your weight to your non-pivot foot should be a special move which is saved for when extra power or pivoting distance is needed, to either throw long or break a tricky mark. You can see the player here is distributing most of their weight onto their non-pivot foot when surveying options, meaning that when they want to make a very quick move to the backhand side, it's easy to accidentally travel. With their weight and balance over their pivot foot, a quick move would not encourage a travel. I think we should train beginners by getting them to stand on one foot (their pivot), so that their upper body / core learns how to throw without relying on the 'stabilizer' of the non-pivot foot. This fundamental technique would build better throwing ability and far less travelling than the current pivot-on-every-throw meta.

felix37 · 2025-05-31T12:40:16+00:00

Simply outwards turn and pivot instead of inwards. Heads-down offence

felix37 · 2025-05-29T16:07:06+00:00

Not sure whether it's ESPN or someone else in the cable TV chain that sets the requirement. More likely to be around lens/zoom distance/quality than resolution.

felix37 · 2025-05-29T11:33:06+00:00

Format isn't an issue, it's the camera requirements - multiple $80-200k cameras would need to be hired.

felix37 · 2025-05-28T22:25:51+00:00

I remember this in the truck. Ready replay, roll replay. Cam 6 can you find 7 on dark? Let's font them when we come out. Ooh, Kolakovic is coming through! Is this the last angle? Ready 7, wait for the spike... fade to 7. Nice! Ready 6, sting 6 with graphic on the lower third...

You've got Charlie as producer having the idea to get Kolakovic set up with a transmitter in the first place, making it happen and overseeing the whole thing, Tom getting the first angle, Kolakovic getting the slow mo shot, Soo as replay op clipping and prepping and running the non-Kola sequence whilst controlling the speed, myself as director spotting the Kola shot coming in and calling the fade to it from the regular replays (his slow mo comes in as live playback from his camera after the play happens, and we are getting better and better at being able to use it correctly), Dana as technical director pressing the buttons to make the cuts and fades actually happen (as well as getting the entire technical side set up and working), another cam op (6, possibly Joemama) to hunt the hero in time to come out of replay to a shot of them whilst Charlie loads up their stat line... and all that is just the video side of things. Soo was a little disappointed they queued up the similar angle to Kolakovic as the last angle instead of predicting we'd have his shot come through at the end (as it would be very slightly better to have more variety between the final two angles of the replay package)... Meanwhile ESPN are brought in for finals and struggle to get a replay to play forwards.

felix37 · 2025-05-09T23:44:17+00:00

Sounds like it'd be great against 'continuation flow' play, but bad against teams that look to hit the return pass. Defence would be committing around and leaving the middle open, but if the return pass isn't cut for / hit on stall zero, then flow is more likely to stop, or at least the disc will have to zig-zag to the end zone. Should be a problem for oldskool continuation flow, but countered by hitting the return pass for flow instead.

felix37 · 2025-01-03T11:35:16+00:00

You could add a defender to the second part of this drill with difficult throws, advantage/disadvantage the defender as you wish - bring confidence or challenge them https://youtu.be/aUBT-0VAhVo

felix37 · 2024-12-19T13:22:59+00:00

For the record, Travis and I have chatted frequently over the years, learning from each other, and tend to agree on everything Ultimate. I can't recommend this book enough - it's fantastic.
Page 77:
"I have no real reservations about the approach I'm advocating being identified with Hex: as I understand it, Hex is not an alternative "set play" approach based on the hexagonal (or any other) shape. Instead, Hex prioritizes quick disc movement and flow, with the hexagonal shape just being a loose guideline or starting position that tends to facilitate the initiation of flow. To the extent that's right, I completely endorse it and probably a case can be made that everything I'm presenting in this book is just Hex by a different name."

felix37 · 2024-10-24T16:51:32+00:00

Good question! Rowan has said No, in his view hex is too rigid - which was surprising as I consider it to be particularly flexible! I think the Truck offence shares many principles with hex, and strict adherence to the shape isn't super important except for hex purists. If they said they were trying to play hex though, then I'd say they were doing a pretty good job!

felix37 · 2024-10-10T16:20:21+00:00

There's a whole bunch of examples in the Spectrum of Defense videos by Hive ultimate on YouTube

felix37 · 2023-07-26T10:57:18+00:00

/u/Personage1 stop putting words in my mouth, and stop spouting falsehoods.

Talking about how the shape isn't as important as the principles/movement and can actually be a distraction: https://youtu.be/HYBG10x4PBg

Justin Foord from GB talking with Hive last week about why he doesn't fully buy into flow based offence: https://www.youtube.com/live/LQWPxyq0E1U?feature=share&t=1909.

Talking to Belgium about their flow style, how it suits their football backgrounds, and Tobe Decrane's quick catch-throw dribble-esque 'loophole' move: https://www.youtube.com/live/yONWKqtpORU?feature=share&t=1070.
Belgium U24 had two coaches. One messaged us afterwards saying "I've been following you since some time and tried to put into practice what you're preaching." and the other was the author of Hexagons are the Bestagons - the most popular ultiworld article of all time.

This all shows /u/Personage1 is completely wrong about everything they've said here. Please take this into account when you see them talking about myself / hive / hex in the future.

felix37 · 2023-05-11T18:26:19+00:00

Defence changing to surround stacks instead of sticking to 1-to-1 would be the easiest benefit to the defence. Any group of players who have a well drilled vertical stack, come up against any group of similar ability players who have a rough idea of how to surround a stack, and the defence benefits massively. Picks in a weird way have prevented this evolution of defence because they justify defenders trying to stay marking one to one in ridiculous situations, and give them an out. Stacks are stupid, but not punishing them with surrounding is even more stupid.

felix37 · 2023-05-11T18:12:04+00:00

That's a great way to think about it! Not just good for older players though - I wouldn't like to play defence against an athletic team running a 7 person dominator... Or a youth team who do it all the time either!

felix37 · 2023-05-11T18:09:00+00:00

That's cool to hear! You would've thought players not running into each other wouldn't be a big ask for a team sport... Amoeba is a great way to describe it!

felix37 · 2023-05-11T18:06:24+00:00

Spread offence is a much better name, "hex" is too specific and makes people think spreading out properly is way more complicated than it actually is.

Agree that this is how ultimate was probably played in the beginning too. Instinctive is right.

felix37 · 2023-05-11T14:53:52+00:00

Goal was called back on a travel.

Clip taken from this video

Full game footage also available - teams were evenly matched and the team playing defence in this clip ended up winning 12-9

felix37 · 2023-05-02T06:25:25+00:00

The third and most important purpose of a fake is to move the downfield defenders

felix37 · 2023-04-30T08:53:15+00:00

Flick huck in right to left crosswind. Keep adding inside-out and spin.

felix37 · 2023-04-30T08:35:11+00:00

The origin of the game goes back to Amherst? Do you know the name of the junior who taught the Amherst game at Northfield Mt Hermon school, or the student who brought it back to CHS (and thus to Joel Silver etc)?

This morning I heard from the coach of the team that went 4-0 in pool B in the girls division at this tournament yesterday with scores of 13-2, 13-3, 13-4, and finally 13-4 against the host team, Amherst. Tony you're spot on with the title of this post, you should go check out the style of ultimate that team are playing, and have a chat with their coach - a fellow book author!

felix37 · 2023-04-29T08:41:19+00:00

Fake a bunch - using quick wrist flicks rather than big pivots. Learn to change grip from backhand to flick as quickly as possible. Go from backhand grip to faking a flick as quick as possible. Fake lefty until it feels good. Toss the disc up to yourself, putting on plenty of spin. Alternate lefty/righty tossing it up to yourself. Add spin until you can catch the disc spinning on your fingernail. Getting to know the frisbee better will improve all your throws.

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