Arriving at your first training session of university Ultimate Frisbee can be quite daunting as usually people arrive to play Ultimate at university having had no experience whatsoever of playing Ultimate before. Going into a sport with no idea of what is expected of you as a player in any of the positions on the field is a scary prospect so I hope with this piece I can shed some light on all the basic positions. Learning the technical aspects of the game are obviously essential to gaining confidence and ability but I found learning the demands of the positions in the sport to be more of a challenge. Knowing whether I should be attacking or defending at any given time, knowing which position I was best suited for and having any idea as to what my relationship was to other people on the pitch was beyond me.
Most people interested at all in sports and those interested in playing Ultimate will hopefully know a bit about football. It is, after all, the most popular sport in the world. I am going to use football players as an analogy for each position in Ultimate as this would have definitely given me a better idea at the beginning of my love for Ultimate Frisbee as to what was expected of me as a player. I will be looking at Handlers and Cutters in outdoor and indoor matches and Iso players in the indoor version of the game as these are the key positions I had to learn to be able to really get my teeth into the sport.
Outdoor Handler: Jorginho (Chelsea)
In the outdoor game, there are generally three handlers playing with four cutters ahead of them. If you are playing as a handler, think of yourself as Jorginho for Chelsea. You need to be the one to take control of the ball/disc and dictate the play. Your movement has to be superb, understanding how to lose your man, get into space and not crowd areas of the field. You need to be confident enough to take the ball/disc in any area of the field and control the tempo of the match. It is your job to put passes into areas for the forwards/cutters to run onto and instigate devastating attacking plays. Understanding the movement of your fellow central midfielder/handler such as Kovacic/Loftus-Cheek is key to creating space and it’s important not to be scared of simply retaining the ball by turning back towards your own goal/end-zone and resetting the play. As a midfielder/handler you are expected to be defensively sound, offensively creative, technically strong, composed and very fit, just like Jorginho.
Outdoor Cutter: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
Teams playing outdoors generally have five cutters working together to create space and devastate the oppositions defensive tactics to score points. If you are playing outdoors as a cutter think of yourself as Sadio Mane for Liverpool. You are the attacking outlet for your team. Able to play anywhere across the front line, you need to be the player who sprints and uses your pace and agility to lose your defender and create pockets of space all over the pitch. Looking to your midfielders/handlers to take control of the ball/disc, you need to be pre-empting when they will receive the disc and work with your fellow attackers/cutters to quickly get into space to give your team-mate an option to pass the ball/disc to. The most important job in the game will invariably be yours which is your ability to score goals/points. You have to be reliable and good with your feet/hands to be able to score regularly for your team but it is down to you to be consistently moving in space to receive the disc and create passing options for your team. As a cutter you need to be sharp, agile, technically gifted and quick, just like Mane.
Indoor Handler: Aymeric Laporte
Indoor matches require different skills and team tactics than the outdoor game. Indoors has no wind to deal with, it is 5 v 5 rather than 7 v 7 on a much smaller pitch and players can throw the full length of the pitch therefore demands of handlers are different. If you are playing indoors as a handler think of yourself as Aymeric Laporte for Manchester City. Handlers indoors must be more defensively minded and leave more of the attacking play to the cutters and iso, as a turnover of possession can lead to an opposition score much more quickly due to the smaller pitch. You must still be technically strong with your passing as Laporte is but organising your team, starting plays and instilling confidence in your attackers/cutters with your strong defensive abilities should be paramount. As an indoor handler you must still be able to step forward when required, be tall or great at jumping to deal with the more consistently high passes played indoors, use your agility, organise your team and assert your authority over opposition attackers/cutters using your positioning and body, just like Laporte.
Indoor Cutter: Cristiano Ronaldo
Indoor cutters require slightly different key skills to outdoor cutters. You are the forward line. Of course you need to defend but your main job is to cause problems for the opposition defence. Height is an advantage you can exploit to great effect indoors, due to the smaller pitch as it leaves less room for cutters to run into. Your technical skills in terms of throwing and catching also need to be even sharper indoors as the smaller spaces leave a smaller margin for error. This is why if you are playing as an indoor cutter, think of yourself as Cristiano Ronaldo. You should be pacy but more importantly use your movement to drag defenders out of position to create space for fellow attackers to score like Ronaldo does for Mandzukic or Dybala. Your movement can also create space for yourself. By backing into a defender before making your move, you can break into space to receive a pass with much more time on the ball/disc to assess your options. Indoor cutters also need to have great jumping ability, as Ronaldo does, to be able to reach the ball/disc before defenders do. Constantly moving into space, being creative, remaining calm on the disc with your passing and solid with your catching is key to the indoor cutter role. A great indoor cutter also understands his marker/defender, i.e. knows where they’re expecting you to move or knows if his weakness is acceleration, concentration or lack of height and crucially – understands how to exploit those weaknesses as Ronaldo. As an indoor cutter your technical skills, composure, movement, creativity, spacial awareness, eye for a pass and pace are essential to your play, just like Ronaldo.
Iso: Fernandinho
Iso is the most difficult position to relate to football but Fernandinho does a similar job for Man City. Iso is short for isolate and is used in different ways in Ultimate matches but ultimately it is a position in indoor matches which isolates one player in the centre to create a one on one battle for possession in that key area of the field. The handler will call iso at the start of play and it is the Iso’s job to get into space and lose his marker to give the handler an option for a pass. This is exactly what Fernandinho does for Stones and Laporte at Man City under Guardiola. He is the key to the team’s progression up the pitch and if he goes missing there is a huge gap between the defence and attack which means long passes are more often attempted which results in many more turnovers in possession. In its most basic form, as an iso you should be in the middle of the pitch looking to create options for the defence/handlers before linking the attackers/cutters into the play. You need to be defensively strong, understand how to exploit space and have good throwing skills. Having a strong jump can be helpful for the indoor game too, as often handlers will make a high throw (such as a ‘scoober’ or a hammer) to the iso to create a one on one scenario to give the iso an advantage in winning the disc and retain possession. As an iso you are the key cog to the indoor game. You need to be: good at finding and creating space in the middle of the pitch; retaining and recycling possession; defensively solid with good communication skills and also be quick and technically gifted enough to be an attacking threat when the space opens up, just like Fernandinho.
I realise that for any of the knowledgeable Ultimate players reading that these are very basic descriptions of the positions and it may be slightly insulting to you to have the positions compared to footballers as of course the roles are different. I hope that one day, Ultimate players will be as well known as the footballers I used here but until then I am happy to use them to promote an understanding of the wonderful sport that is Ultimate Frisbee. I also know that if I could go back in time to 2014 before I went to my first training session that this piece would have helped my understanding of the positions massively! I hope it can be helpful for others who wish to understand the sport even a little better too.
THE ULTIMATE SPORT 
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