David or Goliath

When important parts of one's life happen, the little things are the ones which fall by the wayside. In my case, it was writing about ultimate. I don't claim to be a great writer, nor do I have great insight on ultimate, but it's a good way to get my thoughts down, and they may be helpful for someone down the road. Anyway, without further ado...

Having recently finished Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath, I was interested to consider how it applied to ultimate. The visionaries are often considered odd when they first express ideas, but time or advanced metrics judge them the victor. The horizontal stack, the clam defense, the handler weave: all were absurd at first look, but through practice and perfection, other teams couldn't stop them, so they were spread into ultimate commonplace. Ultimate teams simply copy what they think they know. When teams below the elite level saw the best club team warming up for 90 minutes before each game, they tried too. Without realizing that each and every decision that a team makes should be shaped by the team's identity, too often teams lose themselves in imitation. It's the reason why so many teams do the endzone drill to warm up for games.

On the other side of the spectrum, not all of those who are odd are visionaries. You don't hear about the failed ideas, as they fade into the annals of history without so much as a cursory mention. While the German offense was nigh on unbeatable when executed properly, it was shown to be a mess if teams couldn't complete the middle range throws. And in the middle, some of the more noteable ones - Mexican offense for example - have yet to be proven in an elite setting, while there are a whole host of ideas being tried out all over the world.

As of right now, I believe the idea of dribbling to be a visionary idea hijacked by someone with some unknown motive rather than tested by those working towards a goal of improvement. To be clear, the concept of using your opponent's momentum against themselves is genius. There's a reason that judo is more form than fitness, because people took time to think about strategies to elicit beating a physically superior opponent. While I cannot condone repeatedly passing straight backwards or motion offense until I've seen it in practice, I know that adjusting the angle of attack theoretically could be a viable strategy, though it is just not considered in ultimate. I sit, hopeful of a time when an elite group of athletes and throwers can test it out, either to prove that components are as genius as I think, or that it's just a waste of time.

In the meantime, I've said it before, and I'll likely say it again: there is more thinking to be done regarding ultimate. I know there may be Goliaths at the top right now, but somewhere, a David is lurking.