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There are many situations in ultimate frisbee where a huck can be helpful, for example, when you are at a high stall count. However, it is crucial to understand when to huck and how to throw a huck to your teammates on the field. So what is a huck in ultimate frisbee?
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What Is a Huck in Ultimate Frisbee?
A huck in ultimate frisbee is when a player throws the frisbee disk to a receiver relatively far away. When hucking, the disc is thrown with spin, power, and control to reach the receiver conveniently. A good huck is achieved by a strategic combination of proper grip, spin, accuracy, and energy.
Most players tend to like hucking so much that they use it regularly without even realizing there are better alternative options of passes. An excellent huck can provide an opportunity for your team to score. A badly thrown huck can cause turnovers and may cost you the game. Here are some tips for Hucking in Ultimate Frisbee.
Consider Mixing Up Your Passes
A huck pass should not be treated as an offensive strategy. It’s better to use a variety of passes to keep the opposing team guessing. If your team uses too much huck, the opposing team could make countermeasures specifically targeting your huck passes.
There are times when short throws are more viable depending on what the defense is set up. It’s better to adjust your offense depending on what the defense gives you. While huck is a great and cool way to score, it won’t always work on some defense setups.
Remember Teamwork Is Better Than Individual Plays
Sometimes, you have that one player who is much faster than most players to receive a huck pass. Teams often revolve their strategy over this one player. The greatest disadvantage of this is that the other players on the team won’t get to touch the disc as much.
The defense will also easily predict your strategy and just focus on your best player. If they can shut down your fastest player, your hucking strategy won’t be as effective as you would like it to be.
It’s better to emphasize on teamwork to make good use of each players. Even the top teams on ultimate frisbee put more emphasis on teamwork rather than individual play. You get to actively play each of your players so they can efficiently work in clutch situations rather than them being cold because they haven’t touched the disc much.
How To Improve Your Hucking
Power in hucking results from proper coordination of the mechanics of your throw. To get more power, you need to work on your technique and physical strength. Practice makes perfect so practicing your throws repeatedly and correcting your form will help you see some improvement.
For physical strength, some resistance training for your arms will do the job. Combining both technique and arm strength. Here are some of the important body parts you need to work on for your strength and technique.
Wrist Action
One of the most important technique you need to work on is your wrist action. Most throwing sports like baseball emphasize heavily on flicking your wrist for better accuracy and power. Even basketball involves some wrist action like the follow through to provide better accuracy.
For ultimate frisbee, make sure that your wrist action is proper to avoid any injuries. Flicking your wrist gives you that extra power and not just rely on your arms.
Elbow Motion
Your elbow drive gives you the range of motion needed to set up your wrist for the snap. Work on your elbow flexibility so you can stretch it all the way. Try bringing your elbow back as far as you can, then spring it forward quickly to get some momentum like a catapult.
Release the disc as the elbow recoils and don’t forget to apply the snap of the wrist to throw the disc with a ton of spin and power. The spin will help increase the accuracy of your throw by providing more wind resistance through its motion.
Using Your Core
To add to the power of your huck, it is advisable to twist your core as you retract your elbow back when getting ready to throw the disc. Using your core twist makes full use of some muscles to give you that extra bit of power boost and stability for your huck throw. This gives you a more controlled throw.
Lower Body for Balance and Stability
Your hips and lower body movements are essential for a successful huck. Your lower body has the vital job of stepping out. Using rotational and linear power, you should pick a spot with your non-pivot foot to stay balanced.
How To Use the Right Form to Huck
| Do | Don’t |
|---|---|
| Flick your wrists to add spin to your throw | Throw with no spin |
| Try to face the direction you are going to throw to | Throw with your body facing a different direction |
| Add power by snapping your arm | Stop practicing the flicks and snaps of your wrists and arms |
A great huck results from practicing body coordination, stability, and accuracy. You will need to work on your mechanics and practice your technique to perfect your throw abundantly. Some tips you can follow to help you with your form include:
- Step out to have a good throw.
- Bend at your waist to determine what edge you put on the disc.
- Spin the disc: a disc thrown with great spin can effectively cut through the wind and avoid being swayed off course.
- Snap your arm: Snapping your arm throws the disc in the direction you are aiming for, adjusts the edge you put on the disc, and adds to the power of your throw.
- Flick your wrist to provide spin to your huck throw.
You will need to practice the ‘snap’ and ‘flick’ repeatedly to be efficient in throwing a huck in ultimate frisbee.
Types of Gripping the Disc
Knowing how to hold the disc and flick your wrist will maximize your throwing distance. When hucking, there are two ways to grip the disc:
- The Power Grip – The power grip is when you have all your fingers on the underside of the rim while your thumb grips firmly on top of the disc. As the name implies, this grip provides a lot of power on your throws.
- The Split Finger Grip – the split finger grip is closely similar to the power grip only that your index finger is positioned on the side of the rim. Split finger grip provides more accuracy at the cost of less power.
Most people prefer using the power grip for hucking. The split finger grip provides you with less power compared to the power grip. Hence, when it comes to long-distance throws like hucking, you might fall short.
Related Questions
How Can I Huck When the Mark Is On?
To huck while the mark is on, find an open receiver and use a shoulder fake. This moves the mark closer to the break side, giving you more area to huck. A long follow-through is tough with the mark on, so you must put a lot of effort into your backswing.
How Do I Keep My Hucks Flat?
To keep your hucks flat, you need to improve the strength of your flick and backhand. On top of that, if you want to prevent the disc from rolling over, your strategy should be to not follow through with the arm.
What Are the 3 Types of Throws Most Used in Ultimate Frisbee?
In ultimate frisbee, the three most used throws are the backhand, the forehand, and the overhear (which is also called hammer throw). All of these throws are considered beneficial for both beginners and advanced ultimate frisbee players.
Conclusion
Develop great team collaboration to determine when to incorporate hucking into your play. Hucking should be used as a tool and not an offensive strategy because relying too much upon it depends on select team members, which goes against the teamwork practiced in ultimate frisbee. All in all, have fun and practice a lot to be a better ultimate frisbee player.
