Clearing space in ultimate frisbee

Clearing space in ultimate frisbee means getting out of the lane once your cut is over, so the next cutter has room to use it. If the thrower doesn't throw to you, keep running through the space you cut into and out toward the sideline, then jog back to the back of the stack. A cutter who stops where they wanted the disc brings their defender with them and blocks the lane for everyone behind them.

Why clearing space matters in ultimate frisbee

In a vertical stack the open lane is the space on the side the defence is forcing. Only one cutter can use it at a time. When a cut doesn't get the disc, that cutter and their defender are now standing in the lane, and the next cutter has nowhere to go. The thrower is still counting stalls, so every moment the lane stays full is a moment with no one to throw to.

Clearing is not a rest. Keep running with the same pace you cut with until you are clearly out of the lane, because a slow clear looks the same to the thrower as a cutter still asking for the disc. Run through and away, not back the way you came: turning around and walking back toward the stack takes you straight across the next cutter's path.

Where you clear to depends on where you finished. After an under cut on the open side, the simplest clear is to keep going toward the open sideline and then up the line to the back of the stack. After a deep cut that isn't thrown, keep going deep and then come back up the side. Either way, stay wide while you travel, away from the middle where the stack and the next cuts are.

Once you are back, you are part of the stack again. Join at the back and keep the spacing the stack had before you left, so the cutters in front of you can move up a place. The vertical stack spacing article shows where everyone stands.

If people rejoin the stack off to one side, the whole stack drifts and the lanes change with it. Drag the stack below toward a sideline to see how quickly the lane on that side closes.

Step by step

The offence is in a vertical stack with O1 holding the disc and O2 behind as the dump. The defence is forcing forehand, so the open side is down the picture.

O3, at the front of the stack, cuts under toward the disc on the open side. D3 stays close on O3's shoulder, so O1 holds the disc rather than throwing into coverage.

The throw isn't on, so O3 keeps running through and out toward the open sideline. D3 follows, and both of them are now out of the lane.

With the lane empty, O4 cuts under into it. At the same time O3 starts back up the sideline toward the back of the stack, staying wide of the space O4 is using.

O1 throws to O4 in the space O3 cleared. O3 keeps going to the back of the stack, and D3 has to follow.

O4 has the disc, O3 is at the back of the stack, and O5 is at the front, ready for the next cut.

To practise it, walk it through with a thrower and three cutters in a line, without defence. The first cutter cuts under and the thrower doesn't throw. The cutter runs through to the sideline and back to the back of the line while the second cutter goes, and this time the thrower throws. Once the timing is easy, add defenders and let the thrower choose. The thing to watch for is the second cutter starting just as the first one leaves the lane, not before. How to cut in ultimate frisbee covers the cut itself.

The full play

You can take this playbook into your own account and change it for your team, for example drawing the clear toward the break side if your team practises against a backhand force.

If you captain a rec team, you can also put your roster on Playspedia so everyone knows who is playing each week.