How to run a vertical stack

The vertical stack is the first offence most Ultimate teams learn, and the one good teams still fall back on when nothing else is working. Seven players, one line down the middle of the field, and a simple rule: one cutter moves at a time, and everyone else stays out of the way.

That simplicity is the point. A vertical stack does not need trick plays or a star thrower. It needs seven people who know where the open space is and who cut into it in the right order. This play, Standard Vertical, shows the basic pattern from the pull to the end zone.

Why the stack works

Defence in Ultimate is mostly about space. A defender can cover a player, or cover a throwing lane, but not both at once. When your seven players spread out at random, their defenders stand between them and the disc and every throw has a body in the way.

The stack fixes that. By lining up down the middle of the field, the offence drags every downfield defender into the same narrow column. The two lanes either side of the stack, along each sideline, are empty. A cutter who leaves the stack has a lane to run into and a defender who has to chase them there.

The thrower's job is to hit the cutter in that lane. The cutter's job is to be there before the thrower is ready. Everyone else's job is to stay in the stack and wait their turn.

The three roles

• The thrower has the disc. In the basic stack this is one of two handlers who stay behind the play.
• The dump is the second handler, level with or behind the thrower, ready to take a short reset pass when nothing is open downfield.
• The stack is the other five players, in a line down the middle a few metres apart. The front of the stack cuts first. The back of the stack is your deep threat. Sometimes there will be three handlers, 1 dump and another out wide. This can help create more space in the stack.

Here is how it plays out.

Step by step

Defence starts with the pull and everyone lines up as usual to mark their player.

O1 collects the pull and becomes the thrower. O2 and O3 stay close as handlers. O4 to O7 move toward the centre of the field and their defenders follow them there. Notice the open lanes that are starting to form "vertically".

The stack is set. O1 has the disc on one side of the field, O2 is the dump, and O3 stands at the front of the stack with O4, O5, O6 and O7 lined up behind. Both lanes down the sidelines are empty. O3 is already starting to move: the first cut begins before the thrower has looked up.

O3 cuts out into the open lane, then turns hard back toward the thrower. D3 has to chase, and the change of direction puts O3 a step ahead. O1 throws to the space in front of O3, not to O3's body. At the same time O5 begins to drift out of the stack, ready to be the next cutter.

O3 catches and turns upfield. The disc has moved, so the whole picture moves with it: O5, already out wide, cuts hard back in toward the new thrower, and O4, O6 and O7 shuffle down to keep the stack in a straight line ahead of the disc. There is never a moment when nobody is cutting.

O3 hits O5 for the second gain. O3 stays behind the disc as a reset, O1 and O2 hold their spots, and the stack settles again around O4, O6 and O7. Two throws, two cuts, and the offence has moved half the field without anyone forcing a throw.

O7, at the back of the stack, has watched two cuts go in front of them, and D7 has started to cheat forward to help. O7 breaks deep into the open end zone and O5 puts the disc out in front. Score.

Tips

• Cut before the catch. The next cutter starts moving while the disc is still in the air. If you wait for the thrower to look at you, the defender has already caught up.
• One cutter at a time. Two people cutting into the same lane bring two defenders with them. If your cut is not open, clear out and let the next person go.
• Clear back to the stack. After a cut, jog straight back into line. A cutter who wanders takes a defender into the lane and blocks the next cut.
• Keep the stack straight and the lanes wide. The stack belongs in the middle of the field. If it drifts toward one sideline, that lane disappears.
• Create space. If you are not cutting and don't know what to do, just get out of the lanes.
• Poaching. If you're not an active cutter in the play and your defender is "poaching" into the lane making chaos, go for a run deep and challenge them.

Walk through the seven steps at half speed until every player knows when it is their turn to cut. Then add defenders and run it live. Once the timing is there, the vertical stack gives you a reliable way to move the disc against almost any person-to-person defence.

Vertical stack is an fundamental formation that all players should learn as it teaches you about creating space.

The full play