On the beauty of blades

Some good points about blades are covered here in Idris' blog.

But here are more reasons why the blade is a good throw:
- many defenders don't expect it
- with practice it is quite accurate
- very quick release
- like the regular forehand, no pivot necessary when facing upfield
- takes advantage of the 3-dimensional nature of ultimate (throws can go over defenders, not just left or right of them)
- against stationary defences (eg zones), it is easy to pass to stationary receivers

 

Photo by  Snake3yes

Blades, of varying steepness, are also quite successful as breaks near endzones. As an offense approaches the endzone it is attacking, and it is being forced backhand, the breakside of the stack in the endzone is very open for a step-back forehand blade. I know at least 2 gun handlers who throw the break blade more often than a simple backhand to the open side when near the front left cone of the endzone.

So I am encouraging the handlers on my team to use blades more, especially against zones.