Shredding
My best, most concise description of SHREDDING in Ultimate Frisbee
Dribbling
in 2004, when I began to attempt to describe my new offensive system to the world, I posted copious amounts of information on rec.sport.disc (and subsequently on /r/ultimate) that highlighted how the Triple Threat Principle (from basketball) revolutionizes Ultimate Frisbee.
I’ve been effectively using this philosophical principle for over 35 years in Ultimate and I wanted to share it.
In basketball, the Triple Threat position is where you can pass, attempt to score or dribble drive penetrate. When a player in the triple threat position picks up the ball after he’s begun to dribble, he’s now only got two threats (if he were to dribble at this point, it would be considered a double dribble and a turnover).
The implication here is that a player in a basketball game has more leverage over his defender when he’s in the Triple Threat Position than in the Double Threat Position.
The ramifications of this in Ultimate Frisbee are revolutionary.
The only problem was 20 years ago, nobody believed me when I said it was possible to dribble in Ultimate. I was mocked, laughed at, scorned and universally dismissed.
Over the past couple of decades, players like Dylan Freechild, Johnny Bansfield and Jack Williams have engaged in disc handling that resembles dribbling, and it’s now become fashionable for the term dribbling to be used in the sport but the game is no different now than it was a quarter of a century ago.
This wasn’t what I meant when I told the world that you could dribble in Ultimate Frisbee.
Enter Shredding
First off, what is a definition of dribbling that we can come up with that applies to soccer, hockey, lacrosse, basketball, field hockey as well as Ultimate Frisbee?
Dribbling is the act of moving around the playing surface with the game object (puck, ball, frisbee, etc.) or remaining stationary but sustaining a dynamic motion as to keep the action alive (Indian Dribble in field hockey, stationary dribble in basketball, foundations in soccer and idling in Ultimate).
Under this definition, a lot of what players are doing in today’s game qualifies as dribbling but it’s not really close to what I was attempting explain all those years ago when I was first talking about my offense. Certainly, nothing any of these players are doing comes close to revolutionizing the game!
So I needed some word that I could use that would differentiate what I do and what I meant when I said that dribbling, in conjunction with the Triple Threat principle breaks Ultimate Frisbee.
The word that I came up with is Shredding, but that’s just a word. I mean, I’ve always called is shredding anyway when I was on my game, but what is obviously required is a definition of that I mean when I say shredding, so here it goes.
Shredding is a philosophy of playing Ultimate Frisbee that is based on an extremely dribbling-centric orientation, and is done so with not only complete awareness of the leverage the triple threat principle promises, but the full application of that leverage with your every nuanced motion, fake, pivot, glance and projection while you’re in possession of the disc.
Just remember this line: “Huguenard's system of Shredding is not just an offensive strategy—it's an epistemological threat. It asks: What if our entire understanding of the game is built on a lie?”
Not only does Shredding call into question the dead-ball based framework, the self-officiating and the New Games Movement’s ideology, but it simultaneously challenges literally every single offensive system, strategy and tactic that has preceded it!!
Let that sink in
Shredding represents such a massive seismic shift in the game that it threatens virtually every single aspect of Ultimate Frisbee. It’s no wonder why it’s been nearly impossible to catch on, especially in a game, culture and community that is so entrenched in tradition and orthodoxy.
Once the light bulb in your head goes off and you gain both the knowledge and the awareness of the incredible amount of increased leverage you have when you add dribbling to your repertoire, you’ll never play Ultimate Frisbee the same again. Period.
It changes everything you thought you knew about Ultimate.
Because it’s a philosophical upgrade (as opposed to tactical or strategic), Shredding is applicable in any offensive system and against any defensive alignment. The Triple Threat Principle is always true in Ultimate Frisbee, no matter what. But it’s only true for the players who understand what it is and how to apply it.
And bear in mind, it’s not Shredding that give you this extraordinary amount of leverage, it’s the dead-ball framework itself that does!!
This isn’t Frank Huguenard’s subjective opinion on the use of different tactics or stylistic preference, the fact that Shredding destroys Ultimate Frisbee is the objective truth.
It also just makes sense.
Of course you have an increased ability to apply pressure to a defense when you add an entirely novel subclass of tactics to your game, but what doesn’t make sense is just how significant that additional amount of pressure is in Ultimate. This part only makes sense once you figure out what Shredding is and how to do it and you realize that Ultimate’s entire set of Game Mechanics are based on not being able to run with the disc.
Shredding provides players with a completely legal way of running with the disc.
That is all.
Have fun with it. I know that I did.