When you cut, you run to an open space on the field to attempt to receive a pass. This is done by some combination of running as fast as you can and faking to make the defender think you're running to a different area.

Cuts should accomplish one of three things:

1. Gain yardage
2. Move the disc to a better position on the field, or
3. Maintain possession

Most passes should be type 1, where the receiver is relatively far downfield. Type 2 passes will get the frisbee away from the sideline or else go to an unmarked thrower. Type 3 cuts should be for high stall count dumps or else for weaker throwers. Usually you want a handler making the type 3 cuts. Today we'll focus on type 1 cuts.

Most cuts originate from a narrow V-shaped dead zone. The base of the V is about ten yards from the thrower and extends 20-40 yards downfield. As the disc moves downfield, so does the dead zone. You shouldn't sacrifice a good cut or continuity just for the sake of having a stack, though. The most basic offenses have a succession of cuts from this zone back toward the disc, and that's not a bad place to start with the design of your offense. In this offense, you want to create a flow. If the first pass is a forehand to the right side of the field, so should the second and third passes. As a cutter for the second pass, you should time your cut so that you will be entering the open area just after the first cutter has caught it, landed, and is looking upfield. You should begin your actual cut as the disc is in the air to the first cutter. This will give you a chance to see where the disc is going, whether there will be a play on the disc, and whether there will be a mark. If you wait for the person to catch it and set a pivot before you start your yardage-gaining cut, you're losing the benefits of flow.

You can learn a lot about how to cut by watching the more advanced players, especially the ones who don't seem to be as physically gifted. Unless you are much faster than your defender, you will have to do some type of fake to get open. Perhaps the simplest is the head fake. As you are standing, simply move your head in one direction as if you're starting to move in that direction, then immediately sprint in the opposite direction. This works best on short cuts. Perhaps the next simplest fake is to run hard for three or four steps in one direction, then reverse directions. You can also take two steps in one direction, reverse yourself for two steps, then head in the original direction.

These cuts are when you know where you want to go and you want the defender to think you are going somewhere else. For example, you may be the first person in a called play and you're supposed to cut to the break the mark side. Or, you are last in the stack, and you can see the frisbee coming down the right sideline, but your defender is watching you, so you cut in on the left side for a few steps, then reverse yourself. However, for many cuts, especially handler cuts, you take whatever is open. This requires the thrower to stick with the cutter for a little while longer to see if he gets open. The extreme example of this is the isolation (1 on 1). The receiver cuts, trying either to beat the defender to an open spot, or else to get the defender off balance and go the other way. Dump cuts are often this way, too. You take three steps one way, if you're open you keep going, if not then you go the other way for three steps (no Lynyrd Skynyrd references, please), until you are open.

Long cuts require more running. Usually, you change directions only 45 or 90 degrees rather than 180, like in many shorter cuts. Long cuts should originate close to the thrower, as I've said before. If you start your cut 30 yards from the thrower, you will be a long way away by the time the thrower can get you the disc. Here is one way. Start from the middle/back of the stack, cut toward the disc until your defender is at top speed, then break sharply downfield. The key here is to keep your linear momentum high (for the physics impaired, try not to slow your absolute speed too much). Since you know you'll be changing directions, you can control your body position better than your defender can, and you can open a lot of ground in your first few steps while the defender is adjusting. Another long cut is just a long clear. After you throw a pass, and especially after you throw a dump that the marker makes an effort to block, if you immediately sprint downfield, the marker will be significantly behind. So if you're on one sideline, dump it to the middle, you can sprint straight down the sideline and flare toward the middle and frequently be open. Often, another defender will pick you up, but if your teammates are aware of this, the poached off man can gain a lot of easy yardage. They should be clearing out the deep area for any long cutters, though (remember the poaching tip). Another good time to cut deep is immediately after a turnover before the other team realizes it's a turnover.

You can also make a cut by changing speeds without changing directions. You will often lull the defender into thinking that you're clogging, and then when you break suddenly, he won't be ready to break at the same time.

Jim "Pulled this one out of the pre-Internet archives" Parinella