Running Catches

Catching while running becomes necessary with the introduction of defense. On offense, you need to ensure that once the disc is thrown in your direction, you are able to catch the disc before the person defending you intercepts it. All of the tips highlighted in the basic catching page are even more relevant while running since you are inherently bouncing up and down as you run, introducing more variance to the disc’s movement.

Situations involving running to catch a Frisbee can be generally divided into two categories: when you are running towards the thrower (in-cuts) and when you are running away from the thrower (out/away/deep-cuts).

In-Cuts

When you are running towards the thrower and the disc is thrown towards you, The disc will move much faster from your perspective when compared to catching while stationary. This means that you have less time to react to the flightpath of the disc and the act of catching the Frisbee becomes more challenging. This section of a video from Rise Up introduces the basics of catching while running toward the disc along with a simple drill involving two people.

Very rarely in game-time situations are you cutting directly at the thrower and the disc is thrown straight towards you. Typically you are running at an angle relative to the thrower and the disc will be thrown such that the moment you see the frisbee leave the thrower’s hands, you need to adjust your trajectory to reach the Frisbee in the shortest amount of time. This typically involves finding a straight line that you can run along that will intersect with the path of the disc. This sounds complicated but as with most things, it becomes second-nature with practice.

One thing coaches will stress is that you need to maintain your speed as the disc reaches you AKA “running through” the disc. Many new players will attempt to make the catch easier by slowing down prior to the catch or taking a wider angle, giving the frisbee more time to reach them and decreasing the relative speed of the disc. This is a bad habit as it gives defenders the ability to catch up to you or take a sharper angle to the disc and intercepting it. Some coaches teach players to jump before the disc reaches them, forcing the players to maintain their momentum through the catch. This is a crutch that players should break from once they become more used to catching at speed—it's not uncommon to see players jump to catch a chest-height disc only for the frisbee to suddenly drop, causing the player to miss the catch. Staying grounded as the disc approaches you puts you in a much better position to react to any sudden changes to a disc’s trajectory whereas jumping commits you to a specific motion both during and after the catch.

Obviously still jump if you need the extra height to catch a disc that is above you.

Out-Cuts

With out cuts, you are running away from the thrower, but the basic idea of identifying a line that allows you to intercept the disc in the shortest amount of time remains the same. The unique challenge of away cuts comes from not being able to maintain vision of the frisbee and thrower due to them being directly behind you as you run. Away throws are also often thrown higher than regular passes for longer travel distance, avoiding players other than the intended receiver, and giving the receiver more time to catch up to the disc. The increased height of these passes makes catching harder because the frisbee is at a catchable height only for a portion of its flight path as it is coming to the ground. Anticipating the disc’s flight and getting into position to catch it is called reading.