Get in the flow  - it's Mop-Op Time!

The final routine of the 1998 FPA Worlds in Seattle is almost over, and you see it on the sidelines.  Almost every single jammer at the tournament is ready to storm the field the second the last routine is over - Mob-Op time has come. But unless you have experience Mob-Oping, it's easy to become a jambuster, so here's some help so you can get hein next time.

Click here for more random tips at the bottom of this page.

Tips from Tom Leitner

• If you're going to enter a jam of 3 plus players it's good etiquette to begin to pass the disc or do short combos at first. When passing the disc be sure you set the other person so that the jammer can do a restricted pull/catch/continuation directly off your set. Vary your sets to other people - set a body roll, then a center pass, a tip pass, a brush pass, then a rim shoot into the wind, etc.

• Keep your passes basic until a flow is established - a quick rim set across the jam works more often than a spinning scarecrow brush - If the jam is happening and it feels right try the scarecrow brush, if it's floundering or you're just beginning to build a groove do a simple, well placed pass/catch and keep the flow going.

• Don't sit and wait for the disc to come to you...anticipate a pass to someone else and hoop or legover it when it comes. Make cuts, run circles around other players if need be - the more you move the better chance of having something cool happen.

• Try touching the disc only once or twice before passing it.

• Practice by your self and try doing just about every move you know as a set to someone else. See if you can target an area to set to and try to hit that spot consistently with a consistently good angle on the disc.

• Vary the positioning of your sets to others as well. Set high one time, low the next, middle the time after. Vary these set positions for all kinds of sets - wind, angle, center, rim, tip etc.

• Eventually the sets will become varied out of habit, then you can let your spontaneous side take over.

• Be careful what jam you bust into, if you're crashin' a jam with a wind dominant player be ready to pass and run. If you're crashin' a jam with a center dominant player be ready to pump up Z's and do more indys.

• If you're a beginning player it's usually better to watch the pros and learn from the pine. Ask the pros about specific moves before/after the jam and practice you're mob-op skills with other beginners until you reach a higher mob-op skill level.

• Never hesitate to break off and form a 2 person jam - hours can be wasted waiting for a mob-op to get hot when you could've broken off and gotten hot with one other person. A 10 person mob-op that is the spaunch is 5 times worse than a 1 on 1 jam that that's spaunch.

Good sets and passes are the key to reaching mob-op bliss. Hope to catch a mob-opportunity with y'all later!

Tom L.

More Random Tips

So here are a few random tips to help you get in the flow, compiled by Rolland B. Rush:

• Don't always go for your hardest brush or move when you're in a mob-op brushing run.   The difficulty of the Mob-Op is best achieved by linking passes between players, not from the pass itself. 

• Line up according to the wind direction.

• Keep the flow going - I hate it when everyone's running and brushing and then someone goes for a turnover or something else that breaks flow and everyone has to stop.

• Do not block a player's up-wind path - typically be at their sides, and especially while running, get slightly ahead of the player with the disc so they see you, or let them know you're there (e.g. on your right).

• Be like Magic Johnson and make the jammers around you play better by giving them good sets and throws.

• Learn enough of all spins and angles so when you receive a spin/angle you're not comfortable with, you can at least pass it to someone who can deal with it.

• When things go bad, take a breath and make a good throw that's easy to deal with, and go for  quick seals rather than long extended moves until the flow is going again.

• Be aware of each players space and preferences.  Don't give someone counter over and over if they can't deal with it.  And if someone likes to brush and kick, avoid their brushing and kicking space which is different for many jammers.

• Know when to seal.  Keep the flow in mind.

• Know when to steal.  Be aggressive at times - steal the disc in a polite way to make things happen, if necessary.  Sometimes I'll cover a guy without the disc for fun (just for a second), like a B-Ball player would, just to make them more aggressive.

• Sometime people want to just play pairs or threesomes, so be aware of this.  I think 3-6 people is perfect for achieving mob-op synergy, although  more people can make it fun too if everyone is mob-op savvy.