The First Days

We’ve had two practices, and I already like what I’m seeing. I would like to take this opportunity to say “hi” to all the rookies. Feel free to look around the blog. Our team is good, one of the top 8 in the country. Our team will also make you good. Whether you come to our practices so you can learn to dominate pick-up games on the quad or you want to play against some of the top ultimate players in the nation, I encourage you to keep coming to practice. We don’t make cuts. If you keep coming to practice, then you still have a spot on the team. We do have an A and B team, but those decisions don’t get made til later in the fall. This sport is fun. There’s a reason why it’s called ultimate.

Now, a lot of our new recruits show a lot of promise. In particular, I like Kurt (cause he’s already read my blog) and Squeaks (more on that nick name in a later post). I also came across some rookies who played in the YCC. Nice. What I’m really excited about is the enthusiasm our rookies possess. I saw a lot of lay outs in the scrimmages. Also, a lot of your throws look better than mine did on day 1.

Freshman Open Preview

Normally, I give previews and recaps of every tournament we go to. The rookie open tourney is no exception. Unfortunately, I know nothing about the teams, so a preview seems impossible. Here are my thoughts. A good team needs 2 people that can huck the disc and 2 people that can run down those hucks. After that, it’s mainly luck and the enthusiasm of the veteran captains. (enthusiasm should be read as trash talk). In fact, I would say that trash talk is the biggest factor of success.

Heckling is an art form. When done well, it is a truly beautiful experience. Basic phrases include, “Hammer!” “Huck it!” or “Jack it!” These are to be said in a repeated fashion towards a person holding the disc for an extended period of time. More advanced phrases include “not a thrower” “not a catcher” and “not a puller”, usually said after a poor play by a good player. The best heckles include a personal touch. For example, when Lamp drops the disc, I will say, “You would have caught that if you had broken that kid’s leg!”

So come out tomorrow night. Play hard and you may just win the esteem of your peers. I’m pretty sure there’s also free discs involved.

Are referees needed in ultimate?

It’s a good question, and it continuously pops up on RSD. The talk on this question varies widely from getting rid of the observers, to giving them more power, to dressing them in black and white and giving them sole power to make every call.

From what I’ve seen (full disclosure: I’m only a fourth year player), cheating rarely happens. Most players possess a reasonable amount of respect for their opponents and the sport itself. Sure, there tends to be “that guy” on “that team” that makes a lot of questionable calls. Those calls are annoying, but I don’t believe you could call that cheating. Cheating occurs when a team loses a game they should have won based on the fraudulent activities of the other team. The current rule system we have in place does a really good job of protecting against blatantly wrong calls.

“The disc never lies.”

Contesting a bad call is one form of this “insurance against cheating”. You can contest bad calls. When play resumes, the better team will eventually come through. Adding our current observers to this mix further protects against cheating since they can make rulings when asked. However, some cheating will still occur, but is it anymore than what would happen if we had referees?

If you take the calls away from the players, certain individuals may take advantage of situations where the ref’s back is turned. They can’t watch every player all the time. I guess you could design a system to have seven refs for every game, but that’s very impractical. The players naturally have the best perspective of anybody. They also have a responsibility to know the rules (this doesn’t always happen. How many of you have the rules memorized?).

Let’s abandon my half-thought for now and take a look at the flip side of my argument. I have a business background, so I’m going to use a business analogy. In our capitalistic system, unbiased third parties provide and invaluable asset to our economy: unbiased reporting. Without them, companies could tell you whatever they wanted you to believe, and you would invest your money in all the wrong places. Eventually, you’d lose a lot of money. You’d trust no one, and never invest your money again. Real companies would suffer just as much as fraudulent ones. Eventually everything would break down because no one would trust anyone. You’d lose your job and have no place would exist where you could buy anything. We’d all be sent back to subsistence living and a barter economy.

As ultimate becomes more and more competitive, how can we trust its players to make the right calls? Right now, the honor system seems to work really well. But then again, what’s at stake? If you make the right call, you may lose the game, but you maintain your reputation as an honest player. Since Ultimate is just your hobby, albeit a hobby you take very seriously, you can live with that loss.

Now let’s say you are a professional Ultimate player. If you win that game, you get a pretty handsome bonus according to your contract. You cause a do-over by making a close call that you probably would have let go in any other situation. You then get the D and win a game you would have lost if you played fairly.

If the goal of the UPA is to create a professional league, refs will be a necessary addition. The alternative is to have a “Spirit Clause” in every player’s contract. A spirit panel would review all cases in which alleged un-sportsmanship occurred. If the panel finds that such a player violated the “Spirit Clause”, the contract would be terminated, the player would receive zero compensation, the player would also be fined and banned from ultimate forever (much like betting in baseball).

You might say that a panel could be bribed. We also have definitive proof from other professional sports that refs have taken bribes (thank you NBA). Obviously a system would need to set up with a commissioner that appoints the panel and changes panel members every two years in some fashion with term limits and staggered appointments so that at least one board member changes every year.

Sounds Complicated, but maybe not. How complicated would a system of refs be? Should we use the format that soccer uses? That football uses? That’s a lot of refs that have to be paid. A panel would most likely have five members. The panel is less costly. A ref would simply blow his whistle. There’s no real penalty for constantly committing fouls. You may foul out, but you’ll be back next game. A panel bans you forever, and you don’t get paid. Which do you think would be more effective?

Ultimate players have strong ties to the roots of their game. SotG is a big deal. Self-officiating is a big deal. Getting rid of it is completely out of the question. Just look up refs on RSD. There is way too much support for keeping the game as is. No matter how right or wrong that is; we just have to accept it.

So, for that glorious day when I’m getting paid to lay out for a piece of plastic, I vote we compromise. Things will get done that much sooner and smoother. Then again, it might just cause a whole heap of problems that I’m not seeing.