Spirit of the Game

[David Barkan]

[ltr]This conversation has been going on for years here too, with no easy explanation/resolution. Here is what I and most of my friends who have won the big tournaments and played at every small silly one too:

Ultimate is a sport and it is more than a sport. People gravitate towards ultimate because they want to leave traditional conventions of other sports behind. Most ulty players want the highest level competition, but they are sick of asshole coaches, boring competitive events, and mainstream sports thinking. Ultimate is different, and that is why we play it. That is why college soccer players quit their teams and join the ultimate team. Here in the USA, this is so common it is ridiculous. You ask why and they tell you a different version of the same story, "I took one look at that game, the people, and the scene, and I knew I was wasting my time in ___(other sport). I felt like I belonged here and I could accomplish my goals and then some. Plus the chicks are hot".


Our UPA has established a saying: "Ultimate: A revolution in Sport". You may think this is overblown, but if you really look at it, attend other sporting events enough, you will know how true this is.

We have to value the CULTURE of the sport as much as the game, because it is pretty freaking unique.

Spirit lives in our competition, on the field, that is for sure. But great spirit has created this amazing culture that forms when ultimate happens, especially in tournaments, and that cannot be denied and should not be minimized. It is, I believe, what brings the best people to our game. Always has, always will.

David[/ltr]

[Dori]

כרגע אני חושב שאנחנו מציעים משהו שאין לאף ספורט אחר ואסור לוותר עליו, ושוב אין שום קשר בין זה לבין תחרותיות ומשחק הוגן עד לטיפה האחרונה על המגרש.

אז זהו SOTG זהו תוצר של אולטימייט הספורט כמו שמיקי אמר וצדק, אך יש לספורט הזה הרבה מעבר למה שקורה על המגרש אבל עדיין קשור למגרש זהו קונספט מסובך וזה לא מה "שאנחנו" (מי הם האנחנו האלו????) רוצים לעשות כאן אלא מה שנבנה סביב הספורט הזה בעולם אנחנו (שוב מי זה האנחנו?!?!?!?) יכולים להצטרף להוויה הזאת בפנים ומחוץ למגרש...

אם לא הייתי מספיק ברור הכוונה במילה אנחנו היא לקהילה העולמית של האולטימייט. אנחנו, בתור המייצגים של הספורט הזה בעולם, מציעים משהו שאין באף ספורט אחר.

מעבר לזה, אני לא מוציא מכלל אפשרות שלמרות שהספורט הזה צעיר מאוד בארץ, השחקנים הישראלים יכולים להוביל דעות חדשות בעולם. תקראו לזה The Israeli Ultimate Start-Up.

[אסף לוי]

First of all, thank you Dori, for informing me of this discussion.

For those of you who do not know me that good, some important facts:
age 5-9: "proffessional" basketball player + practicing some kind of martial arts.
age 10-17: proffessional soccer player (goalkeeper), in Maccabi Herzelliya and Beitar Tel-Aviv (there was once such team)o
age 19-present: Frisbee... playing Ultimate since BulaFlow2005.

What I have to contribute here, as I see it, is mainly the x soccer player point of view.
It occurred to me about a month ago... we were playing at a Dragons practice and I was resting on the sideline. Watching the game and explaining it to a friend of mine, I realized some stuff:
1. A simple defensive or offensive layout is no less exciting than an alley hoop or a 360 slam dunk in basketball, or a diving save from a goalkeeper on a penalty shot.
2. There is no other sport offering anything as beautiful as a good flowing offensive play in Ultimate.
3. The level of complexity, mental challenges and strategies you can experience in Ultimate, is maybe the best I can demand of a sport.
4. Well, a bunch of other stuff...

With all these technical and tactical advantages of Ultimate, which still can be matched with other sports, the only advantage that has no match anywhere is this Spirit of the Game element.
As an x primitive soccer player, I realized that this is exactly what I was looking for all these years.
Spirit of the Game has different meanings for different people. For me it?s basically the ability to be competitive as it gets, but not turn the field into a war zone. I used to curse punch, kick, slide-tackle into a player?s leg, and lie to the ref, as long as I had the chance? ?Win at all costs? was the golden rule, and it seemed so cool? but it was only when I met Ultimate, that I realized I didn?t want to play this way.
Ultimate offers the competitiveness and high level mental and physical challenge, and still manage to keep a positive and friendly atmosphere on the field (being friendly off the field is the easier part).l
This is what I think we should remember, and teach our young - being a SOB won?t help you win - it will harm you. As I see it, no soccer player on the face of earth really wants to be a dick, they just don?t know better.
For that matter, we really are PROPHETS, and the leaders of a revolution in sport.
Furthermore, the next level is to use this sport in order to change people?s behavior in other aspects of their lives. If I, as a 15 year old Ultimate player, learn to respect the opponent players, I can then learn to respect my parents, my friends, classmates, teachers, boss, bank teller? this way Ultimate becomes a way of life.

I think we (everyone who claims to advance Ultimate as a sport) need to keep this in mind, and show it for all to see, in order to pull people in, rather then become soccer players.

Asaf

[Flip-Mode]

Hi, I have been reading this thread for some time now and I wanted to add my .2$ to it.
I'm a VERY new player, I have been playing for 2 months but I have very strong feelings about the whole "spirit" issue.
Most people IMO are missing the whole point of the "spirit" factor - as I see it the whole spirit concept is around having fun.
To many times people focus on the winning instead of having fun, here in BS the so called best players are the players with the most "spirit", they keep calm, they cheer, they chat and are overall friendly while the players who get mad because someone didn't do something they wanted walk around with a grumpy face and guess what? They usually loose because they are preoccupied with thinking about how bad someone was that they end up messing the whole game for them self and their team.

The worst part are the players who "think" they are upholding the spirit, the first thing that comes to mind is when two players of equal hight and weight go up for a disk, there is no clash in the air and the two players barley touch but the one who ends up loosing the disk calls a foul - even though the rules call for a foul is there really any reason to call it besides your bruised ego?
Same with the throws, you throw it and someone touches your hand and you wait to see if your teammate catches the disk or not before you call it - how "SOTG" is that I ask you?

In the end I tend to agree with the saying that "how you play the game is how you act in life" and thats the reason I love to play and I can't wait for the practice each week.

[David Barkan]

Wow, I am enjoying this conversation!

OK, please hang in there with this old man for one hopefully relevant story. I'll try to make it quick because I may put myself to sleep...

1982 - My second UPA Nationals. My team, Boston Hostages, ranked as one of the favorites, is playing Chain Lightening, a good but not top team. We were in a close game and I had the disc. I threw it, brushed against the defenders hand as I released and watched the disc, not sure I should call a foul. When the disc went down, I called foul!

The Chain Lightening guys were shocked, because they had heard we were a team full of great sportsmen, and that was just way too late a call. Plus the guy covering me thought he barely hit me, and he was right. I was 22, stubborn and headstrong, and I wanted to win. I stuck with my call, we won the game, and I lost the respect of our some of our opponents and even some of teammates, who still bring up that call to this day. I always get a bad feeling when I think of the tournament and particularly that game. We got knocked out in the semis if you are wondering when karma showed up.

1995 - We, San Francisco, are current club world champs and are playing Seattle Sockeye in the game to go to UPA national finals. We are tied at 12's and I am on the sideline. My teammate puts up a huck to one our great receivers, but the disc slips out of his hands and the throw is short. The receiver and defender have equal position and the disc goes down - turnover. My teammate calls foul, saying he was hit as he tried for a second chance at the disc. He looks at me and wants my approval as captain, and I shake my head. I mouth, no foul. He is totally bummed, but knows it is the right call. It was a crappy throw, the defender blocked it, and his second chance would have been a miracle catch - but he wasn't even close.

Anyway, we lost that game 14-12, my last game at Nationals, and it was not pleasant. Afterwards some Sockeye players came over and thanked us for making such a "hard call". Think what you like of this, but I was very proud in that moment. We ended up winning the Spirit of the game award that night, and I was ok with that. But leaving the field and my life as a competitor at that level with the respect of great players and sportsmen on the other and my own team (no one was angry about giving up the disc) was more important than the win.

13 years after my embarressing call, I think I may have learned something about spirit. Coincidence with bar-Mitzvah age - who knows? All I know is that playing this sport helped to grow me up, and that is why i love teaching it and especially love bringing it to Israel, where I believe people are hungry for a new way of thinking about competition and sports.

I am sure that in time Israelies will define Spirit of the Game as they see fit, so that it can be taught and understood widely in the culture. This will likely take some time. And like me, I am confident that people's experiences playing tons of Ultimate, in Israel and in international tournament play, will play a huge part in that definition.

So as Tomer likes to say, Play On!



David

[Dori]

[ltr]Hi all,
Just finished seeing the movie CARS
yeh animated....

I only had one thought in my head when the movie ended - I would like to see more players act like the hero in the movie

check it out...it is a great movie

[/ltr]

[david L]

עברו שלוש שנים... והנה הגיעה הזדמנות להחיות את הנושא: The Huddle הוציאו גליון חדש על Spirit of the Game.

ככל שהרמה עולה וככל שמונח יותר על הכף, ספיריט נהיה הרבה יותר חשוב והרבה יותר קשה. מעניין לקרוא מה יש לשחקנים האלה, שמשחקים ברמות הכי גבוהות על התארים הכי חשובים, להגיד בנושא.

ההמלצות שלי:
The real issue with spirit מאת Lou Burruss. לו בחר לפרק את השאלה לתתי נושאים כי לטענתו גליון אחד על רוח המשחק זה פשוט לא מספיק.
What we do מאת Ben Wiggins. בן החליט גם לעקוף את השאלה ולהתמקד באיך אפשר, בתור קבוצה, לשפר את הספיריט.
What goes through your head מאת Ben van Heuvelen. סיפור יפה על דוגמא אישית.
My turn as that guy מאת שחקן אנונימי. ווידוי קורע לב וכנה של אחד (שכמו רובנו) מעד.

גם ב~20 הודעות שנכתבו פה לפני יש לא מעט דברי טעם. שווה רפרוף.

[Dori]

היי כולם,
ה- WFDF פרסמו לאחרונה שיטת ניקוד למדידת SPIRIT.
לפני כמה שנים העליתי את הרעיון להשתמש בזה, אבל משום מה נתקלתי בהתנגדות בלתי מוסברת.

עם הזמן השיטה השתפרה וכבר תורגמה ל- 25 שפות.
בפועל העבודה נעשתה ע"י נשיא איגוד ה- BEACH ULTIMATE, פאטריק (שעזר לנו בפרוייקט BULAFLOW האגדי), אבל ממבט מהיר אפשר בקלות לסגל את זה גם לאולטימייט רגיל על דשא.

הנה הלינק:
http://www.wfdf.org/news/WFDF_SOTG_Scor ... R_2010.pdf

יהיה נחמד אם מישהו מקהילת האולטימייט יתרגם לעיברית ויוסיף לרשימה העולמית שנמצאת כאן:
http://www.wfdf.org/index.php?page=rules/spirit.htm

ליגת כובע - מה דעתכם לנסות ליישם את זה?