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From: Jesse Spohnholz <js26@st-andrews.ac.uk>
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Subject: Rule clarification article. (fwd)
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Spirit/Rule Discussion from North America
Enjoy!
Jesse (St Andrews)
------------
THIS IS FOR AN ARTICLE I'M DOING ON ULTIMATE. IT'S IN A ROUGH/NOTES
STAGE. PART OF IT WILL BE POSTED TO A WEBSITE, PART OF IT WILL APPEAR
IN A LOCAL WEEKLY, PERHAPS AS A SIDEBAR.
IT'S MOSTLY FOR BEGINNERS, BUT WE HAVE THREE-YEAR VETERANS WHO EITHER
DON'T KNOW OR ARE STILL UNCLEAR ON SOME OF THE RULES (INCLUDING ME).
I'M HOPING I'M CLEAR ON THE RULES (OTHERWISE I'LL JUST ADD TO THE
CONFUSION). HOPE YOU CAN HELP.
ANY/ALL COMMENTS WILL BE APPRECIATED. PLEASE SEND THEM TO
flannagan@vkool.com
I DON'T GET TO CHECK USENET AS MUCH AS EMAIL, SO EMAILED COMMENTS ARE
MUCH PREFERRED.
THANK YOU. THIS IS THE ARTICLE/NOTES:
------------------------------------------------------
Rule Clarifications:
There's a problem in Ultimate - a whole lot of people don't understand
the rules. They come into the game, their friends explain the basics of
play, and that's that. They've played other sports, where Testosterone
is a big factor. Now they're bringing that to a co-ed Ultimate team.
And, from experience, I can tell you that it's hard to maintain your
cool when you're standing still and some guy slams into you from behind,
then calls a foul on you, and that's the sort of thing that's been
happening all game.
It's a huge problem right now in Vancouver Ultimate, and it seems to be
getting worse. The problem is, teams that play outside the rules will
win. If every time someone's about to make an important catch you know
them down, your team will win. To some extent, that's happening.
On my team, we've been beaten by some teams that were just outplaying
us, and that was fun. We've also been beaten by some teams that have
just played too aggressively. We don't currently have any real
mechanism for dealing with this. Discussion of it at a captain's meeting
last year, and I think that was part of the impetus behing bringing in
Spirit ratings, but now we have some teams that just live with a bad
Spirit rating, and win a lot.
I like best the suggestion of the Tournament Director for last year's
Worlds, Gary Gisel: "I think all the teams should play each other in a
round-robin, then you'd just vote on who had the best spirit and the
best skills."
One idea might be to, when making the schedules, schedule teams with
poor Spirit rating for less games (i.e., they wouldn't get many double
headers), since who wants to play them, anyway?
It's easy to show good Spirit when you're winning by a huge margin, or
when you've decided to forgo competetive play in order to show good
spirit, but that tends to mean things like not calling fouls, allowing
picks, etc. A telling example: In that World's tournament, the team
that won the spirit award was the Master's team at the bottom of the
standings, and two teams that topped the Men's division were really
testy (especially the winner), arguing and even shoving over almost
every play (making for a game so tedious and drawn-out that the
spectators were chanting, "Booorrrring!").
Until we come up with something better, I submit the following rule
clarifications, in the hope that they will help bring about more
enlightened play. Here we go:
SPIRIT
Spirit is paramount. The rules are not to facilitate play so much as to
keep the Spirit intact. Therefore, when you interpret the rules,
interpret them with the Spirit of the Game in mind.
For simplification, I've used players from two teams in these examples.
Players from the Z team are doing it right. Players from the Y team are
generously providing examples of bad play for our instruction..
Foul rule - Because the rules mention "incidental contact", lots of
people think contact is not a foul. Some take "incidental contact" to
mean any contact that occurs when they're going for the disk.
One player couldn't understand why plowing through someone to get to the
disk wasn't incidental contact. I ended up in the most incredible
argument I've had in Ultimate. The player insisted that he knew the
sport was non-contact, but that if I was between him and the disk, he
had to get to the disk. He felt I couldn't legally be between him and
the disk, and the solution was to try to knock me down.
That's called {ITALICS} position {END}. If another player has position,
there's nothing you can do. You can try to run around her, but
otherwise, forget it.
It was cool to watch games in the Worlds in which a player had the disk
coming down to him in the end-zone. Even though there were defending
players right there, he had position and airspace, so no one tried to do
anything about it as a perfectly thrown pass hovered right down to him
(OK, he gave a little jump at the end, but no one tried to swat over him
or bump him or reach into his space).
I've seen a Z player leaping for the disk and have a Y player jump into
him, the impact knocking the Z player a foot out of the way. Then heard
Y insist that it was "incidental contact."
The rules state, "It is the player's responsibility to avoid contact."
I feel that they'd be better off to ditch any mention of "incidental
contact". Basically, assume that if you cause impact with another
player, it's your foul (and you should call it if they don't).
If you're not sure the whether the contact was your fault, be gracious.
It's not that big a deal, just take the foul. The importance of the
foul rule is to avoid having Ultimate become a contact sport.
You also cannot put your arm out to block another player (soccer style)
from running, and you can't push-off, as in other sports. Your goal is
to outfinesse the other team, not bludgeon them into submission.
In Ultimate, there's a rule that players have to call it themselves when
they get fouled. I'm not sure this is such a good rule. Sometimes a
player is just stunned for moment. Sometimes a player is too furious to
call a foul. A better rule, I suggest, would be for anyone to call a
foul, and then the "fouled" player can agree our disagree.
However, if you foul someone, always call the foul yourself. Sometimes
a fouled player doesn't realize she's been fouled (perhaps she dove for
the disk and didn't realize it was you that kicked her off course, not
the ground).
We had a game where an opposing player called a foul on himself, and the
player he said he'd fouled contested it (insisting that he hadn't been
fouled) That's Spirit. Calling a foul on yourself is an excellent
example of Spirit (and not calling it when you know you've done it is a
sure sign that you should look for a rugby league).
Position -
This is a key concept which many beginning players fail to understand.
Unlike in other sports, if a player has position there's nothing you can
do. You don't jostle/shove/body check. You can't try to run {ITALICS}
through {END} the other player. You have to respect the postion.
Hospital throws -
At the lower levels, where players are less experienced at making their
cuts and then clearing out, it often happens that a disc heads towards a
whole pile of people.
Rather than run smashing into the pile, players should (and at higher
levels do) realize it was a bad throw and allow the turnover.
Basically, you should never be throwing into a whole heap of people.
When it happens, respect for the other players should be paramount,
which brings us to...
Dangerous play -
This is very important category that gets too little attention. Players
should not be afraid to call dangerous play violations.
In a recent game, I'd slid in and was about to catch a disk when I saw
my check headed right for me. As I realized he wasn't going to be able
stop, I gave up on catching the disk (it shot through my hands) and
ducked my head. I got a kick to the neck.
It would have been a kick to the face if I'd stayed in position caught
the disk. This was a foul, but since Y was a couple paces off when I
"missed" the catch, he insisted he had nothing to do with it. If I'd
stayed in position and lost teeth, I guess it would have been clear.
Other examples, the disc was coming down 5 steps from me. Easy catch.
A Y player off to the side about 9 steps way made a running leap. If
I'd stepped forward to catch the disk, I would've gotten smashed by the
210 pound player a split second later. So I stopped and missed an easy
catch (instead, I caught him). That's cheating. Call it.
A third (all from the same game). I was chasing my Y check. As the
disk came, another Y player came zooming in from the side, typically out
of control. Sensing a three-way collision, I pulled up. The two Y
players landed on top of each other, the disk landed on them as they
rolled over, and they called it a catch.
It was actually a foul - dangerous play. I had to give up on the disk
(it was an easy swat) or this out-of-control Y player would've steamed
into two players instead of one, and injury would have been probable.
There have been games where people have stayed in position, and they do
get hurt. In one game, I watched from the sidelines as a Y player came
streaking in to get the disk and was running so fast that he actually
climbed onto one our players, then came down on her head so hard that
she needed stitches.
Staying in control is part of the game. Never just go barrelling in.
If someone can't run that fast and still stay in control, they can't run
that fast.
Call dangerous play. It's important. Not just for you, but so that
those who don't yet quite understand the difference between Ultimate and
other sports, the difference between endangerment and finesse, will
learn, and the games will be better for everyone.
Note, however, that a player running fast and swatting the disk away
isn't dangerous play. A player making you change course isn't dangerous
play. A player running full bore at the place where you're going to be
in two steps, clearly intending a collision if you don't back down,
that's dangerous play (assuming you'd get there first, otherwise maybe
it's you that's guilty).
Point:
Be sure it's really a dangerous situation (and not just a competitive
one), but, if it is, please call it.
Pick -
A pick is again part of the the non-contact idea. It's real purpose is
safety.
Bascially, you call "Pick" when another player gets between you and your
check. A pick isn't meant as a penalty. It doesn't mean anybody's done
anything bad; it just mean that a player is between you and your check.
You call a pick to stop the play and catch up without crashing through
the other player, so no one gets hurt. Otherwise, you'd crash into
people, or through them.
Short throws -
Throws can be one-inch, as long as it's not a hand-off. If it's a
hand-off, it's a turnover.
Airspace - Airspace is what's above you. You own everything up to
heaven. Hence another player can't put a hand over your head to knock
the disc away. Watch the better players and you'll see them jump up
side-by-side (with a defender often unable to make the play because his
check has position. Again, position, and who has it, is a very
important part of the game to higher level players).
You also cannot reach completely over another player and swat it down in
front of her. I saw this in a recent game, the Y player insisting, "I
didn't touch her."
Learn the rules. Play better. Have more fun.