CX School VS RX School & Bad SOTG

Yes, things keep floating up one by one, and it never stops.

this time round, it's about two schools playing against each other during a competition. The two schools were under two different coaches: RX School was under someone I know relatively, while CX was under an unknown.

The time comes for the competition. Both schools took part. CX was rough and tough, and it appears that they think Ultimate is a real contact sport. Before the match between CX and RX, they were playing against another school, SX. The players representing SX are physically smaller compared to the people at CX. But nevertheless, there was still contact. and lots of it. I remember seeing one big CX guy pushing a petite SX guy down upon the restart of play from a turnover. But no foul was called from either sides. The audience went crazy over it, and a foul was called. Similiar fouls were committed during the game, but it went unnoticed.


Then comes the clash between CX and RX. Both teams are skilled, often relying on tall players and hucks on a counter attack to get the score. Problem is, the spirit of RX was quite ok, until CX, once again, rears its ugly side.

Normal reaction was to follow suit, and yes, RX lost its cool too. They started playing the game like it was a game of contact rugby.

What happens when schools, or generally people, expresses bad SOTG in Ultimate?

Will they get shunned? They can just get on playing, and people can't say no when they come to pickup. How can this kind of bad spirit be discouraged?

I know my audience doesn't really pay attention to this kind of thoughts that I am having, but do comment. There doesn't seem to be a forum discussing about reactions to bad spirit, so I'm writing about it here.

Thinking about Thursday Pickup

I feel a tinge of guilt.

It's surprising that now, I'm thinking about Ultimate Frisbee.

Here I am in ROC, and bloody hell, there are tons of things to worry about.

And I'm still thinking about the Thursday's Pickup.



Remember me talking about the near accident with Nicholas?

Well, after pondering about it, I do think that it is a foul, and it falls upon the most basic of Ultimate: that it is a no-contact sport. I kind of shrugged it off though, thinking that it is normal.

I realised later on, there was no point in getting the point; it's just a normal pickup game, but there were a few overwhelming personal barriers I have to go through at that moment of scoring:

1) Calling a foul against yourself? That ulitmately means losing a point that could be scored, and at the beginning, it really feels like you are shooting yourself in the foot. Then, the feeling kind of grows onto you.
2) The people on the playing field? Will they feel negatively about missing out on a score, after they have run their lungs out to assist in scoring the point? I myself also feel the same, when, after running near the end zone, what looked like a score became a 'wasn't', and I had to run back all the way after a brisk conterattack by the other team seemed imminent.

But ultimately, if I carry on my game like this, this will go nowhere. I myself play this game because I hate to play sports that require lots of contact, and often, injuries occur because of that. People, I believe, get really pissed after getting their ligaments torn, or their bones broken after getting hit with a bad tackle during soccer. It didn't happen because of the player himself, but more of a careless clash that could not be avoided in the game.

And in Ultimate, people can avoid it, in the name of SOTG.

Now, to think about it, during the last few pickups I had, I think I had a few clashes, like two people running and clanging against each other while trying to get the pass from someone while doing a cut.

I guess SOTG really has to begin with people with oneself first.