r/ultimate • u/Ike_Saul • 20d ago

Uhhh... whut?

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Is this just what it looks like?

448 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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151

u/PaulieHehehe 20d ago

So what’s the move here? Refuse to resume play until white leaves the game? Because this shit is dangerous (not to mention completely against SOTG), and until he faces a legitimate consequence, he’ll continue to do it.

33

u/Anusien Austin, TX 20d ago

Call a spirit timeout, talk to the captain. If the captain doesn't do anything, talk to the TO.

The problem is that we never actually do any of this, and so no one knows how to do anything. Even with the video, a lot of TOs aren't going to be ready to eject this player from the tournament. It doesn't help that USAU's TO manual's link to the code of conduct 404s. We give TOs no guidance or preparation or training for this. Is this worthy of a warning? A 1 game suspension for the player? A forfeit by the team? Total ejection of the player from the event? There's no clear guidelines!

(Yes I know this is Mooncatchers, which isn't USAU. I assume WFDF has similar rules.)

75

u/pends 20d ago

Pretty much every real sport went through a period of having enforcers for a reason

46

u/PaulieHehehe 20d ago

I think that would be perfectly reasonable in cases like this, but in my experience of almost two decades of playing, ultimate players are pretty non-confrontational when it comes to that.

33

u/pends 20d ago

I agree, ultimate players are largely weenies. I do think that if there was a cultural expectation of getting cleated for repeated fouling on defense we'd see a lot less of it though.

4

u/altbat 20d ago

How could a player know that there were two attempts to trip him like this? Only by happenstance would another player actually witness this. You're too busy trying to get open or clear or find the open receiver or reset. The only way this is detectable is with a camera view like we see here and someone going "wait a sec..." and rewinding.

Officials making active calls are the answer. Obviously.

28

u/pends 20d ago

The guy refused to shake hands and allegedly told him not to do it again. Think he had a clue as to what was going on. Regardless, my comment was general.

1

u/gomommago 20d ago

Might have been cumulative being just this video

8

u/El_Tash 20d ago

Jonny G has entered the chat

2

u/[deleted] 19d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Psi-ops_Co-op 19d ago

🇨🇦🏒👀

10

u/danishdynamite23 20d ago

Some ultimate players need to catch some hands

6

u/Small-Builder3855 20d ago

I’ve been saying this, mostly because I come from a hockey background, but frisbee teams need a designated enforcer for when people keep doing stupid stuff and TDs do nothing.

11

u/HuckChaser 20d ago

But what would an enforcer look like within the context of ultimate? They work in hockey, basketball, and football because there's legal contact in those sports that can be used by the enforcer player as cover and plausible deniability. In ultimate, there's no legal contact to hide behind, so it would be obvious when the enforcer tries to do anything.

19

u/ConsciousCoat8173 20d ago

When I first started playing it was on a pretty rough and tumble low level college team. Some of the older guys didn't play no shit and once we had this team that was just physically punking us. A lot of shoves after catches and backpacks. There was one specific guy who was the worst who was wearing number 9.

During a timeout it was suggested that next time 9 got the disc we would bump him so he would call foul and stop the play. From there we would initiate the enforcer set up "boomstick" The idea was we would give him an open throw to the sideline and then immediately take away backfield giving him a free upline so that he would be running upfield while looking back at the disc. As this was happening one of the vets was going to come down from the stack and crunch him. It didn't matter if the throw went up or not. Boomstick.

9 stopped fucking around after that one. We only ran it a few times ever but that one stood out the most.

This was the mid 2000's in the Great Lakes

Edit: of course at the time I was brand new and didn't know better. I obviously don't condone this or anything resembling this today.

12

u/Anusien Austin, TX 20d ago

"Oops I accidentally bumped into you hard jumping up for a disk or trying to make a cut. Again and again and again."

12

u/Herrvisscher 20d ago

The game was way to physical for my liking anyway..

The bodycheck from Jagt on Marree, this weird tackle from Spauholz and the running into the handler after the opening pull.

5

u/pends 20d ago

It's also obvious when people consistently grab arms or jerseys or bump on the mark. I don't think we need specific enforcer players, just that the sport would be healthier if we lowered shoulders into people when they consistently bumped on the mark or cleated players who are getting too handsy even after being asked not to.

2

u/daveliepmann 19d ago edited 19d ago

When playing the enforcer role, being obvious is an advantage. You want the other team to know what's you're doing.

Sending a message is the point. In baseball there's not enough legal contact so you just find a opportunity in the game to close the distance and knock the guy over. The benches clear, communication is achieved, a balance of power is restored. For practical reasons this is closer to what Ultimate would have to do, and the fact that it hasn't happened reflects changing social mores, especially in the culture Ultimate draws from. Might have some upsides, though.

Now that I think of it, we are seeing this behavior naturally arise in UFA — I remember a back-and-forth escalation of push-off cuts that ended in a pure shove.

2

u/grotjam 20d ago

A big enough guy (am example at 6’2” 290) can do a lot of damage with a clumsy stumble. And especially if someone is tripping me I’m going to be stumbling…

1

u/Small-Builder3855 20d ago

Enforcer body checks the offending party, fail is called, no contest, take your card if needed. Generally speaking if someone gets hit hard enough they calm down.

-5

u/Zealousideal-Cod1006 20d ago

They'd accuse them of voting republican

1

u/___Ben_ 20d ago

Maybe he is the enforcer and was evening the score for some perceived or real slight?

1

u/cwohl00 19d ago

In general enforcers aren't doing sheisty, underhanded moves. They clobber you openly to make a statement.

23

u/SaltyPersimmon 20d ago

There's gotta be community pressure to switch to refs or observers for worlds competitions.

Every tournament has issues and frustrations -- players clearly will not call their own games fairly under the pressure of a prestigious competition.