Tag: Ultimate Frisbee

Spirit of the Game

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Today I want to talk about the most challenging aspect of ultimate frisbee.

I know what a lot of you are thinking, how is anything about chasing a plastic dog toy around a field challenging. First of all, some of the best athletes and people I know play Ultimate, and they highlights speak for the selves (AUDL link). Second, the most challenging part of the game has nothing to do with actually playing, but rather with officiating.

El Duderino sticks the landing

Ultimate is a self officiated game. Like a game of pick up basketball, you call your own fouls and violations, and monitor the out of bounds or scoring lines together with the other team. Below are two sections from the rule book provided by the governing body, USA Ultimate (link)

“Spirit of the Game is a set of principles which places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play. It is assumed that no player will intentionally violate the rules; thus there are no harsh penalties for inadvertent infractions, but rather a method for resuming play in a manner that simulates what most likely would have occurred absent the infraction. An intentional infraction is cheating and considered a gross offense against the Spirit of the Game. Players are morally bound to abide by the rules and not gain advantage by knowingly committing an infraction, or calling one where none exists.”

Grandma comes to visit, and Speedy turns 10 weeks old.

As someone who is super competitive, there is a bit of a learning curve to this mindset. To treat every call, especially ones made by an opponent who has the most to gain from calling infractions, violations, out of bounds etc… As if it is being made honestly, fairly, and without bias, is not a default setting when I’m in competition mode.

I think most athlete’s, and certainly my natural reaction when called for a foul, is to become defensive and argue my case. But, this in and of itself, is a violation of the spirit of the game which dictates that players are morally bound to not gain advantage by calling infractions where none exist, and it is assumed that no player will intentionally violate the rules.

Brute force sandbags WOD with the training mask

I think this is very similar to the socio-political landscape we find ourselves in today. There are so many divisive issues, race being at the forefront, and I think the rules of Ultimate, especially the spirit of the game provide a great framework for productive dialogue. The rules state that players must:

  1. know the rules;
  2. be fair-minded and objective;
  3. be truthful;
  4. explain their viewpoint clearly and concisely;
  5. allow opponents a reasonable chance to speak;
  6. consider their opponent’s viewpoint;
  7. use respectful words and body language;
  8. resolve disputes as quickly as possible;
  9. make calls in a consistent manner throughout the game; and
  10. only make a call where an infraction is significant enough to make a difference to the outcome of the action.
14 day mobility challenge overhead position

These guidelines are obviously oversimplified for issues of sexism, racism, heck even a disagreement with your spouse, but the overall idea that we are in this together and are all responsible for protecting mutual respect and basic joy of Life, sets the table for more productive interaction.

One other important part of the rules that is worth brining up says, ” in the case where a novice player commits an infraction out of ignorance of the rules, experienced players are obliged to explain the infraction and clarify what should happen.”. Notice this doesn’t involve chastisement, or belittling, but rather education. If we operate from the assumption that no one is intentionally causing harm, and then explain the infraction that was the result of ignorance, we can all move forward together.

91° for the afternoon run and some new quarantine facial hair

I miss playing Ultimate, and I never thought I would be writing about it in a socio-political sense, but maybe we can all find a little spirit of the game and some SerenityThroughSweat, and we will all be better off for doing so.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

Faking the Funk

I picked up archery as a new hobby a few months ago and I’ve been consuming a lot of archery related information online. YouTube, podcasts, blogs, there is a ton of wonderful information available for free, what a time to be alive.

One of the podcasts I listen to frequently is the Bowjunky podcast by Greg Poole, and Greg frequently says something that makes me chuckle. Used in a variety of situations Greg will caution his listeners against “faking the funk”

All alliteration aside, faking the funk is a fantastic description of the majority of social media posts and fits in with the overall theme of the last few Serenity through Sweat posts. This week we have talked about measuring metrics and data, logging and posting those items for others to see, and now to bring it full circle, based on the content you put out, are you faking the funk?

This concept of faking the funk is something I’ve been aware of and have danced the line of since highschool. My nickname on the wrestling team in highschool was Woody, as a tribute to woody harrelson’s character in “white men can’t jump”. I would show up to tournaments in tye dye pajama pants and a ratty worn down hoody and look like a chump. This was a style all my own and I could back up my questionable fashion choices with my performance on the mat.

In college I continued the trend in my ultimate frisbee days playing on a team clad in Speedos. The message was always don’t take yourself too serious, but be able to back up your bravado. This tradition has continued to be passed down to the team through the alumni group and the message is consistent.

A lot of those same alumni from the speedo teams ventured into the triathlon community, another area rife with people taking themselves too serious and faking the funk. So we’ve come together to form the TriGoodBeer triathlon team and the BadAssRaceFans (BARF) cheering and morale section. This group is composed of some serious athletes with some incredible athletic achievements, but all of whom can have fun with themselves in the moment.

It’s easy to get wrapped around the axle tracking training metrics, logging workouts, and sharing to social media, especially if you have some sort of incentive to do so. It’s easy to start putting out a persona and eventually faking the funk.

That being said, you can’t fake a marathon. You have to put one foot in front of the other until all 26.2 are done. You can’t fake an archery scoring round, you shoot all your arrows and hold yourself accountable for where they land. When you show up to train, only you know whether you trained or whether you sat on the sidelines.

Wrapping up this three post series, measure what you want, and post what you want, but you can’t fake your way to serenity, and you can’t fake good old fashioned hard work and sweat. If you are true to yourself and don’t take yourself too serious, serenity is probably already one step closer.

Thanks for joining me and stay sweaty my friends.