Self-Officiation and Spirit of the Game

See twitter thread(s) here for the inspiration behind the post:  

 
Thesis: Self-officiation and Spirit of the Game as selling points are bad for the continued growth of our sport 

 
USA Ultimate has made growth a top priority (See page 14 of the report). They claim that their goal is to 'Develop and oversee a broad spectrum of programs for a diverse community of youth players and administrators.' However, I will argue that their current plan is leaving out a large portion of the populace from their target audience and thus making their goal impossible. 

The current 'Elevator pitch', so to speak, of Ultimate that is given at the beginning of every ESPN streamed game goes something like this (Can't find the exact wording): Ultimate is a sport that relies on self-officiation, spirit of the game and integrity. 

I think it should go something like this: Ultimate is a sport that is fun, fast-paced, safe, healthy, and constantly pushing for gender equity. 

 
My reasoning: 

The prevailing perception of our sport is that of a joke. Exhibit A. This is not just a feeling I alone have. We are being actively referenced with a joke from a movie. And we are being thrown into the same bucket as Bags. Personally, I'd rather be seen in a different light than Bags as I think we probably do a bit more work than them to master our craft. 

Self-officiation, which we falsely claim that our sport relies on, only perpetuates this perception. If we want to grow our sport, we need to make a strong effort to change this. As it stands now, I believe that self-officiation is a big reason why people continue to have a negative opinion and a closed-mind about ultimate. See the following conversation with a relative during the ESPN2 game from Sunday. 

Her: So are there like set offensive plays that you run? Like football? 

Me: There are yeah. Most set plays are off the pull or another dead disc. 

Her: This whole call your own foul thing is a lil much 

Me: I don't like it but most of the frisbee community thinks it's our biggest selling point which is asenine imo 

Her: Yeah it kind of makes it less legitimate. And like... you have these observers who make calls anyways... 

Me: Agreed. They can mostly only rule if players choose to ask them   
 

These national broadcasts are a huge tool and a huge opportunity. We all make efforts everyday to introduce the sport to new people through our daily interactions, and that is fantastic. But these broadcasts are the rarest of chances, when we have a huge population of sports fans tuning in out of curiosity. We should do everything within our power to show them the very best our sport has to offer. In effect, we are trying to persuade them to become a player, a fan, a coach. By having a number of stoppages, questionable foul calls, and confusing discussions during the game (especially during plays and contact seen as fairly routine in other sports), we are raising the bar of inclusion. With referees in place, any other sports fan will be considerably more understanding of the flow of the game. It is something they are accustomed to, and a system that has proven to be effective in many other leagues. 

Having played with Referees in the AUDL, I can tell you it does not change how the game is played. It speeds up the game, takes stress off the individual to 'correctly argue their call', and does not introduce gamesmanship as some claim. My request is for the vast majority of the frisbee community that has not played with referees to give it a chance.  
There are many people who will have similar negative thoughts as my cousin while watching these broadcasts who won't have someone to explain things, and encourage them to start playing anyway. We are turning people off before allowing them to learn about the parts of the sport that actually are great and give it a chance.  

We should be opening the door to everyone rather than stubbornly saying 'we shouldn't change the game to get more people'. The best version of frisbee has the most people playing. All pushing each other to get better on the field and off. The more people we have, the more diverse our thoughts, the more powerful our impact.  

So why is USAU ignoring this fact that they are alienating a large contingent of our country and plugging along with SotG and Self-Officiation?  

Now, I know what anyone reading this is likely thinking. “Spirit of the Game” is a vital piece of ultimate, and we should celebrate that and explain it to any new fan. I know that I am touching a sacred cow here, but I want to ask two questions.  

1.       When you decided to give ultimate a shot, did you know what SotG was?  

2.       If so, was that what first piqued your interest in this sport?  

I would be extremely surprised if anyone answered yes to both of these questions. Even if you have disagreed with me up to this point, I hope you can understand what I am saying here. SotG, while a noble and impressive ideal, is NOT the reason people start playing ultimate, and to trying to use it as a selling point now is a substantial mistake for the reasons I've listed above. The reasons we all started playing are exactly the things we should be trying to show off on our broadcasts. For me, and I imagine for most of us, these reasons include the fun, the explosiveness, the fluidity of play, and the inclusivity. 

SotG is a part of all of the reasons I listed above. It makes opponents more fun to play against, it makes explosive plays safer, it (in theory) keeps the game moving quickly, and it gives everyone a voice. I am NOT against the idea of SotG. But I am against using it as an excuse to put an inferior product on the field, one that is peppered with questionable foul calls, long and confusing disputes, and unsatisfying resolutions. I am against using it as a selling point. 

I imagine most of you are familiar with the foot-in-the-door psychological technique. This involves first getting someone to agree to a small idea, before eventually getting them to accept a big idea. With these broadcasts, we are trying to get our foot in the door. We are trying to show off our sport in a way that some people will decide to give it a shot – the door has been cracked open. As these new players go out and meet others and begin to participate, that is when SotG manifests itself, and aids us in throwing the door wide open. But it does not work in the opposite direction. In other words, SotG sounds like a relic of the 60s, and this, coupled with the flaws of self-officiation at the high level, act as a doorstop preventing us from making any headway into new populations. We need to remember what made us join the sport way back in the day, and that is exactly how we should be opening the door to as many people as possible.  

Most people I’ve talked to resist the idea of making Frisbee any bit more like other sports. I understand the hesitance; many players –including myself – had bad experiences in other sports. But, on the field, we know we have a great product. The way this sport is played is more exciting and more rewarding and more accessible than any other sport on the planet. You start to fall in love with it as soon as you play your first pickup game, long before anyone opens the rulebook and explains to you the nuances of contesting fast counts or the USAU definition of spirit. This game is fantastic because it is a great game, and the community is fantastic because we all love it together, and we share and translate that love and respect with each other as well. That is never going to change. But in order to enable more people to join us, our methodologies do have to change. We need to eliminate self-officiation at the highest, most competitive, televised level. And we need to stop flaunting SotG as if we are some superior, entitled class of people.  

Did it once make sense? Yes.  

Can it still have a place even if we have referees? Yes. See integrity rule in The AUDL. 

Does it belong in competitive play? No, with a caveat. Each individual can still abide by it, as well they should, but it should not be the backbone of the rulebook. 

Should we be using it as the sports' main selling point? No. 

The people who play ultimate are great. I have made bonds in ultimate that can never be topped. But are we fundamentally different than the humans that play soccer? Or basketball? No, of course not. We are not so special that we do not need unbiased 3rd parties to oversee our games. Thinking otherwise is very arrogant.  

1. Advertise the fun 

2. Advertise the explosiveness 

3. Advertise the camaraderie 

4. People will be interested 

5. They will start playing and we can still teach them about the integrity we all learned to play with 

That is the template to growing our sport.  

Written in collaboration with KSC,

ARC