My first frisbee post. Ultimate frisbee is an interesting sport because it is in its infancy in comparison to many other sports. However, early in its history, it has grown in popularity very quickly and has reached a crossroads. Ultimate has formed its own community, being relatively unknown and based on principles of good faith and sportsmanship. While competitive, it is played with a respect of all other players, no refs and no intentional fouling. These must be assumed to be true in every instance or else the rules would fall apart, and sometimes do. See, it's not spirit instead of competition. The spirit award should never be a consolation prize. It's just that spirit should never be sacraficed in order to be competitive. The best is when you have both. But this post is not intended to explain ultimate or SOTG. There are plenty of sites that do that and when I get the chance, I'll point you to some. I want to talk about something far more intriguing; namely the future of this sport.
I did a linguistics project on ultimate and I found that due to the grass roots nature of the sport, the terms and knowledge of the sport set its players apart, creating a community. Knowing how to play and how to be in the "cup" is a passport to the hundreds of pick-up games going on around the world. However, as the sport becomes more popular, this community may be lost. When enough people start playing, the level of sportsmanship falls due to human nature. You can no longer guarantee that the person who is joining your game is immediately a person who holds the same spirited values as you do, as you once could have. It will be interesting to see how the sport evolves. The community is very active and has differing views on the future of ultimate. However, we all care about the sport and want to play it until we can't play anymore.
I found this online the other day. it's an article about my old team and it made me smile.
http://www.wurfwhile.com/archives/000390.html
"Later in college, where Ultimate was my third major, we played teams like Drew University (they worshiped a cow skull and had lots of "bovinity" rites) that were rarely winners in the score, but acted like winners on the field, always having a lot of fun and putting forth great effort - and sometimes they "won the party" too. Drew was known for having the "Spirit of the Game" - something emphasized a lot in Ultimate - what other sports call good sportsmanship (to the point of applauding the other team for good plays, offering suggestions to newer players on technique, etc.). In a game with no referees, the "Spirit of the Game" is what distinguishes Ultimate from many other competitive sports.
"I bring this up not for nostalgic reasons, but to make a larger point. Despite my experiences, even I sometimes forget how necessary fun is in working successfully towards a common goal, whether you win or lose. It does matter how you play the game."
Anyway, I've met some amazing people playing ultimate and I'll keep playing as long as I can find a line of people who play the sport the way I feel it should be played. So far so good.
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