Spirit of the Game


"Spirit of the Game", perhaps the central governing principle of ultimate. Ultimate players, by their own reckoning, are among the more courtly athletes. Respect for one's opponent is paramount. In contrast to crybaby sports like soccer and basketball wherein skilled thespians refine the art of fouling and being fouled, the official ultimate rules strictly forbid any action—taunting, intentional fouls—that might be construed as bad sportsmanship. "Often," says the introduction to the rules, "a player is in a position where it is clearly to the player's advantage to foul" or rattle his opponent with taunts, but such tactics are considered "a gross offense against the spirit of sportsmanship." Dennis Rodman, stay right where you are.

The most compelling aspect of ultimate is the absence of penalties. In the preface to the rules, the founding fathers of the sport, such trusting souls, "assumed that no ultimate player will intentionally violate the rules; thus there are no harsh penalties for inadvertent infractions." (In fact, there really aren't any penalties at all.) This statement is, in its off-hand way, revolutionary. Imagine a country with no way to enforce its laws other than simply by presuming its citizens would never intentionally violate the law in the first place. Foolish? Naïve? In ultimate-land, it works.

Should some vicious churl choose to flout the Spirit of the Game, the founding fathers conceived of a simple safeguard. In place of referees, the players call their own fouls. For instance, if Jane hacks Mary while Mary is winding up to deliver the huck to end all hucks, Mary simply yells "foul," and it's a foul. Jane is presumed to have hacked unintentionally, and play resumes with Mary's possession. Since players cannot "foul out," a cynic might think it a toothless sort of foul call, but the Spirit so dominates the sport as to make further disciplinary measures unnecessary.

In Ultimate, every player is responsible for their own conduct on the field. There's no refs to make sure that everyone acts like grown-ups, so it's the responsibility of players to call fouls on themselves if the person they have fouled does not call the infraction. That's right. You can call a foul on yourself. Ultimate relies on the honour system and the belief that no one will intentionally cheat, much like marriages, the income tax system, and all-you-can-eat sushi bars. [1]

Ultimate's rules, like any sport's, can take a while to learn. However, they can, for the most part, be summed up by the concept of "Spirit." Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect between players, adherence to the agreed-upon rules of the game or the basic joy of play. The purpose of the rules of Ultimate is to provide a guideline which describes the way the game is played. It is assumed that no Ultimate player will intentionally violate the rules; there are no harsh penalties for inadvertent infractions but, rather, a method for resuming play in a manner which simulated what would most likely have occurred had there been no infraction. It couldn't be much simpler. Spirit allows the game to be played without refs, without untoward aggression, and without long stoppages in play. It really can't be stressed too much. Spirit is what makes Ultimate so much fun. If you can't relate to the concept of Spirit you might be better off trying a different activity; such as sitting in a darkened room cleaning your firearms and obsessing over conspiracy theories. [2]

References

[1] Mark Schulte http://www.virginiadynamics.com/ultimate.htm
[2] Vancouver Ultimate League http://www.vul.bc.ca/