From: ce448@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Chris Lehmann)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.disc
Subject: Re: Weird play at Hampshire-rules?
Date: 5 Oct 1992 04:12:51 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ce448@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Chris Lehmann)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, CRAAARB@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu () says:

>At a crucial point in the FOG/WUFO matchup at Hampshire on October 3rd, a Yale
>player had just made a layout-biff in the endzone. While chasing down the disc
>which had gone out of bounds, the Yale captain suggested a time-out call,
>yelling "call time-out". Apparently, a couple of the other Yale players turned
>to the players marking them and said 'time out'. Although no one was really run
>ning around, it isn't clear whether this was from the time-out call or the turn
>over. Anyways, the Yale player who was running down the disc had no intention
>of listening to his captain, ran the disc up to the goal line, and hucked a
>backhand most of the length of the field to his team-mate who had, seeing
>the handler rush the disc to the goal line, taken off down field. Players on bo
>th sides agreed, with a few Yale dissensions, that although the rules clearly s
>tate that the man with the disc has to call time-out, spirit of the game should
> take precedence and that since players on both teams had slowed down, the disc
> should go back to the goal-line. The thrower argued that people on the field
>should, as when a pick is called, keep playing as if a disc is live until it is
> obviously not, and that spirit or not, the rules are there for a reason.
>My feeling is that both arguments are valid. Any ideas?
>
O.k. this is a pet-peeve issue of mine. It is my contention that SOTG assumes
that all players on the field understand the rules of the game and want a 
game that is played by the rules, with the understanding that competiveness
should never overrule fair play. That being said, only the player with the
disc can call time out. Everyone should know this rule, and therefore should 
not have stopped running. A misunderstanding of the rules by one team 
should not constitute a SOTG violation by the other team. People scream
"Call Time-Out" all the time, you can't just stop. I think the cutter, seeing
the thrower running up to the line made a good cut. Fast-break Ultimate is
exciting and effective. The Yale players who said that time had been called
screwed up, but could any of those defenders have made a play?

SOTG should not be used as an excuse for ignorance of the rules in any game 
that is not specifically a teaching game. Captains have an obligation to 
teach their new players the rules, players have an obligation to learn them.
Spirit does not and should not have to take away from the intensity of
Ultimate. Navy is one of the most spirited teams I have seen in a while and
they play a hard-running, not always "friendly" game of Ultimate, but they
respect the game, their opponents and the rules. 

	Shaking hands in the stack doesn't necessarily constitute good spirit
if the same guy makes a bonehead call two minutes later because he doesn't
know the rules. Anyway, that's my $.02

						Chris
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Lehmann	 	 	 ce448@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu
University of Pennsylvania	 "When a ball dreams, it dreams 
Breed Ultimate	 	 	 it's a frisbee."