Coed week, part V, Spirit
This will be brief, but I just wanted to cover the idea of Spirit of the Game in Coed. In one word, &$(*@&#($*, or a little less succinctly, that's a crock. Details below.
I imagine there is some impression that Coed is inherently more spirited than Open at the highest level. And I would say that is only a matter of time. As discussed and commented on at length in previous posts, the coed game right now is a pale shadow of Open in terms of skill, athleticism, and competitiveness. If Coed develops into a truly elite division, then it will carry the same spirit baggage that Open is perceived to have right now. If there is a difference, it will be because of the presence of the women on the team. And this is not because of any philosophy of coed, but at best because of the presence of women.
And I'm not even sure this will be the case. This brings up a key question, which Jim and I were discussing separately, and he mentioned some interesting points that I imagine he will incorporate into a post at some point. Is the women's game inherently cleaner than Open? And if so, why? And I'm using 'cleaner' by design, implying that there might be fewer foul calls. However, I don't mean this to imply that women are naturally more spirited. In fact, I think their notion of what is a good/correct call and what isn't is often inaccurate compared to the men's game, but I will let Jim take this up in a future post.
Basically, I predict that Coed, if it develops into a truly elite division, will be at the same spirit level as any other division.
I think that's enough for Coed, aka Mixed.
I imagine there is some impression that Coed is inherently more spirited than Open at the highest level. And I would say that is only a matter of time. As discussed and commented on at length in previous posts, the coed game right now is a pale shadow of Open in terms of skill, athleticism, and competitiveness. If Coed develops into a truly elite division, then it will carry the same spirit baggage that Open is perceived to have right now. If there is a difference, it will be because of the presence of the women on the team. And this is not because of any philosophy of coed, but at best because of the presence of women.
And I'm not even sure this will be the case. This brings up a key question, which Jim and I were discussing separately, and he mentioned some interesting points that I imagine he will incorporate into a post at some point. Is the women's game inherently cleaner than Open? And if so, why? And I'm using 'cleaner' by design, implying that there might be fewer foul calls. However, I don't mean this to imply that women are naturally more spirited. In fact, I think their notion of what is a good/correct call and what isn't is often inaccurate compared to the men's game, but I will let Jim take this up in a future post.
Basically, I predict that Coed, if it develops into a truly elite division, will be at the same spirit level as any other division.
I think that's enough for Coed, aka Mixed.
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 7:35 PM
6 Comments:
In one sense of the word, Mixed is more competitive than the other divisions. You have more upsets and more close games than in the other divisions, at all levels. And this could be a factor in its popularity, that it's more likely that any given team can win any given game.
In that sense of the word, that is correct. I guess I was thinking along the lines of more well developed, as in much higher quality of play and of athletes. Right now the mixed division is very young, and the play reflects that. If and when it develops into a division that attracts the same level of athletes as in Open and womens and has players that train as hard and as long as the elite teams, I think the spirit will be the same as the other divisions.
uh, my least pleasant experiences in terms of sportsmanship, etc... have been against 'professional' co-ed teams. i guess, its' because i'm always struck by the incongruity of team in assless chaps, cheating severely on everypull, running a cloggy picky offense, playing at some swilly tournament, will start making first ticky tack calls (mystery bump touch fouls), then just BAD calls (i have best perspective!). then someone pointed out that for some (not all) of these teams, buttflosstoss or whatever the tourney is is like a major deal for these folks... so maybe they are in some odd manner, imitating what they perceived as 'high level overly intense play.'
so it's like some weird startrek episode where life on planet asok has derived from some misinterpretation of ancient TV broadcasts.
For the most part, mixed teams lack the long history with each other that results in built-up animosity (or pre-meditated team-by-team strategy adjustments, but that’s another topic). This doesn’t mean that a few a**holes can’t change the tenor of any given game or team-to-team relationship, and that certainly happens in Mixed, too.
Taking a tangential trip to the topic of physical play: there is a vastly different sense of physical play between some Mixed players. This is probably partly due to the disparity of high level experience, where many Mixed players now have significant elite open or women’s experience, but many have little experience of “elite” play. It’s also partly due to the different physicality levels in Open and Women’s ultimate.
I have a sense (possibly mistaken) that once you drop off from the top women’s teams, there is a less physical style of play in general. This is a little less true in Open, where the mid-level teams tend to be pretty physical as well, but still somewhat true. In Mixed, you combine different senses of play from other divisions and vastly different experience levels. This last is what I think you’re talking about, Al, and that I agree will change somewhat as Mixed becomes more established.
I know I’m sidelining about physical play, which is only one element of spirit, but there’s something in the idea that people have a different sense of play where men and women are involved in the same play. Whether it’s chauvinism or chivalry, people respond differently to fouls or contact between genders.
Deciphering my way through Luke's post, I think there is something to the idea that inexperienced players may be getting their competitive rocks off at the same tournaments where Open and Women's club players are shifting to fun-mode to hang out with the people that they want to sleep with as much as they want to play with. Most of us have probably experienced this at summer leagues where some hack punk gets aggressive without much cause. This may well be happening even in the Fall series for Mixed, but I think that effect is already lessening. Especially among teams with longer experience and/or more elite-experienced members in leadership roles, this kind of behavior probably isn't as welcome.
Anyway, my gut feel was that the spirit level I experienced last year at Mixed Nationals was marginally higher than the spirit level I’d experienced the previous few years in Open, but that for the most part Open was fairly well spirited also. On the other hand, the spirit level in terms of arguments and bad calls that I saw at Regionals was somewhat lower than I had experienced the previous few years. Again, not hugely so, but somewhat so.
Sorry for the long post, but interesting stuff.
I have never seen a self-applied dangerous play call in Open or Women's. Only in coed, when a guy has the temerity to make a block on a woman. Instantly realizing his mistake, the offender will apologize for hurting the woman's feelings then, misty eyed, call out "dangerous play!" to the satisfied murmurs of the spirit police on the sidelines.
And yes, I meant mallot. I mean mallet. There is no such hammer-shaped vegetable suspiciously like a shallot.
Sweet cross-posting. For those who want to know what Travis is talking about, check out Idris's treatise on the hammer at http://www.idris.org/ultimate
Post a Comment
<< Home