The Don't Be a Dick Rule // Ultimate (Frisbee)

            I’ve been playing ultimate (commonly known as ultimate Frisbee) for about four years now. I started in my sophomore year of high school, but we didn’t play competitively until my junior year. I’ve also been on a summer league through a local ultimate organization. It’s a fantastic sport that’s highly under-appreciated.

            Perhaps the most interesting aspect of ultimate is that each game is largely self-governed, unless you’re playing at a highly competitive level where referees are needed. What this means is that if a foul occurs, the person fouled against must call the foul. The person who supposedly committed the foul must then choose whether they contest the call or not. (There are a variety of rules defining what happens for each call.) This level of self-governing might seem to some as a bad idea, as anyone could theoretically call a foul when none occurred. However, this is also included in the rules as a overarching rule entitled the “Spirit of the Game”, which my friends and myself jokingly refer to as the “Don’t Be a Dick Rule”:

“Ultimate relies upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play. Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate unsportsmanlike conduct from the Ultimate field. Such actions as taunting opposing players, dangerous aggression, belligerent intimidation, intentional infractions, or other ‘win-at-all-costs’ behavior are contrary to the spirit of the game and must be avoided by all players.”

-11th Edition Rules, USA Ultimate

(tl;dr: every player must be a good sportsman)

            I find this rule to be one of the most interesting and unique aspects of ultimate, and also one of the most applicable to daily life. In most things, we as humans are self-governed. True, there are laws, politicians, police officers, etc. to govern us as citizens, but on a smaller scale, outside of this, we are self-governed. Every day we decide how we’re going to treat others. We decide what we’re going to say, if we’re going to smile at others, and how we’re going to act. So many people seem to forget that other people are just that: people. We are all people with goals, desires, beliefs, and opinions. There is no excuse for making the world a sucky place for others to live, so don’t do it; don’t be a dick.

Hoping for a kinder world,
I'm Michael, and this is my life.

(P.S. Today is my first post officially back, but it is also coincidentally the one-year anniversary of my first post ever on this blog. Hopefully this attempt will go better than the last.)