I frequently talk about the spirit of the game--how ultimate, a hippie creation, maintains a key philosophy/shared understanding of the sport--that it is competition combined with respect and good cheer, essentially. Last night, as my team was getting throttled by a smart, athletic, well-led team, one of the players on the other team approached mine at halftime and gave us some very helpful advice on how to be more successful against their zone defense (or any zone defense for that matter).
I have been playing on and off for about 25 years, and I have never seen such good spirit. He knew his team would win, but gave us a chance to make it more competitive and help us learn so that we can do better down the road and his and other teams. It definitely helped take the edge off a very frustrating game, not just because they played so well, but because I sucked big-time.
Reminds me that even bad ultimate is better than no ultimate. And when an opponent displays such a great appreciation of the spirit of the game, the bad ultimate is not so bad at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment