Friday, February 23, 2007
I love watching Brett Favre highlights. I'm especially fond of the little fake toss he throws in from time to time to misdirect the defense.
I've seen this often playing ultimate too. The crazy inexperienced thrower with the huge obscene fakes sometimes gives the "backhand without the disc in my hand" move. The cutter who fakes in one direction as if reacting to a pass behind the defender, then sharply moving in the opposite direction. Even the "Hammer toss over your head but it's actually behind my back" fake, which I find completely boorish.
To some extent or other we're all trying to misdirect our opponent, shake them and bake them with any trick in our books. So thinking this, I was wondering how having set plays where the offensive sideline is instructed to give fake up calls would sit. Is it spirited or not? And if not, does it even matter?
Let me explain my mental situation so you can better judge:
Iso play, one cutter in the lane, he takes a small step in, breaks deep looking up at an imaginary disc in the sky, and starts sprinting deep with his defender in tow. The offensive sideline yells "UP!" in unison to sell the fake huck, and then the cutter comes back underneath for a big gainer.
I know a certain amount of misdirection is expected, but the Up call is a defensive tool and it feels a little to close to making a fake call (though Up is not a "call" in the rules by any sense). In the spirit of honesty, it feels less like misdirection and more like lying.
On the other hand, if you're falling for this kind of thing more than once you are a fool and deserve to get tooled around. Anyone who can play competent defense with good body positioning shouldn't be getting caught getting owned like this.
Spirited? Not? Would you get offended at a team that pulled this on you?
Labels: two cents
7 comments:
Sounds like the boston surprise, where an endzone iso goes to the break side, lays out, sideline cheers, D starts to walk 70. Meanwhile, newly uncovered offensiveman walks to the live side for the easy throw. goal.
Yes, there's even a video of BOFA, I think, executing this with class, but that was Potlatch where ingenuity like that is praised.
How about in the series?
I think the "UP" call puts it over the line. In my first club series, I fell for the offensive player looking up to throw me off. That was just a good play, and I've taken that lesson with me.
But an "UP" call is almost automatic for a defender to check in on where the disc is. As a defender, having to separate my team's "UP" from a fake "UP" seems a bit much.
Where would you draw the line on something like this? What if an offense starts yelling "Nick" randomly?
i once got burned when the dude i was guarding was calling for the handler trapped on the line to dump him the disc. while he cut towards the handler to recieve the dump, i eased up on my running speed and d for some reason, and then he made a quick cut up the line for a score. i was pissed for being tricked, but i also gave him credit for being able mentally fool me.
i think it's one thing if my defender fools me by either juking me out or outwitting me, it's another thing if a team willingly is trying to decieve the other team by yelling names or up calls or whatever.
now it would be totally different if spectators were yelling "up" calls or something like that. like the fans at basketball games who start chanting the time left on the shot clock even though there's more time left, etc etc. i feel spectators are allowed to heckle as much as they want, as long as the teams on the field didn't specifically instruct the spectators how to behave/act.
ultimate has a long way to go before we fill stadiums and have to think about spectators like the cameron crazies, 6th man, or other hostile environment factors.
how about that story of you being in the airport... pendejo
How about if you talk to the defenders in the zone as if you're giving instructions? "No one, you can cheat in."
In basketball, sometimes an opposing player will call for a drop pass when you're leading on the break.
In hockey, I've had a defenders tap their sticks immitating the point looking for a one timer.
Both cases are really annoying and I would hope they don't become commonplace in ultimate.
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