Aggression in sport and its place in Ultimate

As I mentioned before, I played a fair bit of Waterpolo. I wasn't all that great, with my strengths coming from being able to exploit weak players very well, quick hands/plays and having decent catching skills. I played a centre-forward position, and had a decent goal count for the season. But again most of my goals came from exploitation (bringing in one of their weak players into the crucial centre-back position) and from quick hands (being able to shoot quickly straight off the hand and off the water) It was a great 4 years of fun.

One big difference was the getting angry factor. In waterpolo there was so many more things to get angry about, mostly the number of jerks (referees and players). One particular one I remember...

It was a final against Asquith in our second season of opens, of our eventual 3 seasons of Opens. We played in the North West District School Sport competition, which was the most competitive zone for sports in Sydney Highschools (public schools) it was always one of our teams that went to regionals during the state knockout. This season we had managed to take down Homebush after a terrible early season in the 4th vs 1st semi final, (we were 4th) which upset them, and set us into the finals against Asquith. Asquith were an extremely angry team who won their games through violence and one or two players, particularly Daniel Arnemart (can't spell it... Marko called him armenut) who was extremely fast... which was only confirmed when we saw him on TV competing for a spot in the Commonwealth Games... and doing very well, who was a complete idiot with terrible ball handling skills but he was huge, amazingly fast and angry. I remember one game having to mark him and him just grabbing me around he neck, thumbs into my throat. The whole asquith team was like that, idiots, but big and violent.

Before big games against angry teams, I never wanted to be one of the starting 7. I always felt slow and sloppy in the water, even after warm ups for big games like these. I think it might have been a confidence issue as well, since I knew in a game like this meant that I was going to get punched and kicked, and I'm a pretty soft person by nature...

A few goals into the game we're in it and I'm aching to get into the pool, feeling every turn over and drop like a punch to the gut and every goal scored giving that rush like I'm flying down a hill or diving into a pool. I want my turn to change the game my way.

We have an awesome referee who knows what hes doing and isn't taking shit from anyone and making good, fair unbiased calls - which usually worked for our team because of the way we played. We were either even or close for goals, we're playing our game and dictating where we want to go, but we're not that far ahead.

I want this. I'm ready. I jump into the pool.

As expected I get marked up on some angry huge idiot who has a baby face but a huge body, and is very agro. He is punching all over the place and kicking a lot to try and make distance on me on his swim offs. Asquith were idiots since they didn't know how to use their aggression for anything apart from intimidation. Homebush were able to use it to scare their opponents into playing softly.

I'm sitting at top shot position (position about 4-7m out from the goals directly in front). Legs pumping away pushing at the blonde haired ape in front of me. I see a pass coming, I ram my left elbow up to his chest to hold him away (Pushing is illegal when you have the ball) and the pass comes in. He can't reach the ball and I hold it away, I push him by mistake and notice the ref didn't call it. I look for the open pass... nothing is happening. This guy has been giving me the shits with his over physical play. He goes for a punch at my stomach since conventional methods are getting the ball. I give him another push with my hand, my arm is now at full extension, I give one shove away kick my guts out get up in the water and shoot over his shoulder.

I scream, I yell.

To beat the bully is the most satisfying feeling I ever got in Waterpolo. It felt amazing to have this asshole push you around for a whole game, and you to send the shot flying over his shoulder because he let his hand drop for just one second.

When you watch Waterpolo at high levels you can tell when some brutality has happened underwater that you can't see above because usually you will see a player just stop for a second while his player swims off while he waits there looking like he just wants to quit and get out of the pool looking dazed before he shakes it off and gets back into it.

The second goal I think I just kicked him in the stomach, gaining a good push off, got a wet pass in front of me and just picked up and shot.

It felt good. Fucking good.

I was psyched. Fucking psyched.

I was angry… fangry.

So this brings me back to frisbee.

Aggression in many team contact sports is a huge factor. If a team feels like it cannot win, it will not win. If a team knows it cant win, it will not win. Aggression, hyper aggression even can do this, I remember in Water polo, a guy kept punching me in the neck every time I went near him (luckily I was able to swim faster than him and he had close to zero balls skills). We had a fucking useless ref who wasn’t doing anything about it. I had been punched in the face by lads trying to take my money in the afternoon and I was not in the mood to take more beatings, and I asked Tmac, our state player to mark him. He got the ball and drew a foul when he knew the ref was watching scoring a send out for brutality (and a school suspension).

But its situations like these that can make a team or a person be scared to play to their ability since they want to avoid the physical abuse.

This never happens in Frisbee. In fact, if it did, it would be highly looked down upon if anything like this occurred. Sadly there is no system to stop it, fortunately there’s no one whose that much of an asshole playing Frisbee. They’re all playing soccer.

As I said, beating the bully was one of the best parts about waterpolo, taking a win away from a team and seeing one of their players punch the pool wall in anger needing to stitch up his knuckles. In Frisbee, this never happens, in most games, I never get that fired up that I could perform those amazing feats of strength and skill. I play hard, and I play as hard as I can, but I never get that same feeling. I mean, I was playing waterpolo at a school competition level and getting this psyched… compared to Frisbee? Not really close to it.

It can even be looked down upon.

At youth nationals, on the first day last year we received a spirit score of 4 on more than one occasion.

Why?

A few things.

Loud sidelines – Piers at the training camp said hey fire up and talk and yell. We tried it… it just made us seem like jerks when the other team wasn’t doing it.

Me being a jerk (which I realised afterwards and felt very bad about) for trying to tell people to make calls on the sidelines. I just remember feeling annoyed seeing picks as beautifully set up as when you screen in basketball for a score, or waterpolo when you pick as a team mate breaks past. I got angry that the rules were not being enforced. But that just made me seem like a jerk – and yes I realise now that was me just being a huge jerk and shouldn’t have done it. Still annoying to not see the rules of the game followed … which was the whole point of spirit.

So is there room for aggression in Frisbee?

There is in being psyched up. I remember the 4 games I’ve played where I’ve been truly psyched up. Compared to Waterpolo which happened just about every week.

1. Against Killara for the finals at the NSW Gala day last year – they lost a game to us in early rounds to get an easier later game against us in the final. We thought it was a stupid draw our last 5 games were Chatswood, Killara, Chatswood (Semi), Killara (Final) We won.
2. Against Chatswood at Youth Nats – I was a complete jerk about it, didn’t make me play better and we ended up not winning properly ending the game before it should have. We pulled a comeback from 7-3 I think to 8-7 win.
3. Against Church St. at Youth Nats – Having no ex worlds players on our team meant we had to find ways to shut down extremely strong players in a field of not so strong players on their team. They had the Robbie huck to Tarrant and the Tarrant huck to Robbie play. It was so awesome to find a way to play differently and adapt to their play. We pulled an amazing come back from 7-3 (the same as the Chatswood game) to 9-7 or 9-8 win.
4. In-tents vs Panic! Youth Nationals Finals – Probably the most unspirited game I’ve ever played from both sides, but it was hell fun. The win was a very controversial universal point, (would have been nicer to do it in style) Corner throw from Mark to Sali, Jackson gets a handblock but the disc is still up, I think Tom D’d it properly. The two stories differ here – Jackson says that Mark hit him in his follow through after he’d released the disc, meaning that Mark was just stupid. Mark said Jackson hit his hand before he released the throw. What do I remember? A slap sound and a shitty throw from Mark. So I don’t know. But Fouls happen in games, and in heated ones like this it’s expected.

So I’m still not sure what role aggression can play in Frisbee especially in mixed as in intimidation tool, maybe I just need to learn how to channel it into non physical ways. But hell from 4 years of Waterpolo its hard.

From a Waterpolo coaches hand book distributed to all our players:

For your first match up CB/CF (Centre forward sits 2m in front of the goals, while the C.Back tries to push him out it usually equates to a lot of wrestling and dirty underwater moves) be more aggressive and violent than usual, push as far as you can without the ref sending you out. Even take the send out to show how crazy you can be. Work hard to dominate your first match up to leave your opponent intimidated and second guess their moves for the rest of the game.

Hell. Waterpolo was a game just as much about playing the players as it was playing the ref.