At this years Worlds, a number of teams, including our team, began what I call the pull noise taunt. It's similar to what teams do in basketball when they try and distract the person taking the free throw. In our case, once our team pulled the disc on defence, a chant would start and the team would yell when the receiver was about to catch the disc (hoping it would cause a turn).
Pictured Above: Old U.K. nationals action between Flump and Brighton 2.Our team didn't start the tournament with this in place, but it was something the team adopted after playing some teams that were doing the same to us.
Does this sort of behaviour belong in Ultimate?
As a player, I don't really mind heckles since I don't find I hear them. Many players will say the same thing, so maybe that means the taunt is fine in the game. However, it's unlikely that we are all immune to the taunt all the time, and there are probably people who will be affected by the taunt in many situations.
In reality, it's bad spirit to taunt the pull - sideline or field. You're not supposed to yell when a person is about to catch it on the fly, so this should translate to the rest of the game. Even if all teams were taunting the pull, we should have taken the higher ground and refrained from our own taunting. Something to think about next time.
PJ
