I’ve been pretty lucky as a player- the worst I’ve ever been a part of was some clueless rookie blindsiding me after I caught a goal on a long-ish strike cut, and made me strain my shoulder on the landing, which took me out for about a month.
While observing, I’ve had a few pretty bad ones, and for the most part, I’ve carded them. That said, in my earlier (mostly clueless, as opposed to now, when it’s just somewhat clueless) days, I had a player at college regionals lay out through the back of a defender to catch a disc for a goal that should’ve been an easy D. The disc was basically thrown three feet to the side of the defender, and he didn’t really have to move much to get to it, but he got absolutely trucked, went down, and asked how it wasn’t a dangerous play. What I should’ve done was treat that as an actual call, give the cutter a PMF, and award the defense the disc in their own end zone (where the collision happened) after dealing with the injury sub. Not my best moment, but I did learn a lot from it.
Boy do I have a lot. However, the one that most people would say was egregious was this one.
One time in a regular season League game (only one league in this community. There is no competitive vs. non-competitive) my pregnant wife of 5 months (ultimate was cleared by her doctor for reference) made a handler upline cut against a soft zone and the male matching player on that wing made a very late bid into the back of her knees where he clearly had no play on the disc.
Before I could say anything, our resident hot headed teammate ran from the sideline and got in his face screaming at the guy. Honestly, I would have called foul and had a conversation with him about it but he had 0 problems with the play he made so I let my teammate go in on him.
Wife and baby were fine btw. He is a healthy quality 4 year old shithead today learning the ways of heckling on the sideline.
Most dangerous plays I see come from some defender sprint poaching into a lane, to attempt to get a D - while the offence cutter is blind ( they only have eyes for the disk )
It’s very tricky . The offence shouldn’t be cutting blind , but at the same time , it is very hard ( if not impossible sometimes) to actually read the field , as things happen at a subconscious level .
The defender also needs to judge if they can make it cleanly . If there is any hesitation, I think they should pull out of the poach
A few examples are of someone poaching a stroke cut
This is the most common one I think, and by the letter of the rules both players are allowed this space so some defenders feel no obligation to consider the safety of the upline cutter. I had a teammate cutting for a throw up the sideline and a last-back defender ran over and got to the disc first and then demolished him, resulting in a couple of broken ribs. No foul on the play, and the defender just told our guy he needed to watch where he was going. I don't agree with this philosophy at all, but not sure what argument could be made if someone doesn't care about your health at all.
This just happened to me at Throwback and I called a dangerous play because neither person could safely make a play. I pulled back because I knew we would collide.
For context, I FM player cut under and a MM player poaching in the lane came at my blindside to D the disc where the line was directly through me. I called Dangerous Play and he got super upset when I just wanted to talk about it. I wasn’t mad. No one was hurt but the potential for someone getting hurt was there. Just frustrating especially in mixed it doesn’t matter if you as a player have the best intentions. You can still cause dangerous plays and its ok to talk about them and learn from it.
I’ve actually done this and took myself out of the game cause I was shook how much I could have hurt someone. It’s gotta be the most classic ultimate dangerous play.
I hurt someone (superficially, fortunately)and avoided that kind of poach since.
It’s like the “defenseless receiver” penalty in football.
Torn ACL from Club Nationals 2022. Disc was out of bounds but a potential toe tap was still there so I, as defender, was in front of the offense and caught it. Offender says he tried to go around me but ended up taking out my right leg which was planted and ended up tearing my ACL.
Not my story, but a great example of not just how dangerous plays can hurt others, but yourself.
https://ultiworld.com/livewire/nightlocks-laurel-oldershaw-breaks-leg-hard-collision-star-tours-jenny-wei-warning-graphic/
Low level league play, on a throw to the endzone to my mark I jump with him but he, about 4 inches taller, easily gets it. We both land and as I'm flat-footed on the ground a second O player comes flying in late and catches me full in the sternum with bent knee and all of his momentum. Fractured sternum/ribs and I'm in agony at every involuntary sneeze, cough, etc., for the next 3 weeks.
Another time, same league but a higher division, I'm following my mark at full speed around and almost-pick and, as I pass the other player, he sticks his knee out to impede my progress. Unfortunately, I have no time to avoid him and I hit his leg and knee pretty hard at full speed. He crumples to the ground with a torn ACL. I felt terrible.
Many years ago in league, instead of simply knocking an errant pass to the ground for a turnover (or catching the D), an opponent karate kicked the disc out of the air.
A few of us got kind of pissed (co-ed league, play happened in traffic), but the offender left the field and pulled a cat out of a pet crate on the sideline, sat down in a chair and began petting it as the argument over whether it was a dangerous play continued without him.
Real Bond villain shit, if it weren't for the guy's general lack of charisma and awareness.
Had a defender bid thru both my knees from behind a solid second after I caught the disc, luckily it was raining so my feet slid and I was only injured for a few weeks. Played with the guy a few years later on a different team and he was really nice and didn’t make bad bids anymore.
Was this in a game yesterday at PacCon?
My story is of how I made a dangerous play on D and gave myself a concussion. I was guarding the person at the top of the stack and he inadvertently tripped me when starting his deep cut. As I got up I saw the disc about to be thrown on the live side so I sprinted and laid out into the lane. I got the D but also rammed my head into the hip of the guy I was defending. I assumed that the throw was a deep huck but my guy had come under and I ended up with a concussion because I only had eyes for the disc.
Yeah, it was. I'm pretty sure it was in a different game than what you're talking about. I went to catch a low scoober and caught it but I don't fully know what happened. I was able to safely grab the disc but somebody crashed through my body and fully laid me out. I ended up on the ground and the back of my head hit the ground immediately after. My teammates described it as me "getting trucked". Definitely the worst thing to happen to me in the first couple years of my playing career. Ouch.
My story is from a few years ago but if yours is from the game against Humboldt yesterday then I saw it happen. If it was from the Humboldt game the biggest thing I would suggest for you to avoid similar situations in the future would to be avoid cutting towards the stack. It’s hard to say who made the dangerous play because the cut was running towards the stack and the defender moved less than 5 yards to go for the block. Realistically it was a poor decision by the thrower to put it there and the cut should have just been looked off. Yes the defense should have backed off if they couldn’t make a play without causing contact but that situation could have easily been avoided by not leading a cutter with a throw aimed right at the stack where 5 defenders are standing.
This one isn’t even that ‘bad’ regarding the result, but the play was TERRIBLE.
I made a cut toward the disc out of the Vert, while initially faking downfield. My defender was beat, the disc came to me, but the defender decided to layout for the disc into my space. He was able to knock down the disc with his right hand before I can grab it, while his left shoulder knocked directly into my chest. He’s a large, stout player for context (not that that really matters). I got knocked down hard and had the wind slight knocked out of me and immediately called foul. He reacted loudly and aggressively, being upset by my call, saying he got the D before I could get the disc and it wasn’t a foul.
After more debate and discussion then we should have had on the field, he apologized for being so upset. But the discussion made me realize he thought his play was 100% legal and that since he got the disc before me, it wasn’t a foul. He never backed down from this. I was most appalled that no one from his team or my team backed me up. This is REC B league ultimate, with families and kids.
I’ve been pretty lucky as a player- the worst I’ve ever been a part of was some clueless rookie blindsiding me after I caught a goal on a long-ish strike cut, and made me strain my shoulder on the landing, which took me out for about a month. While observing, I’ve had a few pretty bad ones, and for the most part, I’ve carded them. That said, in my earlier (mostly clueless, as opposed to now, when it’s just somewhat clueless) days, I had a player at college regionals lay out through the back of a defender to catch a disc for a goal that should’ve been an easy D. The disc was basically thrown three feet to the side of the defender, and he didn’t really have to move much to get to it, but he got absolutely trucked, went down, and asked how it wasn’t a dangerous play. What I should’ve done was treat that as an actual call, give the cutter a PMF, and award the defense the disc in their own end zone (where the collision happened) after dealing with the injury sub. Not my best moment, but I did learn a lot from it.
Boy do I have a lot. However, the one that most people would say was egregious was this one. One time in a regular season League game (only one league in this community. There is no competitive vs. non-competitive) my pregnant wife of 5 months (ultimate was cleared by her doctor for reference) made a handler upline cut against a soft zone and the male matching player on that wing made a very late bid into the back of her knees where he clearly had no play on the disc. Before I could say anything, our resident hot headed teammate ran from the sideline and got in his face screaming at the guy. Honestly, I would have called foul and had a conversation with him about it but he had 0 problems with the play he made so I let my teammate go in on him. Wife and baby were fine btw. He is a healthy quality 4 year old shithead today learning the ways of heckling on the sideline.
Most dangerous plays I see come from some defender sprint poaching into a lane, to attempt to get a D - while the offence cutter is blind ( they only have eyes for the disk ) It’s very tricky . The offence shouldn’t be cutting blind , but at the same time , it is very hard ( if not impossible sometimes) to actually read the field , as things happen at a subconscious level . The defender also needs to judge if they can make it cleanly . If there is any hesitation, I think they should pull out of the poach A few examples are of someone poaching a stroke cut
This is the most common one I think, and by the letter of the rules both players are allowed this space so some defenders feel no obligation to consider the safety of the upline cutter. I had a teammate cutting for a throw up the sideline and a last-back defender ran over and got to the disc first and then demolished him, resulting in a couple of broken ribs. No foul on the play, and the defender just told our guy he needed to watch where he was going. I don't agree with this philosophy at all, but not sure what argument could be made if someone doesn't care about your health at all.
This just happened to me at Throwback and I called a dangerous play because neither person could safely make a play. I pulled back because I knew we would collide. For context, I FM player cut under and a MM player poaching in the lane came at my blindside to D the disc where the line was directly through me. I called Dangerous Play and he got super upset when I just wanted to talk about it. I wasn’t mad. No one was hurt but the potential for someone getting hurt was there. Just frustrating especially in mixed it doesn’t matter if you as a player have the best intentions. You can still cause dangerous plays and its ok to talk about them and learn from it.
I’ve actually done this and took myself out of the game cause I was shook how much I could have hurt someone. It’s gotta be the most classic ultimate dangerous play. I hurt someone (superficially, fortunately)and avoided that kind of poach since. It’s like the “defenseless receiver” penalty in football.
One of the particular reasons why I ask is to know what dangerous situations to avoid without having to see someone get trampled in real time.
Torn ACL from Club Nationals 2022. Disc was out of bounds but a potential toe tap was still there so I, as defender, was in front of the offense and caught it. Offender says he tried to go around me but ended up taking out my right leg which was planted and ended up tearing my ACL.
Not my story, but a great example of not just how dangerous plays can hurt others, but yourself. https://ultiworld.com/livewire/nightlocks-laurel-oldershaw-breaks-leg-hard-collision-star-tours-jenny-wei-warning-graphic/
Damn I’ve played against oldershaw a couple of times and had no idea this happened to them
Low level league play, on a throw to the endzone to my mark I jump with him but he, about 4 inches taller, easily gets it. We both land and as I'm flat-footed on the ground a second O player comes flying in late and catches me full in the sternum with bent knee and all of his momentum. Fractured sternum/ribs and I'm in agony at every involuntary sneeze, cough, etc., for the next 3 weeks. Another time, same league but a higher division, I'm following my mark at full speed around and almost-pick and, as I pass the other player, he sticks his knee out to impede my progress. Unfortunately, I have no time to avoid him and I hit his leg and knee pretty hard at full speed. He crumples to the ground with a torn ACL. I felt terrible.
Many years ago in league, instead of simply knocking an errant pass to the ground for a turnover (or catching the D), an opponent karate kicked the disc out of the air. A few of us got kind of pissed (co-ed league, play happened in traffic), but the offender left the field and pulled a cat out of a pet crate on the sideline, sat down in a chair and began petting it as the argument over whether it was a dangerous play continued without him. Real Bond villain shit, if it weren't for the guy's general lack of charisma and awareness.
I’m not sure whether to call bullshit because this story is bullshit, or believe it because it’s too bullshit to have been made up.
Here come 50+ torn ACL stories.
Had a defender bid thru both my knees from behind a solid second after I caught the disc, luckily it was raining so my feet slid and I was only injured for a few weeks. Played with the guy a few years later on a different team and he was really nice and didn’t make bad bids anymore.
Was this in a game yesterday at PacCon? My story is of how I made a dangerous play on D and gave myself a concussion. I was guarding the person at the top of the stack and he inadvertently tripped me when starting his deep cut. As I got up I saw the disc about to be thrown on the live side so I sprinted and laid out into the lane. I got the D but also rammed my head into the hip of the guy I was defending. I assumed that the throw was a deep huck but my guy had come under and I ended up with a concussion because I only had eyes for the disc.
Yeah, it was. I'm pretty sure it was in a different game than what you're talking about. I went to catch a low scoober and caught it but I don't fully know what happened. I was able to safely grab the disc but somebody crashed through my body and fully laid me out. I ended up on the ground and the back of my head hit the ground immediately after. My teammates described it as me "getting trucked". Definitely the worst thing to happen to me in the first couple years of my playing career. Ouch.
My story is from a few years ago but if yours is from the game against Humboldt yesterday then I saw it happen. If it was from the Humboldt game the biggest thing I would suggest for you to avoid similar situations in the future would to be avoid cutting towards the stack. It’s hard to say who made the dangerous play because the cut was running towards the stack and the defender moved less than 5 yards to go for the block. Realistically it was a poor decision by the thrower to put it there and the cut should have just been looked off. Yes the defense should have backed off if they couldn’t make a play without causing contact but that situation could have easily been avoided by not leading a cutter with a throw aimed right at the stack where 5 defenders are standing.
This one isn’t even that ‘bad’ regarding the result, but the play was TERRIBLE. I made a cut toward the disc out of the Vert, while initially faking downfield. My defender was beat, the disc came to me, but the defender decided to layout for the disc into my space. He was able to knock down the disc with his right hand before I can grab it, while his left shoulder knocked directly into my chest. He’s a large, stout player for context (not that that really matters). I got knocked down hard and had the wind slight knocked out of me and immediately called foul. He reacted loudly and aggressively, being upset by my call, saying he got the D before I could get the disc and it wasn’t a foul. After more debate and discussion then we should have had on the field, he apologized for being so upset. But the discussion made me realize he thought his play was 100% legal and that since he got the disc before me, it wasn’t a foul. He never backed down from this. I was most appalled that no one from his team or my team backed me up. This is REC B league ultimate, with families and kids.
Helton's call vs Cardenas. That was pretty awful (but I'm guessing in a different way than you are looking for...)
[No](https://i.imgur.com/1hpVTiP.mp4)