There was a commotion in my last Ultimate practice. One of the players had fallen down and his friend (who was on the opposite team) spit in his general direction. While they were friends and neither of them took it in a wrong way, the coach took him off for the rest of the day. At first I had mixed feelings about it, if neither of them were offended and they both knew it was just playful why would the coach take him off?
However looking back at it I understand why he did it. I think it wasn’t as much about if someone got offended or not, but the general behaviour they showed isn’t the atmosphere that they are trying to create. Even though no one left hurt, sometimes the overall “feeling” of an activity is more important. And the “feeling” or atmosphere of the game became less serious and less respectful, and if the teachers hadn’t done anything about it maybe it would’ve happened again and wouldn’t had become a big deal.
I learnt that sometimes it’s not as superficial as “if no one got hurt / offended, then it should all be ok” but rather the environment that (although not limited to) this activity wants to have.
