This week’s issue on sub-calling got me thinking about the sideline.

In Ultimate, the sideline is a funny thing. It’s unlike any other team sport. In baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, volleyball, cricket, softball, kickball, and field hockey, players on the sideline are required to stay in their dugouts or on their benches.

The only sport relatively close to Ultimate in this fashion is American football, where players and coaches can roam the sideline to either 25 yard line, and only on their designated side. (Though this might just be a response to the amount of space necessary to house such large rosters).

Ultimate is different. Players can be on either sideline at any time, from back endzone line to back endzone line. You see opponents standing side-by-side, yelling to their teammates as their words become muffled together.

I wonder what difference it would make if there was no sideline as we know it. If players and coaches were restricted to a bench, how would the tone of the game change?

It seems as though defensives get more help from sidelines with “up” calls and “strike” calls on the mark. Take away the sideline and I think it would be to the advantage of the offense. Then again, it would force players on the field to talk to one another even more, which in any rule set can only be a good thing.

When players intermingle there can be a fair share of jawing between rivals during heated moments (that can easily escalate), and I have been in my fair share of uncomfortable situations standing among a group of opposing players as they criticize your team, its methods, and your teammates (which can also escalate).

Of the many things that make Ultimate unique, free sidelines is on the list. But I’m not totally convinced that the free reign that players have is in the best interest of the sport or of sportsmanship.