A few weeks ago, I was having lunch and watching a little bit of a soccer match. While I was watching, I noticed that someone got hurt about every 30 seconds. It seemed like on every play someone fell, was grimacing in pain and there was a stoppage in the game. I must admit: I don’t watch/attend many soccer games but I do go to a lot of basketball games and flopping seems to be everywhere.
Let me start with a quick definition of flopping:
In basketball, the definition of a flop is: “An intentional fall by a player after little or no physical contact by an opposing player in order to draw a personal foul call by an official against the opponent.” The move is sometimes called “acting”, as in “acting as if he was fouled”. Because it is inherently designed to deceive the official, flopping is generally considered to be unsportsmanlike. Nonetheless, it is widely practiced and even perfected by many professional players.
As I was watching the soccer match and the replay I couldn’t believe how many athletes seemed like the slightest touch needed emergency care! As I looked closer flopping seemed to be as bad in soccer as it is in basketball!
The question is: Which is worse?
- What do you think of flopping?
- Have you noticed an increase in flopping?
- Which is worse: Basketball or soccer flopping?
I look forward to reading your comments.
Dan Rangel says:
Soccer! Being that I play hockey it really bothers me. It’s very rare that you see that in hockey and as you stated in soccer the person is barely touched and they are always grabbing some part of their leg, rolling and grimacing with pain and then within 10 seconds they are all good and playing again.
Drives me nuts!
Fee Sepahi says:
HI Merrill,
Yes, flops in soccer have been used for an eternity. Coaches and players use it for time management, momentum control, player change or several other reasons. Obviously there are also times when it is a real injury and I won’t touch that.
Suffice to say I think it’s more obvious in basketball as the audience is right there amongst the payers and it is a much smaller field of vision and everything is so much more obvious.
Roger Austin says:
Flopping is bad in any sport. Period. Seems that is the new way of playing and I hope the referees begin to start calling it in reverse. They call it on the flopper.
I played both sports for many years and you don’t see this until you get to college in basketball and pro in soccer.
it needs to be stopped.
Matt O'Mara says:
Soccer, for sure… it’s almost impossible to watch, with all the reactions that happen two seconds after contact. Hockey has done the right thing, but calling diving penaties on players who try to flop.
I’m sure that you’ve seen this, but it’s a funny take on soccer flopping. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf_puN-S5OM
Ed Sugar says:
Whether we like it or not, deception is an integral part of competition, be it business, war, politics, sports, chess, poker, bidding for stuff on eBay, etc…
As long as the governing organizations and/or society deem a certain form of deception as acceptable, it then comes down to each individual to deem if their deceptive behavior is in line with their own conscience and moral code of ethics.