site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1444 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 8, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

What is it gonna take for you play underwater hockey?

I need help getting new recruits and keeping them around.

For keeping me around? Same as most other team sports: charismatic coach, fun team mates, good built in social scene. Do you regularly go out for drinks/dinner after practice? Are your team mates... normal? I stopped kickboxing and BJJ because those attract a type of guys I can't hang with, in large numbers.

For starting? Convince me this is either more fun or a better workout than football/basketball/handball. Since I like the look of the classic swimmer physique, I'm already predisposed to believing the workout angle. Maybe stand next to your most broad-shouldered-and-slim-waisted team mate while recruiting.

Also, how's the learning curve? Am I going to be useless for the first year? That's no fun, I'd rather run after a ball if that's the case.

Going out after practice is difficult, but I try to make it happen. The main options are Hooters or Denny's.

My own charisma as a coach is hard to judge. People thank me for the coaching and give me compliments, but that could just be politeness.

The people that play are often eclectic. Usually smart people, it's an interesting team sport because you can't easily communicate underwater, but it's absolutely essential that you help your teammates.

Being in shape and able to swim well helps a lot. If you can't do those things but keep playing you will become a good swimmer and at least a little in shape. I've seen and coached people up from 'cant reach the bottom of a 7foot pool with flippers' to 'can swim most of the pool length underwater on the bottom'.

There are three different learning curves for the sport:

  1. Fitness and water agility. Being an athlete and good swimmer helps this, but coming out to practice consistently also helps
  2. Positioning and team play. Being in the right spot for passes or stealing the puck from others. People that have played other team sports like basketball, or soccer pick up on this stuff better. But just being smart helps a lot.
  3. Stick/puck handling. It's possible to do drills and rush to get much better at this. It is very satisfying when you have these skills. They are the least important of the skills though. You can be pretty bad at these and still be a great player. If you are good at these skills you can be a lazier player. They allow you to maximize the benefits of the other two skills.

With a new player I teach them these things:

  1. How to get down to the bottom easily
  2. Pushing the puck along in a straight line
  3. Turning around with the puck
  4. A simple push pass.

There are usually a few things to correct with each of those. If someone can get to the bottom easily the other items are pretty simple to teach.

We are short on players so just last week we had a brand new player being legitimately useful and scoring a goal against people that were trying to stop him. He is somewhat of an exception. Almost like a track star that played soccer for the first time in a rec league and just ran past everyone even while they sucked at dribbling.

A good athlete or swimmer can be ok at the sport within a few practices. They can be good at it in a year. A person could find the sport their freshman year of college and be selected for an international U23 team by their senior year. That is not an outlandish tale, that is one of the guys I play with.

The learning curves are there. It can take time to get good at the sport. As much time as it takes to get good at any sport, and in some cases less time, because there is less competition. But no one has ever heard of the sport or played it. Meanwhile everyone learns other sports in elementary school. Where they can get the boring basic stuff out of the way. By the time they get to highschool they can choose to play on a team where everyone has a minimal level of good fitness, understanding of the sport, and a basic to intermediate level of experience in the specialized skills of that sport.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats