That's Testosterone Talking.....

 

 

Since the introduction of the Internet and message boards, trash talking in competitive flag has taken off to an all-new high!  Alias posts typing what they can do, what they will do and what they have done.  Then you have some that post their name and do the same; hoping that it’s somehow forgotten by the time the next big tournament rolls around. 

Nevertheless, when smack talk is at a fever pitch (somewhere during a “down-tournament-time”) you have to be able to successfully differentiate “Real Talk” from “Testosterone Talk” on message boards, blogs and other interactive communication avenues in order to truly understand the message of the messenger. 

Testostorone Talk is the act of yoking up your verbage to misled others into thinking your saying this, when you actually saying something else. Here is an example:

Real Talk Translation:

“Can we please see the schedule to make sure we are not playing (insert team name here)?”

Testosterone Talk:

“It don’t matter who we play, just show us the game times before we get there!”

For starters, “Real Talk” often has a sincere tone when reading it; non-threatening and smooth. On the other hand “Testosterone Talk” is extremely aggressive, hostile and malicious; usually without any cause or reason, other than something personal.   

Now of all people, Tournament Directors know best how to I.D. “Testosterone Talk” from "Real Talk" .  With any team, the motto is: “We play whoever is in front of us, it don’t matter!”  That my friend is 100% pure “Testosterone Talk”; top-shelf, with no chaser! 

The deal is top teams want to play lower teams early in hopes of building their confidence and gaining early momentum.  Middle of the pack teams want to play even lesser teams, avoiding top teams all together in order to keep what confidence they do have, which is where “sandbagging” kicks in.  But you cannot publicly go out and request a weaker schedule, so you have to "Testosterone-ize" your statement to maintain credibility in the flag game.

There have been actual cases in which a team threatened to sit out of a tournament if they had to face a certain team or two in the early rounds (on more than one occasion)!  That was a “Real Talk” moment that we as tournament directors, had to share with a couple of teams at their weakest point, when they felt most vulnerable during extreme competition.  But when said publicly with a shot of "Testosterone Talk", they would have you to believe that they may not be able to make it due to low numbers, lack of funds or something work related.  Anything but Bracket-a-phobia.

The teams that actually do not care who they play say nothing; but those who do tend to spew “Testosterone Talk” all over their posts, trying to mark their territory in hopes of avoiding an early round dogfight.

So the next time you find yourself reading through a sea of messages on the message boards, and you stumble across some "Message Board TT" and you think to yourself, this is some "BB", just remember to take it for what its worth. Testosterone causes men to say what they really don’t mean, just what they feel they have to say. You just have to realize; its not them talking, its the the testosterone....

 

 

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