I wouldn't say its sad, when i first saw Gabes hold the ball against his disk wheel it didn't make me think he was cheating. but I liked the way ball jointing could be made safer from stick hooking.
its a development that came up through pushing the boundaries
This isn't what I meant - that ball joint is in itself an exploitable strategy. When you use it, you decide the reward outweighs the risk of having your mallet tapped and losing the ball. However, using your mallet arm elbow to jam someone's handlebars when they are sprinting alongside you is an unexploitable strategy because you take out a man, nobody will call it, there are no repurcussions and most people you play against are unwilling to do that.
This isn't what I meant - that ball joint is in itself an exploitable strategy. When you use it, you decide the reward outweighs the risk of having your mallet tapped and losing the ball. However, using your mallet arm elbow to jam someone's handlebars when they are sprinting alongside you is an unexploitable strategy because you take out a man, nobody will call it, there are no repurcussions and most people you play against are unwilling to do that.