Hockey Prompt

This is an interesting question, especially since I'm refereeing myself in real life and am also a fan of two sports that take very different approaches in this regard: Hockey and Soccer. I love Soccer as a sport but diving and embelleshing is rampant there to an extent where it ruins the fun quite often for me, whereas in hockey there is more of a code of honor and be tough kind of attitude, which makes these kinds of moves less acceptable. I think Hockey (and many other Sports like Basketball, Football or Handball) definitely have it right here. The mere fact that embelleshing and diving is less accepted in these sports both among players and pundits makes these acts less common, because there is a high risk to lose face if you get caught in one of these acts. I certainly think it's better for any Sport to handle it that way, while also taking into account that you can't always get it one-hundred percent right and accepting the fact that sometimes players will go down if they don't have to, if only to highlight a foul that did happen but would have been much tougher to see otherwise. Another example would be a player being grabbed or held, losing his balance for a split second and losing the ball or puck as a result, even though it wasn't enough for him to actually fall. I at least have some sympathy for players in these kinds of situations. Here it comes down to us referees to make sure that these calls are made regardless and to teach players that yes, we see those things and punish them even if you manage to stay on your feet.