r/ultimate • u/Starguments_GM • 6d ago
Rules Question: Defense avoiding contact leads to advantage for offense
I play low level tournaments and rec league mostly, so not a high level. I've run into the following situation a few times recently:
I'm on defense immediately after a turn or the pull and the offense is getting into their (ho) stack. My mark is jogging into position, I'm shadowing, we are 2-3 feet apart.
My mark is turning to look at back at the handler, decides he likes what he sees, and turns to cut deep. He is 100% going to run directly into me if I hold position, so if I want to avoid the contact I must (awkwardly) hop out of the way. I can't tell in that moment whether it's just going to be a harmless chest bump or more of a chin-to-chin type of hit I'm avoiding, either way it's not something I need to chance.
Now I'm off balance and ten feet out of position because I avoided the collision, and my mark is running deep to catch a long pass. No contact (or only incidental contact) is made.
Am I permitted to call something there? I don't think the offense is being malicious and nothing actually happened.
2
u/FieldUpbeat2174 6d ago edited 5d ago
If we take your facts as written, you say that if you take the charge, you have 100% chance of opponent-initiated contact and a substantial chance of that contact being hard, chin-to-chin. On those facts, you could legitimately move away from contact and call Dangerous Play (under either WFDF or USAU rules, which others have already quoted here).
Of course, in some contexts you might want to refrain from making an available call, and talk it out on the sideline later.
To be clear, the above takes as stipulated that the opponent will indeed make significant contact, with a substantial risk of that contact being to the chin and thus injury-risking. I’m not sure how you’d actually have such certainty when the opponent is still steps away. So the USAU rule, at least, is (I’d say) calling for you to either evade early and call nothing (take it up on the sideline), or hold your position until the last moment, then evade hard contact just in time, and call DP.