USA Ultimate

What's the Call? (Picks)

 

BY: Peri Kurshan, chair of UPA Standing Rules Committee.

As players of a self-officiated sport, it is our responsibility to know the rules.  This column features answers to your rules questions and clarifies common misconceptions about the rules.   

Q: Can you contest a “pick” call? And if so, what happens?

A: A pick can be contested just like any other infraction (XVI.B). Grounds for contesting a pick might include that the picked player was not within 3 meters of or was not guarding (II.G) the receiver at the time of the pick. However, unless the defense retracts their call, the outcome is the same (play stops, and the disc must go back to the thrower if the defense believes that the pick affected the play).

Q: Does the disc always go back to the thrower if the pick was called on the person who ended up catching the disc?

A: No. The disc should go back to the thrower if the picked defender believes that the pick “affected the play” (XVI.C.3; in this case, that it affected their ability to make a defensive play on the pass that could have resulted in an incomplete pass). In many if not most cases, when the disc is thrown to the receiver whose defender was picked, the defender has a good case to make that the pick affected their ability to make a defensive play on the disc. However in some situations the defender might not have had a chance at making a bid on the disc regardless of being picked- for example if they were already trailing the receiver enough that they know they didn’t have a shot at getting a D. In these situations the defender can still call a pick (provided they’re within 3 meters of the receiver), play still stops, and the picked defender is still allowed to recover the relative position lost due to the pick (XVI.I.3), but the disc should remain with the receiver rather than being sent back to the thrower.

Q: After a pick, do you go back to where the pick was or does the defense catch up to where you are?

A: Actually, neither one is completely correct. What generally should happen is that first, all players should go back to where they were when the pick was called. (There are two exceptions to this that involve less common situations: if the call was made after the disc was thrown and the disc goes back to the thrower, players go back to where they were at the time of the throw; and if the call was made before/during the throw and the disc stays with the receiver, players go to where they were when the catch was made. XVI.C.4).  Once everyone is repositioned in the appropriate spots, then the picked player is allowed to recover the relative position lost due to the pick (XVI.I.3). In practice what this means is that players will most likely end up somewhere between where the pick happened and where the offense caught the disc, since the receiver is usually farther out in front of the pick when the call is made or when the throw is thrown, but not as far out into the lane as they end up before coming to a stop. Also note that the rule allows picked players only to regain their relative position lost due to the pick. What this means is that if you were trailing your receiver by a few feet before you were picked, that you do not get to set up in front of them, but must set up a few feet behind them, with the same relative distance from them that you had when you were picked.

This column appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of USA Ultimate.