USA Ultimate

What's the Call? (Principle of Verticality)

 

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 will hopefully clarify some common misconceptions about the rules.   To submit rules questions, please email them to src_chair@usaultimate.org.

Q: After a stopped disc, if the marker checks the disc back into play before players are properly repositioned, can a violation be called by the defense, even though ‘their guy’ checked the disc back in? What happens if a pass is thrown before the call is made- does the continuation rule apply?

A: If players are not properly repositioned after a stoppage of play and the marker checks the disc in, a violation has occurred while the disc was dead. This is true even if the violation isn’t called until play has been restarted; in fact, that will always be the case because it isn’t a violation until play gets restarted! Since the violation occurred when the disc was dead, the continuation rule does not apply, and nothing that happened after the disc was checked in counts. Everyone must go back to where they should have been the first time around, and play restarts the same way it would have absent the violation.

To summarize, because a dead-disc violation was called, nothing that happens after the disc was checked in counts.

On a side note, as you can see it’s to everyone’s benefit to make sure that all players are positioned correctly before the disc is checked in to avoid a re-do. The marker should therefore make sure that everyone is ready, and loudly announce that he or she is about to check the disc in (it is common to count down from 3 to 1 and announce ‘disc in’ before the check).

Q: Does the Principle of Verticality say that I can’t reach into the space above someone else’s head to grab a disc that’s above them?

A: No- the Principle of Verticality says that players are entitled to move into the space directly above them, so any contact that occurs in that space that affects the outcome of the play is automatically a foul on the other person. However, if you can cleanly grab a disc out of the area above someone before any contact occurs, then that’s your disc (unless, of course, the contact constitutes a ‘dangerous play’, XVI.H.4). By the way, the rationale for this rule is to prevent someone from being able to place their arms above your shoulders, and then as soon as you try to jump up to catch a disc, claiming that since you initiated contact with their arms, it’s a foul on you.

Q: If you’re guarding the dump, and they’re standing very close to the thrower, is it legal to double-team (i.e. mark) the thrower, if you’re still within 3 meters of the dump?

A: No, most likely this would still be an illegal double-team. In order for it not to be considered a double-team, you’d have to still be “guarding” (II.G) the other player, which means not only being within 3 meters of them, but also reacting to them. If you turn your back to the dump in order to put a mark on the thrower, you’re no longer reacting to, or therefore guarding, the dump, and it’s an illegal double-team  (XIV.B.2).

This column appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of USA Ultimate.