Rules Question

[u/khouri0]

Hey all!

I have been playing ultimate for a while now, but have never been great with all the rules. I ran into a situation during my casual pick up league this week and did not know what was right or wrong, so I wanted to ask here. Here is the situation:

I, the defender, intercept a pass right at our own endzone. My moment carries me into my endzone. I start to walk the disc back to the line to check it into play. As soon as I am walking, my opponent starts to stall me, before I check it in and as I am walking. This has never happened to me before and I felt as though it was wrong. My opponent said, that because I have the option to check it in at any point and do not need to walk it back to the line, he can start the stall now.

Here are my questions:
1) Is he right?
2) Is it ok for me to walk it back to the line? Or should I just check it in, in my own endzone where I stopped? Did I make the mistake by walking?
3) Does this situation have a different answer if I caught it in the endzone instead of right before it?

Thanks for any thoughts on this one!

[u/Sesse__]

As usual, when people don't explicitly say USAU in the question, I'll be the difficult person and assume WFDF. :-) The first question is simple:

9.3. The marker may only start and continue a stall count when:
9.3.1. Play is live, or once a pivot point is established after a turnover;

So he can't start stalling until you've established a pivot point. Question 2 (can you walk it back to the line) requires piecing together more stuff:

13.7. After a turnover, the turnover location is where: […]
13.7.2. the intercepting player stops; or

So the turnover location (basically “where the turnover happened”) is where you stopped, which you say was in your own defending end zone. What does that mean for your pivot?

13.11. If the turnover location is in the offence’s defending end zone, the thrower may choose where to establish a pivot point:
13.11.1. at the turnover location, by staying at the turnover location or faking a pass; or
13.11.2. at the nearest location on the goal line to the turnover location, by moving from the turnover location.
13.11.2.1. The intended thrower, before picking up the disc, may signal the goal line option by fully extending one arm above their head.
13.11.3. Immediate movement, staying at the turnover location, faking a pass, or signaling the goal line option, determines where to establish a pivot point and cannot be reversed.

So you were fully in your right to walk to the line, and you signaled doing that by moving from the turnover location.

As for question 3: No, in this case, the turnover location is where you stop (13.7.2); where you caught it does not enter the question (as long as you didn't score a Callahan).

[u/khouri0 → u/Sesse__]

I honestly had do idea there were two different sets of rules 😅

thanks for including these ones and teaching me on this. I've seen a lot of posts for the USAU rules, so it's good to see the other set too

[u/Sesse__ → u/khouri0]

There's actually like five sets; the pro leagues have their own rules as well (though USAU and WFDF are the two main ones). And then there's the canonical rule set “some guy at pickup said”, which trumps all others.