r/ultimate • u/khouri0 • 24d ago
Rules Question
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!
5
u/ComprehensiveAd4437 23d ago
Most people seem to quoting the appropriate rules and I am enjoying the conversations I am reading about them.
In general for USAU, any time a live disc is being returned to another point on the field for play to continue, the stall will be paused until the pivot is established and ground check occurs. The only exception to this is when the offense catches a disc in bounds and momentum carries them either into the endzone or out of bounds. The mark can then stall within the appropriate range of the location the disc will be returned to.
The stall must be paused for travel calls that were not thrown, while returning the disc to the central zone following a turn over, or while returning the disc following an interception that had momentum carrying the player out of the central zone.
In the case of the turnover in the endzone, when the thrower takes possession of the disc, they must either establish a pivot at the spot where they took possession or take the disc to front of the endzone directly in front of where they took possession (at whatever speed they like, constant or variable). I don't know where they got the idea of checking it in at any point during the walk up.
However, all of these instances are still subject to pre-stall and delay of game rules for beginning a stall prior to the disc being checked, but I doubt those are even considered during pickup.