Is This a Foul in Ultimate Frisbee/Flying Disk?

Question

I know that there are no on-field referees in Ultimate, so in part, a foul is whatever the players agree is a foul. But, say that I have the disk and am being closely guarded. Is it a foul on my or my opponent, if I
- Whack him in the face (or other body part) with my hand that is holding the disk and is making a throwing motion?
- Whack him in the face (or other body part) with my hand holding the disk, period.
- Whack him in the face with the disk while holding it?
- Throw the disk and hit him in the face?
- Hit my opponent in the face as part of the follow-through of throwing the disk?

In short, I am wondering how "close" is "too close" when playing defence.

I had not been that familiar with the sport and recently played it with some fairly athletic-type folk who hadn't played it much before. I felt that the only guy who had played a lot was a little too aggressive with his defence, such that I could have whacked him in the manners I described above. Should I have?

Question for ag_iitkgp:

"No" what? No, it wouldn't have been a foul for me to whack him?

Or "No," I shouldn't have whacked him?

Answer 1

Doesn't sound like your defender was being unreasonable. . .

Ultimate is categorized as a non-contact sport, and is governed by an explicit set of rules, the foundation of which is called "The Spirit of the Game." It is an agreement that players of the sport do not intentionally commit fouls, and do their utmost to honorably uphold the integrity of Ultimate. This applies both to defense as well as offense.

The person with the disc (you in the case of your example), has to establish a pivot foot. This is as simple as moving one of your feet off the ground - the remaining, stationary foot becomes your pivot foot. Like in B-ball (basketball), if you step with your pivot foot while you have the disc, you have traveled (this is a foul).

The marker - the defender covering you, making it hard to throw the disc - has to give you one disc-length of space (about 12") from your pivot foot, and also may not straddle your pivot foot/leg.

While you have the disc and are trying to pass it to a teammate, neither you nor the marker may contact each other. If there is contact, the person who felt they were impeded can call "foul!" So if the marker hacks your arm, or bumps your body, or even hits the disc while it's in your hand, you would call "foul!" If you push the marker, or whack him/her in the face/head/body/hand, etc., they may call "foul!" on you. (Sometimes a "foul" call at an inopportune moment may actually work against the team of the person calling the foul; such as when a teammate made a great move and is in great position. . . the foul call will stop play and allow the other team to take a quick look around the field to see how they should react when the disc is put back into play.)

If you release - throw - the disc, and it hits the marker in the face, and the disc touches the ground before you can grab it, technically, the marker got a D (defensive) block on you (sometimes called a "point block" when the marker blocks the throw) and his/her team now gains possession of the disc and is on offense.

If after you release your throw, your hand/arm hits the marker on the follow-through, they could technically call a foul (you impeded their ability to move). But, since the throw had been released before the foul incident, play would resume after a brief stoppage in play (to make sure everyone is okay). (If you had committed a foul and then used that to your advantage to get a head-start on running, you would be required to return to where you were when the foul was committed.)

Please keep in mind that - as you pointed out - there are no refs in Ultimate, so the expectation is that no one will deliberately commit a foul, and certainly not do something to intentionally hurt an opponent - or teammate. Because the responsibility of upholding the rules rests with each player, intentionally abusing that trust could make the sport unplayable (without refs, observers, etc.).

Answer 2

No