Hey - had a scenario at a tournament a while back, and thought I'd run it by you guys.

We were on defense, and the offense attempted a dump pass - my teammate read it perfectly, and got to the disc first. Instead of catching the disc or knocking it down, he deliberately macked it 15-20 yards upfield (where it landed untouched by anyone). Several players on the other team thought this was illegal, but could not explain WHY they thought so. Aside from potentially keeping the disc in the air long enough for one of the offense to recover it, is there anything actually wrong with this?

Also: If that is fine, what if he or a teammate were to then catch if after the mack? I'm assuming that is not allowed...

Daniel

Relevant rules

XVI.J.c
Purposeful bobbling (including tipping, delaying, guiding, brushing, or the like) to oneself in order to advance the disc in any direction from where it initially was contacted (XV.A)

XV.A (Receiver)

A player may bobble the disc in order to gain control of it, but purposeful bobbling (including tipping,delaying, guiding, brushing or the like) to oneself in order to advance the disc in any direction from where
it initially was contacted is considered traveling.


Note that purposeful bobbling to oneself is the action that is a violation. Purposeful bobbling to the open field or another player is not a violation.

So macking the disc upfield is okay. Macking the disc to a teamate is fine. Note these rules apply to "players" not just the offence.

They were probably confusing it with:

XVI Violations and Fouls

E. Any player may stop a rolling or sliding disc, but advancing it in any direction is a violation.

Macking carries a risk that the other team will recover it, which is why everyone yells at your to catch your D's.

What we refer to as "macking" the disc is considered, "brushing" in the rules.
Brushing is a freestyle technique to keep the disc spinning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydGcJOlVb8Y

In Ultimate a "macked" disc is usually just a D attempt and not a purposeful "brush" to advance the disc to oneself.

In your case Daniel, I would say the disc was live and anyone including the defender who macked (brushed) it could legally play it.