Was it a pick?

[drock3322]

Here's one I'm not sure what to make of.

In last night's co-ed game, my team threw a long huck to our girl, who caught it in the end zone. She was being pursued closely by her defender. Now the tricky part is, a guy player on our team (who is much faster and bigger than both girls) managed to run between the two to allow our girl the easy catch. The defensive girl called a pick, the disc went back to thrower, and the score didn't count.

Our guy player was complaining that this seems really unfair, and I couldn't help but agree, given the following:

-He could have easily caught the disc instead of our girl
-He was moving at least partially towards the disc to make a play on it, and not solely to box out the defender

What was the correct call? Was that girl justified in calling a pick?

I do think that the defensive player could have made a play on the disc if our guy didn't get in the way. It seems pretty straightforward, but think about situations where you have half a dozen players waiting for a swilly disc to come down. Say my man catches the disc - does that mean I can call a pick on his team-mate who got in the way and cancel the point? Obviously no, so where do you draw the line?

[GregS]

Yes, definitely a pick. Pretty much the very definition:

XVI.I.1: A pick occurs whenever an offensive player moves in a manner that causes a defensive player guarding (II.G) an offensive player to be obstructed by another player. Obstruction may result from contact with, or the need to avoid, the obstructing player.

If he thought that the defender was going to get to it, the correct thing to do would be to catch it himself, not interpose himself between them. The part about "moving solely to box out the defender" is an entirely different call, namely a blocking foul (XVI.H.3.c).

In your example of the swilly throw where people are waiting for it to come down, nobody is "moving in a manner that causes a defensive player to be obstructed by another player", so no pick.