Hi all,
We had an unusual occurrence in a non-sanctioned but WFTDA ruleset bout last weekend.
During jam lineup, the Black blockers made a standard tripod formation at the jam line (brace or ‘kingpin’ facing the jammer, two blockers with backs to the jam line forming a wall’).
The White jammer leaned over the jam line, and placed their hands on each Black blockers hips, mirroring the Black brace. They held this position for 10+ seconds until the jam start whistle. The White jammer was in a legal start position throughout.
After the jam, I overheard the Black blockers remarking that they felt the act was odd, as I was on the bench playing as part of the Black squad. The terms ‘creepy’ and ‘weird’ were used, although they didn’t escalate to their bench captain or the officiating crew at the time. There wasn’t any complaint or sense that the touch was sexual but it was certainly done to unsettle. All skaters involved were part of the same league and known to each other, to my knowlege.
I seem to recall in early rulesets there was a 3 second rule about how long hand contact would be permitted between opponents, where that contact was not otherwise illegal by blocking, grasping, or otherwise impeding.
Under the current ruleset, the closest thing I could find would be initiating with an illegal blocking zone’ however the wording for blocking actually precludes the lineup period before the jam. Given that, one would hope that ‘no contact between opposing players of any kind’ would be the prevailing interpretation over ‘any and all contact between opposing players is allowed.’
From the ruleset:
“Blocking” refers to any physical contact made to an opponent [emphasis mine], and to any movement or placement of one’s body to impede said opponent’s speed or movement, during a Jam [emphasis mine], whether or not contact is made.
As there was no gameplay impact, is this penalizable?
If this occurs during the jam, with the initiating player keeping pace with their opponent and thus no forceful contact/betterment of position is made, but hand contact persists for a lengthy period, is that penalizable?