[Samantha Zyck]

Hello! This question has become a heated debate within our club, would love help settling it. Thanks in advance! 

Situation: Defender A is guarding a Handler who has positioned himself within 3 meters of the thrower, behind her. The thrower has a mark and cannot see the Handler nor Defender A. Defender A is guarding the Handler (close to him, looking at him but also with one eye on the disc), but IF the Thrower decides to release the disc, can Defender A make a play on that disc? 

Interpretation 1: Yes, because he’s reacting from a legal position (guarding the Handler) and it’s kind of the offense’s fault for drawing a defender into the thrower’s space.

Interpretation 2: No, it’s a double team as soon as Defender A stops reacting to the Handler and makes any kind of play on the disc. This is to say, within 3m of the thrower, a defender can only guard another player from the offense and NEVER make a play directly on the disc. 

[Nicholai Chapman]

Just to clarify:

IF the Thrower decides to release the disc, can Defender A make a play on that disc? -> The disc is released to someone else than the player being initially guarded by Defender A (a pass to someone in the stack for example)

[Nicholai Chapman]

Also:

NEVER make a play on the disc →we are talking about a situation where Handler A is static behind the thrower so Defender A is not running across that area

[Rueben Berg]

So if the throw is towards the handler, then the defender can definitely make a play on the disc.
If the throw is not towards the handler, and the disc is in the air, I think it is reasonable that the defender can legally make a play on the disc. However this is unclear within the rules and will be clarified in future updates.

[Nicholai Chapman]

So this means that I can be behind the thrower guarding the handler, wait for the thrower to initiate the throwing motion and then handblock him from behind. The reasoning would be that his teammate is within 3m of him so he would allow me to do this. Is this correct?

From 18.4 in the official annotations:

“The offence may call “double team” unless all “extra” defenders can claim they are guarding (within three meters of an offensive player and are reacting to that offensive player) another offensive player”

If you are reacting to the thrower then you are not reacting to that other offensive player.

“In zone defence it is common for a defender to come within 3 metres of the
thrower when another offensive player enters into that same area. To avoid a double team the defender must be guarding that offensive player, which can include attempting to stop a pass to that offensive player.”

Here it talks again about that offensive player but the pass is to a different offensive player.

So reading this I thought it would be a double team.

[Rueben Berg]

The principle behind the rule is that we don’t want multiple people surrounding the thrower and making it very hard for them to make a pass.

Once the thrower has released the disc, that principle no longer applies.
So as long as the player was not double teaming prior to the release, and only after the disc is in the air do they come within 3 metres of the thrower, or cease to focus on their opponent, then it would be fine.