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Originally Posted by TussAgee11
Mcrowder - A clinician once told me that in order to have obstruction you must have physical contact with the runner and the fielder (not counting any forms of obstruction that may be verbal).
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Please first go reread the rule you quoted and decide for yourself if you clinician's advice holds water... Then, read any number of posts on this site, by any number of solid umpires. Then, do your best to either educate your clinician or find out who above him would be better placed to educate him. This advice he's given you is 100% false, and the fact that he's teaching that is a detriment to our profession.
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2-22 of FED reads "Obstruction is an act(intentional or unintentional, as well as physical or verbal) by a fielder, any member of the defensive team or its team personnel that hinders a runner or changes that pattern of play..."
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Exactly. No mention at all of the word contact. A "physical act of the fielder" would include standing ANYWHERE in the runner's path that "hinders a runner or changes that pattern of play". Forcing the runner to go around you is obstruction (assuming you don't have the ball). In fact, a runner taught as you have been would be assuming he needed to go through the fielder... and is likely to get tossed or ruled out for interference if he contacts the fielder intentionally with any degree of force.