Defender trying to take a charge starting to fall before contact

[Camron Rust]

I'm not talking about a player who throws himself/herself to the floor. In those cases, I defer to the offense since the defender made it impossible to tell how hard they were or were not hit. I'm talking about the play that leans back.

Fundamentally, there is no rule support for calling a block on a player that leans backwards before contact any more than their is for calling a block on a player that steps backwards before contact.

Yet, there is plenty of rules support for the opposite. Such a player is only doing what LGP allows them to do...move obliquely/away and/or ducking/turning to soften the impact and they are not invading the vertical space of their opponent nor extending outside of their own vertical space over an opponent.

To call a block or even to just not call the charge is rewarding the offensive player for running through the space legally obtained by an opponent...which only encourages reckless play.