There's a guy we play against who, as soon as the ball is about to go into play, starts leaning against me with a significant amount force. The whole time he's playing D he's pushing me away from the basket unless I am more than 15 feet away.

This is just pick up ball. We call our own fouls. While this seems unusual to me, I've never said anything.

Is this just good D or is he fouling me?

Thanks!

If he is "pushing" you away from the basket...it is a foul.
(Call him on it...maybe he will stop)

Dude

It sounds to me like a foul. If he is obtaining an advantage by leaning against you then it is a foul. But without a referee there, it will be a hard call to sell since he will deny that he was leaning.

What!
 

Pickup ball and/or playground ball require that you either lean back and fight for position or roll away, cross the lane and start camping.

The best thing to do is set the guy up. Fight back hard severla possisions, then suddenly just give up the fight and let him hit the deck.

Or you can call "your ball" to reset the situation, tell the guy to "chill baby, my back already hurts without having to carry your big butt" and start over. SMile.

Oh I most definetly did some fighting back. And a lot of cutting and rolling and spinning. Most of this opened me up on occasion.

One problem is that, to overcome his pushing, I have to push back even harder. And when I push back harder it seems to me like the amount of pushing is nearing the violent level. Once when got all over me I drove and caught his chin with my driving shoulder. He's almost a foot shorter than me too. And probably a good 40 to 50 pounds lighter. It shook him up. But he just kept coming anyway.

He's talked about playing rough with another guy he's got issues with. So he must have issues with me too. I used to be a little rough. I've cleaned up my game quite a bit though. But when I do get rough, it's not intentional or continuous.

Sounds like good advice. I'll try some of all this stuff and see what happens.

One other idea I came up with was asking him if he thought this pushing was legal, that it seems illegal to me. And see what he says. Or telling him of all the people that have guarded me, he's the only one to pull this.

My main goal is to not end up with having either of us get hard feelings over it. But I won't be backing down either.

Next time you get the ball, make an immediate move to the basket, then call a foul. You'll never be able to sell an off-ball foul in pick-up ball.
Or, next time he's leaning on you with force,
take a knee and he'll go tumbling over you!:D:D

Next time he leans on you, ask him if he wants to go get a room.

I guarantee he won't touch you again. ;)

I've found from playing pickup ball for about 100 years that if you are big (as you describe yourself), the little guys feel they are entitled to push, hold and shove you, because they are smaller than you.

If you play me in pick-up, you better be ready for some physical play. This is the way it was played where I come from, and you just play through it. We called fouls only when absolutely necessary. It was kind of a point of honor to be able to take a little contact and not call the cheap foul.

I know what you mean about playing rough. I usually get fouled like crazy and almost never call it. And I can play rough with guys who also play rough.

But this one guy is different. He gets mad at people who get rough with him. And if he sees someone getting rough with someone else, he thinks it's his job to get back at the offender.

Once, last year, when I pushed back harder he complained.

It's a very strange situation.

There are some guys I just refuse to play with for this reason. Guys like that ruin the game for me, and if it ain't fun, it ain't worth pickin' up the ball.

snaqs

I've played with people like that too, and it can be even worse in pick-up soccer. I play physical, but not dirty. Some don't know the difference, and physical play from me leads to dirty play from frustrated opponents. Those are former pick-up playing partners. I don't play in pick-up games where I have to watch my back lest I be permanently removed from playing ball. It's not why I play, and it's not fun!