Stance and Foot Faults: Where Your Feet Have to Be
Disc golf is a game of arms, hips, and glorious plastic, but the rulebook mostly cares about your feet. Everybody calls it a “foot fault.” The PDGA calls it a stance violation, and it lives mainly in 802.04 Teeing Off and 802.07 Stance. The good news: the whole thing comes down to where you’re touching the ground at the moment you let go.
Related: How to Mark Your Lie · Putting Basics · Out of Bounds and Mandos · Throwing Order and the Away Player · Lost Disc: The 3-Minute Search.
First, what’s a “supporting point”?
PDGA 802.04 defines a supporting point as any part of your body that, at the time of release, is in contact with the playing surface or any other object that provides support. Two clarifications from the PDGA Rules Q&A keep this from turning into a philosophy seminar:
- Shoes count. QA-STA-1 says “part of the player’s body” includes clothing, and also mobility devices such as canes or crutches, as long as they’re providing support.
- It’s the contact, not the whole foot. QA-TEE-2 is the raised-tee-pad case: if the front of your foot hangs off the front edge of the pad when you release, that’s not a violation. The hanging part isn’t touching anything, so it isn’t a supporting point.
And the timing is what matters. Under 802.04 you’re allowed to have a supporting point outside the teeing area before or after the release, just not at it. Run-ups, spins, and follow-throughs off the pad are fine.
On the tee
802.04 says that when you release the disc, you must have at least one supporting point within the teeing area, and all supporting points must be within the teeing area.
What counts as the teeing area:
- With a tee pad: the area bounded by the edges of the pad.
- Without one: the area extending three meters perpendicularly behind the designated tee line. The tee line is the front of the teeing area, or the line between the outside edges of two tee markers.
Tee pads aren’t always obvious. QA-TEE-1 covers the common setups: on an unmarked pad, the teeing area is the part that contrasts with its surroundings; if a pad has a follow-through area out front (a different color, or in front of a marked tee line), only the part behind it is the teeing area; and if there’s only a tee sign or one marker, the tee is to one side of and behind it. When in doubt, the Q&A’s advice is simple: ask the Tournament Director.
From a marked lie
Once you’re off the tee, your lie is defined by 802.05: a rectangle 20 cm wide and 30 cm deep, centered on the line of play, directly behind the rear edge of your marker disc. (How to place that marker properly is its own rule, 802.06, covered in our marking guide.)
Under 802.07, when you release from a marked lie you must:
- Have at least one supporting point in contact with the lie;
- Have no supporting point closer to the target than the rear edge of the marker disc; and
- Have all supporting points in-bounds.
That’s the whole checklist. Notice what’s not on it: nothing says your other foot has to be inside the rectangle, or beside your back foot, or anywhere in particular, as long as it’s not closer to the target than the back of the marker and it’s in-bounds.
QA-PUT-1 spells out what that means for a straddle putt. Your planted foot can be up to 30 cm back (the depth of the lie) and up to 10 cm to either side (half the lie’s width), and your other foot only has to stay no closer to the target than the back of the marker. The Q&A adds a nice bit of geometry: the line that’s “the same distance to the target as the back of your marker” is a circle centered on the target, not a straight line across your marker.
Drop zones follow the same logic. 802.07 says a drop zone is played either like a teeing area or like a marked lie, depending on how it’s set up.
Things that are legal (and surprise people)
- Holding a branch behind your lie. QA-STA-2 says it’s not prohibited, provided the object is in-bounds and you don’t move it. You may not hold onto another person; they aren’t part of the course.
- The “fade-away” putt. QA-STA-4 describes a short uphill putt with the back foot on the lie and the front foot ahead of it, lifted just before release, with momentum carrying the player backward. That’s allowed: the stance was legal at release, and the player didn’t go past the lie afterward.
- Brushing a branch on your follow-through. 803.01 says incidental movement of an obstacle caused by your throwing motion is legal. What isn’t legal is bending things out of the way: you must choose the stance that causes the least movement of permanent or integral parts of the course, and once you’ve taken a stance you can’t move an obstacle to make room for your throw. Moving obstacles outside what 803.01 allows costs one penalty throw.
Inside 10 meters: the balance rule
Stance has one extra clause near the basket. 806.01 says any throw from within 10 meters of the target (measured from the front of the lie to the base of the target) is a putt, and after releasing a putt you must demonstrate full control of balance behind the marker disc before advancing toward the target. Falling or stepping forward before that is a stance violation, with the same one-throw penalty.
Translation: the jump putt and the step putt are for outside the circle. Inside it, finish your putt, find your balance behind the marker, then go get your disc. We’ll cover the putting area in more detail in an upcoming guide.
The penalty, and how the call works
Both 802.04 and 802.07 put it the same way: a stance violation is one penalty throw. There’s no first-time warning written into either rule.
Who can call it is in 801.02 Enforcement:
- Any player in your group may call (or confirm) a violation on anyone in the group by notifying all players in the group, and players are expected to call a violation when one has clearly occurred.
- The call has to be prompt to be enforceable.
- It has to be confirmed. Because a stance violation carries a penalty throw, a player’s call can only be enforced if another player in the group or a Tournament Official confirms it. That’s the “second” everybody talks about.
- An Official’s call stands alone. An Official’s call doesn’t need to be confirmed and supersedes any group decision.
- You can call it on yourself. A self-call doesn’t need confirmation unless someone in the group or an Official objects.
In practice, that means a single grumble from the next tee over isn’t a ruling. Someone in your group calls it promptly, someone else in your group agrees (or an Official makes the call), and the stroke goes on the card. If your group can’t agree on whether it happened, the provisional and appeal process exists for exactly that.
Habits that keep your feet honest
These aren’t PDGA rules, just cheap insurance:
- Look down once before you throw. Especially on dirt tees or pads with a follow-through strip.
- Know which foot is your plant foot on a straddle or staggered putt, and put it on the lie first.
- Inside the circle, count “one” after release before moving. If you can’t stand still, you weren’t in control.
- Check your marker’s rear edge, not its center, when you’re crowding the line on a weird lie.
Where to read the rules yourself
- PDGA 802.04 Teeing Off
- PDGA 802.05 Lie
- PDGA 802.06 Marking the Lie
- PDGA 802.07 Stance
- PDGA 803.01 Moving Obstacles
- PDGA 806.01 Putting Area
- PDGA 801.02 Enforcement
- PDGA Rules Questions and Answers (QA-TEE-1, QA-TEE-2, QA-STA-1, QA-STA-2, QA-STA-4, QA-PUT-1)
Rules checked against pdga.com on 2026-10-14 (802.04 and 802.07 last updated Dec 31, 2021; 802.05 and 803.01 Dec 31, 2025; 806.01 Mar 10, 2022; 801.02 Aug 14, 2026; Q&A Mar 18, 2026). The PDGA updates its rules most years, so confirm the current text before you settle a dispute on the card.