Character unexpectedly stumbling when reaching other GameObject

Hi everyone,

I've imported my character's 3D model into the scene and created a Prefab out of it, so that I can instantiate an entire team of players. When running the game, one of them will run to a GameObject (a ball) in order to start the match.
The character is moved via animator/scripting and, despite having no Rigidbody attached, it falls backwards (it appears to trip) as soon as it touches the ball. My understanding is that without a Rigidbody attached, a GameObject shouldn't be affected by the physics engine.
I've also tried attaching a Rigidbody with IsKinematic=true and the relevant Rotation/Position constraints set, but the effect of the collision is still there.

Am I missing the obvious here?

Thanks,

-Diego

 

Mystery solved: the issue was actually in the calculation of the rotation vector at the moment when the character reaches the ball. A reminder about watching out for edge cases.