The devs said that in combat you can rebound of an enemy's shield. I think they should use this all the time, e.g you run into a wall or somebody you should bounce back of it and stagger away, this is what always annoyed me about morrowind. - how you could run into a tree and keep running-
If you can rebound of a enemy shield then I dont think they have let it out from normal play too.. I'm pretty sure that if you run to a stone wall you'll not keep on running