Rules Clarification - Illegal Exit

Rules (Public Read-Only)
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Rules Clarification - Illegal Exit

WFTDA Rules Committee and Officiating Education would like to issue the following clarification regarding additional penalties for Skaters failing to leave the track after an issued penalty (see casebook Scenarios C4.4.B, C4.4.C, and C4.4.D).

Once a Skater is issued a penalty, if the Skater takes a prolonged trajectory leaving the track that significantly delays their exit, they are to be issued an Illegal Procedure penalty.

Rationale: After receiving a penalty, Skaters are required to disengage from play and exit the track to the outside when they have a safe and legal opportunity to do so. If a Skater immediately attempts to exit, they are not liable for insubordination penalties as they are attempting to comply with the Officials’ instructions to report to the box, even if they momentarily stop for safety reasons or take a slightly angled trajectory to leave the track. However if a Skater has significantly prolonged their exit by taking an improper trajectory off the track, they are still in violation of the Rules of the game.

Keep in mind: A skater who purposely delays or remains on the track despite being issued the correct verbal cue and hand signal from the Official for their original penalty should be assessed an Unsporting Conduct penalty for deliberately deceiving or ignoring an Official (see section 4.3).

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Should we also update Scenario C5.4.D as part of the rules revision? Right now it is worded quite strongly and does not entertain the possibility that these illegal exits are neglectful rather than willful.

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Could we also get an update to the verbal cues with a standardized cue for this?

Based on my experience this will likely be the most common type of illegal procedure penalty called so giving it its own cue makes sense. Obviously we can still use a 3-star cue to be specific but that still requires you to say “illegal procedure” before the specific cue. If we add a standardized cue we can just directly say “illegal exit” for example.

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I just had a quick convo with OffEd. We are fine if you use “Illegal Exit” as the two-star verbal cue.

We are planning to release a new WFTDA Officiating Cues, Codes and Signals document later this year when the new rules are adopted.

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