The Rule Report - Best Perspective

MODS will be releasing a series of news stories over the next few months to help explain the changes to the rules of Ultimate which have been adopted by the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) and Ultimate Canada (UC). The monthly stories are here to help understand the new rules and will be vetted by Operations Director Corey Draper and Manitoba's top Observer, Josh Drury.

Rule Update #3 – Best Perspective

One of the more commonly misinterpreted rules is around the subject of “Best Perspective”. The new rules have added a couple of important clarifications in regards to support from sideline players and in the case of Stadium games the use of live instant replays.

Best Perspective for line calls and up and down calls remains with the 14 players on the field. The often-uninvited opinions from the sidelines are not relevant unless the players on the field seek that opinion. See below for the entire updated rule in the Definitions section but first here’s a few highlights.

• Players can request help from the sidelines with clarifying the rules or ask for their perspective on an unresolved call, but can not ask for them to “make the call”. Sideline players should not offer their perspective unless solicited by players on the field.
• An exception to this is that a sideline player may offer their opinion unsolicited only when it is to the detriment of their own team. I.e., you can call your own player out but would not be able to offer that opinion on your opponent.
• The new video footage rule addition doesn’t affect our league but clarifies how stadium games should handle the presence of live replays.
• Remember that the receiver isn’t always the player with the Best Perspective depending on the situation. “It’s his / her call” is not always that case as often receivers are focused on catching a disc and not able to see where their first point of contact was.

Definitions

3. A. Best perspective: The most complete view available by a player that includes the relative positions of the disc, ground, players, and line markers involved in a play. On an unlined field, this may require sighting from one field marker to another. Best perspective always belongs to a player. However, players may rely on the following sources as a component of best perspective:

         1. Players may seek the perspective of sideline players to clarify the rules and to assist players in making the appropriate call. Players may seek the perspective of coaches to clarify a rule, but not to assist in making the appropriate call.

                        a. Sideline players should not offer their perspective unless solicited by a player. However, a sideline player may offer perspective without being asked by a player if the perspective offered is to the detriment of the sideline player's team.

2.     Players may review officially-designated video footage to assist in resolving a call where such footage is available. However, play may not be delayed to review video footage. [[For example, live instant replay in a stadium setting may be used by players to resolve a contested foul call. Players may not, however, request that a particular play be replayed on the screen. If, after reviewing the video, players still cannot agree, they should not delay the game to rewatch the play multiple times; instead, the play should be treated as a regular contested foul.]]

            If no player has sufficient perspective to make a call, the disc should revert to the thrower (in the case of in-bounds/out-of-bounds and up/down disputes) or remain with the receiver on the end zone line (in the case of goal/non-goal disputes).