"Obliquely"???

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Freddy

Therefore, is it correct to conclude that "backwards" is included in the rule above, not necessarily by the term "obliquely", but by the phrase "provided it is not toward the opponent..."?

Yep.

In a ma thematic sense, even backwards is probably obliquely since I really doubt a player could move away in a direction precisely 90.0000000 degrees relative to the plane separating the players....particularly when the plane itself it not static.