“I have a question about starting inside or outside of the shooting area. It’s very common for a stage description to say starting outside of the shooting area. Sometimes people will start with one foot inside and one outside. Their stance is that if they are not completely inside that they must be outside. Some people say this is inside but faulting. Is it necessary for the stage designer to put (whole/completely) in the stage description to prevent this?”
This problem can be easily solved by writing a good Written Stage Briefing (WSB). The simple words of “completely outside the shooting area” prevent all the arguments about this. Another strategy is requiring toes or heels touching marks on the rear fault line outside the shooting area. A clearly described start position in the WSB makes the match go smoother.