Foot Faults

Sasquatch has one big disadvantage...

I refereed at least 10 matches at the Senior Games last week. In all of those matches, I had to call only one NVZ foot fault. That seemed unusually low but I did referee the games with either the most experienced or least experienced players. The better players knew better than to foot fault and the less experienced players never even approached the line. Some of that may also have been as a result of having a referee. Other games were reportedly different. I was told there was a lot of foot faults in those games.

Many players are not aware that the primary job for referees is to watch for foot faults. One likely reason for this is that it is very hard for players to make the call unless the violation is obvious. Players normally have their eyes on the ball and not on either their opponents' nor their own feet. Today's post is excerpts from a Sarah Ansboury article on the topic titled Pickleball Foot Faults: Do You See Them?

Today we are going to focus on pickleball foot faults.  We will talk about the causes and how we can detect them in ourselves, our partner and those we are playing against.  Do you think you see foot faults during play?

Rules Clarification - Reaching Across the Net

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

The Senior Games started on Thursday in my county. I wanted to get some referee practice so, instead of playing, I reffed 5 matches. Nothing of note came up in my games, but a separate unofficiated singles game had a play that often raises questions. It was a ball hit with enough spin that it crossed back over the net from the receiver's side to the hitter's side. The receiver reached across the net and the ball without touching the net.

Mark Renneson has a good video titled Pickleball Rules: Over and Back explaining the shot.

Rally Scoring

Change the rules, change the game...

There seems to be a lot of chatter about rally scoring among some groups of pickleball players. I even heard that one of the rules sessions at the recent ambassador retreat featured an enthusiastic ambassador pushing to allow rally scoring. I did not hear what the USAPA response was but I would guess (and hope) that it was a big "NO".

So what is rally scoring, why do some want to see it implemented, and why do others want to see it die a fast death?

Rally scoring differs from regular scoring by awarding a point after every rally instead of only when the serving team wins the rally. In other words, the non-serving team can also score points. Proponents of the change like that the games are faster and more predictable as a result. Some think it will make the game more appealing to television audiences. They cite the 1999 change to rally scoring for volleyball as a success.

Rule Changes - 10-Second Rule

Rules were made to be broken, no, what???

Earlier this week, I wrote my notes from the USAPA Ambassador Retreat seminar on the 2018 rule changes. As with all rules, some players will always test the boundaries. It appears that has already started with regard to the 10-second rule, at least based on some anecdotes from Facebook. Before I get to that, let's review the notes from the retreat on the subject.

10 Second Rule

Once the referee has determined that the receiving player is ready (or should be ready), the referee calls the score. This starts the 10-second period in which the server must serve or a fault will be called. After the score is called, only 2 instances allow a stoppage of the 10-second count. The first is a legitimate hindrance such as a ball on the court. The second is a time out. However, a time out cannot be called after the service motion starts. No other scenario exists in which a receiver can be become not ready.

Ambassador Retreat - Rule Changes

Rules were made to be broken, no, what???

I attended the 2018 USAPA Ambassador Retreat in Port St. Lucie, Florida last week. The USAPA staff offered 9 seminars at the retreat. I wrote of one last week in the article Ambassador Retreat - Referee Certification Process. 

One of the more anticipated seminars was on the subject of the recently announced rule changes. This was validated by attendance at the seminar. The attendees were divided into 4 groups who were to rotate among 4 different seminars scheduled simultaneously. That means the rules seminar was scheduled for 4 different sessions. However, the room was full for each session while attendance at the other seminars was less than full. 

Before I start, let me add another note about the seminar structure. There was very little formal presentation. It consisted mostly of questions and answers. The following notes are only from the single session that I attended. Other sessions may have covered different topics. Christine Barksdale led the discussion and was assisted by Jim Hackenburg. Both were on the committee that wrote the rules.

Palm Up - Palm Down

Christine was chuckling as she called this "Byron's Rule" because the sole intent of the definition change was to validate the backhand serve as legal. This aligns with my post from January 19 - Rule Changes - Serve (Update). Despite its frequent use, the backhand serve has been a bone of contention because some believed it was not specifically allowed in the rules. The new definition stating that palm may be down while serving makes clear that the backhand serve is legal. In other words, the new definition changes nothing.

As a reminder, I highlighted Byron's backhand serve in Service Yips - a Novice Opinion.

Rule Changes - More Player/Referee Interactions

Rules were made to be broken, no, what???

The USAPA recently announced the availability of the 2018 USAPA\IFP Official Tournament Rulebook. The rulebook contains some significant changes that we have been and will discuss over the next several weeks. We will continue today with rules regarding interaction with a referee. This is the part on this topic. The first was Rule Changes - Player/Referee Interactions.

Line Appeals

Previously, players could not appeal to the referee to make a call for a ball they did not see. A player had to first make a call, then any player could appeal to the referee. The old rulebook stated:

6.D.5. No player should question an opponent’s call unless asked (except that any player may appeal a call to the referee in an officiated match).6.D.10. In doubles play, if one player calls the ball “out” and the partner calls it “in,” then doubt exists, and the ball must be declared “in” (except that any player may appeal a call to the referee in an officiated match).

Rule Changes - Player/Referee Interactions

Rules were made to be broken, no, what???

The USAPA announced last week the availability of the 2018 USAPA\IFP Official Tournament Rulebook. The rulebook contains some significant changes that we have been and will discuss over the next several weeks. We will continue today with rules regarding interaction with a referee. The first is a repeat from Rule Changes - Serve due to its relevance to both topics.

Service Motion

For the first time, the rules have defined the defined the service motion and, specifically when the service motion starts. From the definition section (Section 3):

Service Motion – Begins when the player’s arm moves to initiate the swing backward or forward to contact the ball.

Rule Changes - Serve (Update)

Rules were made to be broken, no, what???

In Tuesday's post, I wrote about the redefinition of "underhand" and my interpretation of what it meant to the service rules. I also mentioned that it was unconfirmed and I was not ready to state that the serve would change. While it remains unconfirmed from anyone on the USAPA rules committee, there is another interpretation gaining traction. It is also one that made sense to me as soon as I heard it. 

That interpretation is that the underhand definition was changed to clarify that the backhand serve is legal. Many debated whether the backhand serve fit the previous rules. This redefinition removes that argument. So, the serve rule implementation remains unchanged from previously, again, though, unconfirmed as of now. Luckily we have until January 31 to figure this out. I just wish the wording was clear to begin with - a simple "Serve may be made with a backhand or forehand" would have been clear.

Rule Changes - Serve

Rules were made to be broken, no, what???

The USAPA announced yesterday the availability of the 2018 USAPA\IFP Official Tournament Rulebook. The rulebook contains some significant changes that we will discuss over the next several weeks. We will start today with rules regarding the serve.

Service Motion

For the first time, the rules have defined the defined the service motion and, specifically when the service motion starts. From the definition section (Section 3):

Service Motion – Begins when the player’s arm moves to initiate the swing backward or forward to contact the ball.

Revised Rulebook for 2018

Rules were made to be broken, no, what???

The USAPA is scheduled to announce today the availability of the 2018 USAPA\IFP Official Tournament Rulebook. From the USAPA:

"This revised rulebook has been 2 years in the making and is a result of countless hours of volunteer time from the USAPA Rules Committee and careful review by the USAPA Board of Directors. In this finished product, we feel that significant strides have been made including:

Clarification of many rules through better wording.

Addition of an index.

More pictures/diagrams.

Reorganization of many chapters for better overall flow.

Rules Clarification - Temporary Net Frames

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

Some questions keep coming up again and again - both locally and in the national forum. I'm sure this is due to new players joining play and is something we must face with pickleball's tremendous growth. One set of questions that frequently arise is the ruling on balls that hit parts of the medal frame of temporary nets. 

First, let's look at a net to identify the most frequent culprits of confusion.

Rules Clarification - Player Bumped into NVZ

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

Players love to talk about rules, especially esoteric rules. i have been posting about some situations that I faced as a referee. Now I will venture beyond my personal experience into the experiences of others. This post relates to the always-confusing momentum rule and the NVZ.

Let's look at a specific situation. Alan and Barry are partners. A ball is hit to them such that Barry thinks he can poach it. However, it is volleyed by Alan before Barry reaches it. In the process of going for the poach, Barry's momentum carries into Alan and they collide after Alan has made the return. The collision knocks Barry into the NVZ after separation between the players occurs. The question is whether this is a NVZ violation. 

Rules Clarification - Service Position

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

One question that I have seen/heard several times is about the boundaries restricting from where the serve must be hit. In particular, the question of hitting the ball by reaching across the imaginary extended centerline is frequently asked.

A visual might help to explain. The following image shows a server in a typical position somewhere between the extended sideline and centerline with the paddle also within the same boundaries.

Rules Clarification - Player Positioning and Serve: Player's Perspective

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

The last 2 days have all been about determining the proper position of players and which is the proper server. Those articles were all background to a scenario that occurred in a game I refereed at the USAPA Southeast Regional Tournament last weekend.

The game was a women's doubles match-up in which both teams used stacking. It was quickly evident that one team was unclear about their positioning and server. Several rallies were delayed until they asked me whether they were on the right side with an occasional question about server.

Rules Clarification - Player Positioning and Serve: Referee's Perspective

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

Yesterday's article discussed the keys for players to remember which player should be serving and from which side of the court. But how does a referee keep straight where players should be when there are 4 players running all over the place? Believe it or not, there is a system to do that with three tools - a wristband, a scoresheet, and a clothespin.

A wristband is worn by the first server on each team. This allows the referee to quickly identify whether the server and receiver are in the proper court by using the key:

The simple key is to remember that players will be positioned on their starting side when their score is an even number and positioned on their non-starting side when their score is an odd number.

Below is an example of the type of band a player wearing it in a prominent place.

Rules Clarification - Player Positioning and Serve

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

I recently wrote about my first experience refereeing a match at the Connestee Falls tournament. After that article, I wanted to highlight some of the situations that arose during my games as a referee. One of those situations was confusion about player positioning after a mid-game end change. In the article Rules Clarification - Player Positioning, I discussed the key to player positioning as:

The simple key is to remember that players will be positioned on their starting side when their score is an even number and positioned on their non-starting side when their score is an odd number.

But that scenario answers only half of the questions for a serving team. The second question is about which player is the proper server.

The above key tells us which court should be the proper position for each player when their score is even and the proper position when their score is odd. But a player can be either server #1 or server #2 from both courts. The player's server number is dependent on the team's score to start the service rotation. Let's look at some examples based on the following positions to start the game.

Rules Clarification - When to Serve in a Refereed Match

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

My first experience refereeing a match was several weeks ago. I only had to make calls on 2 situations in the 4 matches I refereed. I wrote about one last week. This article discusses the second - serving before the score is called.

The situation arose twice with the same player in different matches. In both case, the player started to serve before I had completed my announcing of the score. The first time I sped up the announcement and did not call a fault. The second time I tried to do the same but the serve was struck well before I finished and I called the fault.

The rule is clear:

4.I. Readiness. Serves shall not be made until the receiver is ready and the score has been called. Serving before the score is called shall result in a fault, and loss of serve. The referee shall call the score when he or she determines that the players should be in position to resume play.

Rules Clarification - Items on the Court

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

I wrote about my first experience refereeing a match last week and followed that up with an example of court changeover positioning. Today, we will cover the rulings when items fall on the court.

The situation arose in my game when one team had their paddles collide on a mid-court groundstroke. One partner's paddle flew from her hand into the NVZ. Play continued for several more hits until the ball was hit to the player without a paddle. Since she could not return the ball, her team lost the point. As she went to retrieve her paddle, I heard her say "It doesn't matter. We lost the point when my paddle went into the kitchen". I did not think she was right but did not have to make a ruling because the point was lost on the continued play.

Rules Clarification - Player Positioning

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius...

I wrote about my first experience refereeing a match on Monday. After giving it more thought, I remembered that there were situations where players either were confused or misapplied a rule. It might be helpful to clarify these. Today, we will start with proper player positioning after the teams switch sides in the middle of a game.

First, let's get an understanding of the situation. In a one-game match or the third game of a three game match, the teams will switch sides at the mid-game point - after point 6 in a game to 11, point 8 in a game to 15, or point 11 in a game to 21. The crossover to the opposite side of the net often creates confusion about where players should be positioned. It is vital that the players be properly aligned or they will lose the rally.

5.B.6. If the ball is served by the wrong team member or from the wrong court, the service is a fault.
5.B.8. The receiver is the only player who may return the ball. If the wrong player returns the ball, it is a point for the serving team.

Next, let's establish some terminology so the discussion can be based on a common understanding of the court.

The above image shows labels for each partner's side of the court. The player on the right (even) side to start the game will always 1) serve and 2) receive serve from the right (even) court when his team's score is an even number. He will 1) serve and 2) return serve from the left (odd) side when his team's score is an odd number. 

A Serve Test

I don't have to play by these rules, I actually have my own version...

We used a Keith Bing video to show some of the differences between a legal and illegal serve in yesterday's post.  While Keith's video is a good explanation of the basics, Mark Renneson has done a great video showing 10 different serves and explaining why each is legal or not. Be an expert before you choose to call another player on their serve.


Mark's video is called Pickleball Serving: Is It Legal?