How Would You Rule?

Here's an interesting question that came up this past weekend.  Let us know how you would have ruled.

SCENARIO

Doubles match: Team A hit a lob over net man on Team B, as ball looked like it was sailing out he said to partner playing behind the baseline "out" before the ball landed. Well then the ball lands on the baseline & player hits ball back to team A who stopped playing because they heard the "out" call.

 You are called to the court, what do you do?

HERE IS WHAT THE OFFICIAL DID WHEN CALLED TO THE COURT

I called it an involuntary hindrance, so I had them re play the point & told Team B not to use the word "out" unless they are actually making a line call after the ball lands.

Who Is To Blame?

Thought I would put this on here for those of you who feel compelled to blame Bush for everything.

Seems that everywhere you go in the "tennis tournament world" you encounter out-of-control players and parents--and everyone is trying to figure out who to blame...

Perhaps we should learn to move beyond the "blame game" and try to find ways to fix this fiasco.
Every official has encountered an irate mother who feels that her child is being cheated and ultimately deprived of their right to play pro tennis.

Sadly, the situations many times evolve into physical violence. Usually the violence is between adults but if left unchecked, it will spill over into violence with kids and violence with officials.

Let's see if we can begin to clarify the issue...

PROBLEMS WITH KIDS

* Develop and institute training materials and programs that help kids understand proper behavior. There actually are some kids out there who are totally out of control with their parents, other kids, and officials.

* Hold them accountable for their actions. If codes are given, then penalties need to be assessed at the state and national level--and they need to be penalties that have some teeth to them.

* Suspend them from tournaments if they are a persistent problem.

PROBLEMS WITH PARENTS

* Be sure they receive materials outlining their rights and responsibilities as parents.

* Encourage officials to report offending parents and then keep an up-to-date file on offending parents.

* Remember that a child's personal coach is also his "parent" and should be treated the same as a parent.

* Develop suspension points for the parents/coaches and be sure the penalties are severe and effective.

* Suspend them from tournaments if they are a persistent problem.

PROBLEMS WITH OFFICIALS

* Referees should only hire competent officials. Be sure you know their levels of experience and competency and assign them accordingly.

* If you encounter a problem official, be sure to notify the referee and the Texas Section.

* If you encounter an official who does not meet your expectations, do not automatically blame the referee. Remember that in Texas the average ratio is one official for 11 courts. Only Jesus in His omnipotence could see and hear everything on every court at the same time.

* Develop a "remedial training program" for consistently problematic officials. Trust me, these officials are well known and all too frequently live up to their reputation.

* If the training fails, quit hiring them and inflicting them on parents and players. Its no fun for anyone when an official interjects himself/herself into a match with disastrous consequences.

* Remember that just because an official doesn't do what you want that he/she is inept. Parents and kids might actually consider the thought that they may be wrong instead of the official.

Let's move beyond the blame game and get busy trying to make the tournament atmosphere something that everyone will enjoy...

Grass Roots Tennis

GRASS ROOTS TENNIS

This summer I have been able to spend more time doing what we call "grass roots tennis", which basically means not-pro and not-college--and does mean "lots of kids and their parents".

Here are some observations and questions from the past few months:

* Not all parents are bad--but some are really bad. The vast majority are very supportive of officials and genuinely want their children to play well and behave themselves. But then there is the "elephant in the room (or court)" who gets all the attention.

* If there is a specific rule about video taping a match, then that information needs to be in print and sent to every referee in America.

* Why do 12 year olds travel with their own private coach? Somebody is sure spending a lot of money chasing a dream that their child is going to win Wimbledon.

* Why do some parents like to fight and argue at the drop of a hat? You can usually tell which ones are combative by the way they walk up to the tennis center and then come up to the tournament desk. A psychologist would have a field day at most tournaments.

* Why do some parents think their child is always being cheated? They don't seem to ever entertain the thought that their child might not be as good and that's why they are losing.

* Why do some parents run at the sight of a video being made of their child's match? "Pedophiles" is their excuse for hating videos but I tend to think they don't want their child's behavior and line calls being recorded.

* Why do mothers seem to be more aggressive than fathers? Maybe its that protective mother instinct.

* Why do mothers want to argue over their child's integrity and then rush to their defense while the fathers would prefer to just coach when the official is out of sight?

* Why do some kids know how to check in 30 seconds before their match is being played?

* Its interesting that kids know where officials are the entire time. They are not as uninterested as they would have you believe.

* There seems to be a "new" practice of catching a ball that is way inside the court and calling it "out." Of course they have to be sure that the official is at least 4 to 5 courts away and not watching.

* Who packs all the stuff in the cargo case they carry on the court? One kid had enough stuff to last him through three months on the Sahara Desert.

* Why do some officials love to code footfaults but ignore a racket being thrown across the court?

* With the Texas average of one official for 11 courts, how do they expect us to see every footfault, every time violation, and every bad call?

* Seems that there are more "little" issues at a ZAT tournament but greatly magnified problems at Champs and Super-Champs tournaments.

* Could it be that a child's ego grows in relation to his level of tournament?

* When we think being an official is a thankless job, then we need to consider the plight of the site director. They have it a lot worse than we do...

* A site director can make your day--or ruin it. Depends on if they have any idea of what they are doing or not.

But other than a few observations and minor questions, grass roots tennis is a lot of fun!

NCAA And Rule Changes

Seems that the NCAA is changing again. Check it out...

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/NCAA-panel-rejects-changes-to-DI-tennis-tournament-3863827.php

To Video Or Not Video--That Is The Question At Tournaments These Days

Seems that every parent these days has either a video camera or a phone that takes videos--and they are so impressed with their child's tennis abilities that they want to keep it forever...

The problem is that not all other parents are so thrilled with their desires!

SCENARIO

In a 12 and under boys tournament, a mother decided to video her son's match; however, the mother of his opponent refused to play unless the video was outlawed. After much verbal confrontation and confusion, the referee and tournament director decided to forbid the video.

Was this the correct ruling in Texas???

Not according to the rules used by the USTA and the Texas Section.

Here is the ruling on this issue:

" The videotaping /photography for personal non-commercial purposes of any portion of a sanctioned USTA event is permissable under the law, much like any event in a public place (Zoo, Park, Mall, etc) If a parent or party objects to their player being photographed, they may ask the TD to intercede on their behalf and request that any photographer stop photographing or reposition their camera to exclude their player. However, other than optional compliance or respectful consideration , there are no grounds to DENY anyone the right to photograph"

The issue has arisen in tournaments in Austin in the past (and I'm sure in many other areas) but perhaps the USTA should send out a written policy to ALL TOURNAMENT REFEREES so they will be consistent in their rulings.

Special note: Our illustrious ITA and seasoned referee, Vickie Wright, got the ruling correct when questioned about this issue in Austin.

TONGUE IN CHEEK HUMOR

It seems that some who read the blog get their "panties in a wad" over most anything so its delightful fun to just pitch some statement or some statistic out there for them to chew on... Its great fun to watch the hyperbole and overreactions.

Perhaps some in our tennis world need to learn what "tongue in cheek" means.

Champions Crowned And Diversity Is Achieved

2012 Women's Singles Champion

SERENA WILLIAMS

2012 Men's Singles Champion

ANDY MURRAY

Andy Murray won a historic men's singles match by defeating Novak Djokovic in a five hour thriller for the men's singles championship.

DIVERSITY ACHIEVED AT LAST!

Diversity has finally been achieved at the US Open and it all happened last night in the men's singles final. An astute official called to point out that of the nine officials on the court, not one of them was a white male.

I hope it was worth the journey--but now I feel like a minority... I can just imagine where the next lawsuit is coming from.

Why Some Officials Quit Officiating

IRATE MOTHERS

This past weekend I thought I would get real brave and venture out into the world of GRASSROOTS TENNIS--and what a weekend! I had a great time seeing some fantastic young tennis players but I also understand more fully why we have a lot of new officials quit officiating.

PARENTS, PARENTS, PARENTS is the key reason--and its all over the country. I had the "privilege" of officiating the 12 and under division and had quite a time. Sometimes in the middle of an "encounter" you nearly want to stop and laugh when you consider its still just a tennis match and the whole world doesn't revolve around this 12 year old and his Mother.

The first great experience was a Mother that was convinced that the other Mother shouldn't clap when her daughter won a point on a good shot. From two courts away, I could hear Mother #1 yelling at Mother #2 and telling her and her friends to stop "cheering." I finally had to go and ask her to quit arguing and yelling at the Mother #2 since she was disrupting play on the four courts around her. She quickly informed me that parents were not permitted to clap and she would continue to do whatever she desired.

I quickly (and lovingly) shared with her that parents could clap when their children win a point and that she definitely could not continue to do whatever she wanted to do. Her daughter soon lost and she grabbed up her heavy-duty lawn chair and stormed past me--informing me that she would be filing a complaint against me, the tournament, and God Himself for permitting these awful things to happen to her daughter.

As she left, I said, "My name is Myron Krueger, so please get it right on the complaint."

Incident #2 was even more exciting that the irate Mother! Seems that two 12 year old boys were playing and after the match Father #1, who was French, complained loudly that his son had been cheated by his opponent and that the other boy could not see at all. Leaping to her son's defense, Mother #1, who was Asian, quickly confronted Father #1, and then the racial slurs begin to fall like rain.

Mother #1 was accusing the French of most everything evil in the universe and Father #1 was mocking her by trying to talk Chinese.

Finally, I had to ask both parents to quit yelling at each other and arguing in the front of the kids. It was priceless to see the looks they both gave me... At least they quit and probably resumed their national origin argument in the parking lot!

And we wonder why some new officials quit so soon...

Not In Texas

Redneck seafood.

Enjoying the afternoon by the pool.

Seems that some of the officials got all offended over the previous post about "diversity" and "inclusion" so we had to shut down the comment section on that post. Seems that a bunch of them are all in favor of diversity--as long as I print what they agree with...

Just to set the record straight:

* Texas officials are the best in the universe.

* Texas ITA officials are by far the best in America.

* While we may be slightly "redneck" in Texas, it seems like the proper thing to be.

* We don't hire officials in Texas based on their skin color, religion, or sexual orientation. We hire them based on their performance.

* We don't take well to someone telling us who we have to include in our world. We prefer to make those choices ourselves.

* We prefer our men to act like men and our women to act like women. That's not asking too much but I'm sure it will offend someone, somewhere.

* We are willing to grudgingly admit that Oklahoma officials come in 2nd.

* We don't exclude any group from anything just because some other group threatens to sue when they don't get enough assignments. Heck, the most fun I ever had at a tournament was with a group of officials that had black folks, Asian folks, Hispanic folks, gay guys, and lesbian girls. So you see, we actually to practice diversity and inclusion in Texas--but only when we want to and not because someone says we have to!

My Ears Are Tired Of Hearing These Buzz Words: DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Diversity in action.

"Inclusion" at Barney Frank's wedding.

As I was thoroughly enjoying watching today's match of Djokovic crushing Wawrinka, I also watched with interest as the illustrious Billie Jean King made her grand entrance on the tv screen announcing the ICON awards for 2012. In about three minutes of talking she managed to parrot the words "diversity and inclusion" at least five times.

Personally, I'm real tired of hearing that come out of our "leaders" mouths everytime they talk about tennis and the future of tennis. Here are some words I would rather hear:

COMMITMENT

SACRIFICE

TRAINING

EXCELLENCE

HARD WORK

Maybe if we heard more of these words of less of the others, American tennis would be a much more excellent sport and we would be winning some of the major titles again.