Hindrance or Code Violation?

Now that we are in the middle of the UIL playoffs for a state championship, there are a lot of really unique scenarios that arise--and on a regular basis.

This one happened yesterday and we need your advice and input...

SCENARIO

In a UIL team dual match, boys doubles, Team A was serving.  The player who was not receiving on Team B would move up extremely close to the net and the center service line when Team A was serving to his partner.  

At one point, the Team B player who was up at the net had his head across the net when Team A served the ball.  At another point, he had the head of his racket across the imaginary line of the net when Team A was serving.

Question:  Is this a violation, and if it is, is it a code violation (and subject to the PPS) or a hindrance loss of point?

Hint:  Here is the UIL rule about a player standing in the receiver's box when his partner is receiving.  

"The receiver's partner shall not stand in the receiver's service box before or during the serve.  If a player does so, he shall be warned that if he does so again he is subject to being penalized under the point penalty system."

Does this apply to the above scenario?

The Friend at Court says this:  (Page 38) A player shall concede a point when:  *That player touches the net or opponent's court while a ball is in play, *That player hits a ball before it crosses the net.

In this instance, the player neither touched the net or the opponent's court or the ball before it crossed the net so how would you rule????

PLEASE SEND IN YOUR OPINIONS BEFORE TODAY'S MATCHES OR BEFORE THE REGIONAL TOURNAMENTS THIS THURSDAY AND FRIDAY.

Do You Have Ears To Hear?

There is a Biblical admonition that says that if someone has ears to hear--let him hear.  That admonition certainly holds true to those in leadership in the USTA, ITA, and UIL.  These are the three governing bodies that control most of the tennis world and therefore they should be the ones with "ears to hear."

We recently sent out an email to over 100 experienced officials all over the country and asked for their ideas and explanations about the sad job performance of many officials who work tournaments on a regular basis.

Here are their comments:

"Solution is easy, the USTA needs to bring back some classroom work for those who need it.  They got rid of trainers, with very little notice to the trainers, they have a crappy database NUCULA, paying more $$$$ to get a new one, but yet they are not doing evaluations any more, not doing doing class rooms any more.
You can only get so much learning done watching an annoying video and unfortunately not enough referees to pull officials aside to properly address issues.  Factor in USTA National does not punish bad officials for fear of lawsuits or does very little to truly address these issues."

"My first thought--and this is based on 2 minutes thinking about this--is that the change in training format (USTA and ITA) may have a part to do with this.  (Not all of it.)  And let me preface this with the fact that I think online clases are great!  However, with the USTA and ITA instructions being 95% online and 5% webinar, we've lost that "in person" aspect of training.  I think that is so important for newbies.  They need to be around tenured folks; hear how they have handled things; ask them questions and get an immediate response; get a hands on feel for the culture of officiating (at any and all levels).  I'm not suggesting that the training format is 100% to blame.   Some of it is just due to some people trying to achieve a higher level of stupidity!  But I think this has contributed to it."

"I can appreciate your email and the content within, but "us" talking about it will not make changes.  This has to be heard at the top, whoever that is!  On site training is more valuable than before, especially if we're not getting the quality of officials required.  I've heard plenty times while officiating, "we just don't have enough officials to conduct all these matches."  Officiating is not easy, especially in heated conference matches, but to me, the key is experience and great training...locally, regionally, and nationally.  The more chair experience an official gets, the better prepared he/she will be when the match is on the line.  So, let's start there....less on-line computer training, click the button and watch this video....and more local, regional and national training for new and experienced officials.  Training and practice are always the key!"

"I find umpiring especially on a local level in crisis.  Ever since the USTA moved away from face-to-face training (especially for newbies) and formal evaluation of officials, there is no accountability.  Officials fill the boxes with on-line training and forget everything else.  I am sad about the level of skill and common sense we are seeing on the courts.  Of late, I cringe when I check scheduless to see who is on the crew.  Unfortunately, this is a problem all over the country.  Chiefs are forced to hire bad umpires just to fill the schedule.  I am seeing this on the ITA level too.

I was the chair of officials in my area for years, a trainer, and a sectional evaluator.  We had very stringent standards that an official had to meet before working on their own, that is not happening now.  It took several years before working college matches.  Now all an aspiring umpire needs to do it take a test, then umpire on court (with some shadowing) and let an assigner know they want to work.  There is always talk about bad officiating, but the offending official does not get feedback, training, or guidance; don't want to hurt their feelings.  You are not the only seasoned umpire that is frustrated.  What are we to do?"

These are just a few of the comments.  Again let me ask, if you have ears to hear, are you listening???

We Know The Problem--Now How In The Heck Do We Fix It?

If anyone is involved in officiating as either an official, player, coach, spectator, or parent you all know the problem--a small group of very inept officials--and now we have to go about the task of fixing the problem.  The one thing I can assure you is that "it ain't gonna be easy..."

Most people would agree that the vast, vast majority of officials are very adept at their profession and knows the rules well and administer them fairly--but there is a small group that doesn't--and they are the ones that are giving us a black eye.

After every tournament or dual match you regularly hear horror stories of something some official has done somewhere in America--and many times, these criticisms are valid.  WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING to fix the problem and we need to be doing it sooner than later. 

Finding the problem is not the hard part--but analyzing and solving it can be tricky and really difficult.  Here are some thoughts and ideas to start the discussion:

*  Age is not a deciding issue in ineptness.  I've seen younger officials make some huge errors just like I've seen older officials do the same--if not worse.

*  Lack of knowledge is usually at the root of the problem.  Even though we all pass annual exams, we don't take a course in common sense and that's usually where we get in trouble.

*  Lack of training is a huge issue.  There is little, if any, training done or offered by the USTA or the ITA if one is honest about the problem. 

*  We need to discover a realistic approach to "mentoring" if we want to succeed.

When you are teaching a new hunting dog to hunt, you always pair them with an older, wiser hunting dog and let him teach the young one.  We might do well to heed their advice...

*  We need to look beyond knowledge of rules and study a person's personal traits before hiring them.  You need to know how they react to adversity, opposition, and problems.  Officials get into trouble when confronted by parents and players--not when they think about the rules...

*  Teach officials the importance of study and repetition.  There is no shortcut to knowing the rules since it take study and more study.  There is no shortcut to knowing verbiage because it only gets better by repetition.  There is no shortcut to dealing with adversity except through experience.

*  We need to expect and demand more from our leaders.  Just forcing someone to attend a useless seminar isn't going to fix the problem.  Tell them to get creative and innovative and FIX THE DANG PROBLEM!

Good Officials Are A Blessing But Bad Officials Sure Aren't...

There is nothing that thrills the heart of a referee more than to see his troops out there on the battlefield doing a great job.  Watching them properly introduce a match, carefully guide the match, and then make correct calls in critical moments is what its all about...

In Texas, its always exciting to watch our officials in action--and you never know what colors they are going to be wearing!  Our goal is to always make officiating fun, great quality, and diverse in color combinations...

HOWEVER, there is nothing more embarrassing or frustrating than to hear about or witness an official making bad decisions and acting like a maniac out of control.  In today's world, there is always a parent or player or spectator there to video everything that is said and done--and in some cases they can prove their point about "bad officials."

Check out the report we got yesterday about an official here in America (location will be a mystery so noone will be able to point a finger at any specific official):

*  The official went from court to court lecturing young players on every aspect of tennis rules--much to the detriment of fair and continuous play.
*  At one point this same official told a young man, "Shut up and play!"
*  The culmination of an infamous day by this out-of-control official, was when parents were getting involved in a match that already had an official standing at the net.  The aforementioned official then took it upon himself to leap into action, run across four courts shouting "I'll handle this!"  Then to his total discredit, he said (loudly enough for everyone in two states to hear), "You parents shut up and get the hell out of here!"

Even in the most ludicrous levels of reasoning and comprehension should this official be permitted to work in America.  I would simply recommend a new career for him in backstreet wrestling...  What a disgrace to our profession...

To Call A Let Or Not--That Is The Question

Seems that there is a new debate among officials in the ITA officiating world and it all centers around the question is whether or not to call a service let from the chair in women's tennis.  This debate is as old as the "which came first--the chicken or the egg."  I can remember officials getting all heated up and posturing about this issue many years ago...

As the debate evolves, here are some of the issues:

*  If you call a let, are you in essence making a call for the players?
*  If you give the players time to make a let call before you interject yourself and make the call, how much time do you give them?
*  What do you do if the serve is a let, the player returns it, and then you shout "let"?
*  Even worse, what do you do if the serve is a let, the player returns it, and the other player returns that ball--and then you decide to call a let?
*  Should you just leave the whole thing alone and just call the let when the serve is a let.  Seems like this has worked for hundreds of years and is probably a good option today.
*  Should the women's ITA adopt the same rule as the ITA men and just play all service lets. 

Not sure what the final solution is but be sure to give us your comments so we can check out everyone's varied opinions...

Check Out Where Our Readers Are From

Here are the stats from a couple of days this past week.  Kind of interesting to see where all our blog readers come from...

United States   995

Italy   187

Russia   17

United Kingdom  15

Australia   12

France   12

Ukraine  11

Brazil  8

Spain  8

Germany  6

A Walk Around Our Tennis World--What We See As Officials

One of the special perks of being a tennis official is that you get to be right there on the court where all the action takes places.  Take a walk with us through some of the things we see...

First and foremost you get to enjoy the "unique" fans.  Some are good and some aren't so good but its quite an experience!

I don't even have words to describe this one.  

Their athleticism is indescribable!

How in the world can she do that?

Some take their cheap thrills where they can get them...

They do have their lighter moments.

Djokovic is the king of the antics!

Then some can't seem to play without having their Mother in the stands.

And this is what happens when he doesn't get his way...

They do get frustrated with themselves don't they?

Just hope you don't get to chair his next match.

Just So You Know...

Seems like we get more emails about Nucula accounts than any other subject--and that includes all the errors and mistakes we officials make on a regular basis.

Here's an email we received today:

"I've sent everything off...eye, background.  Just exactly how long does this crap take?
I just need a Nucula account damnit."

Can you feel their pain and frustration?  Sure you can...  Getting a Nucula account seems to be the "8th Wonder of the World" and noone seems to know why and noone can ever offer an explanation other than this:

Its time to do something and do it sooner than later.

Scenes And Emotions From Around The Officiating World

After each weekend's tournaments we get numerous emails about things that officials did (or didn't do) around the entire country.  Its always fun reading some of them but kind of horrifying to read some of them.   Invariably the question is asked, "Did we really train them properly?"  Guess not in some instances...

Just for fun, here are some good examples of different officiating styles and actions that you might enjoy...

"Now where in the world did that ball come from?"

"I can't believe I missed another one.  Sure hope noone saw it."

"I'll just dance a little jig before the players get out here."

"I'm getting out of here before that idiot hits me with a racket!"

Please tell me you didn't call a footfault on the poor guy...

"I can't believe I keep making the same mistake over and over and over."

"I'm so glad I'm not as stupid as these other officials."