One of our most popular blog topics is the "How Would You Rule" section. Here is a good one for you--and especially for referees...Scenario: In a recent tournament, an umpire was standing a couple of courts away from court #2 and observed a foot fault. Upon observing this grievous violation of the rules, the umpire immediately ran behind the adjoining courts to court #2 to call the foot fault; however, the players were already through at least four exchanged shots. The umpire totally disrupted play and said, "foot fault."
As a referee (when you were called to the court--and you would be), how would you rule??
1. First, determine whether it was the first or second serve and then rule accordingly.
2. Find out who was winning the point when the umpire interrupted play and then award them the point.
3. Run to Waxahachie laughing all the way and hope the players never find you.
4. Apologize to the players for the ineptness of the umpire, correct the umpire in private, and then replay the point because of "official interference."
As far as I know, the four players are still at the courts scratching their heads in disbelief...
The above listed four options are only suggestions. If you have more, we would love to hear them...
8 comments:
No. 4 and then kick the umpire in the ass and tell him/her never to officiate again!
Combonation of #1 and #4. The umpire's call stands, but he should be privately cautioned about making calls on less serious infractions when he is not on the court at issue. The USTA tapes caution about not making calls on adjoining courts, but if the player blurted out an explitive, I think you certainly could hustle over there and give out a code. By the same token, a referee could assess a footfault if he clearly sees it, but it is in my view poor form to do so. Instead, he or she should wonder over to that court to watch the balance of the service game, and in all fairness to watch for footfalls from the opposing player on the next service game.
As the referee, why would you have hired the moron in the first place? Time for some OJT for rover - not "the Rover" because obviously, this individual has not elevated her/his skill level beyond the canine level. Next course of action would be to post a comment on the blog about the lack of training in Texas. That way "blogodytes" could bemoan the lack of leadership at the Sectional level, Bruce Sampley's name could be dragged through the miasma, once again, and the final result would be the same: Nothing would happen.
I think you have to be a very big idiot to run 2 courts down to call a foot fault :))) Probably one of the biggest idiots I know and I know a lot of idiots:))) And, you have to be even bigger idiot to stop a point in the middle to do call a foot fault...
It is probably because the umpire either has a "little man complex" and zero common sense and wants to show that he is THE BIG MAN (some refs think they have GODs powers and can do whatever they want on the court) or second option he is just an asshole :)
Either way if I was this umpire I would be smart enough not to run 2 courts down to call a foot fault but if somehow I decided to do something that ridiculous I would most likely go to New York, climb on top of Empire State Building and jump...
As of the ruling I would probably go with number 4, send the umpire home and tell him not to come back until he will learn some common sense...
While I wouldn't condone the actions of the umpire who called the foot fault, I would certainly use this as a "learning opportunity" for one of my rovers as well as other new officials. To those of you who stated harsh criticism, I'd hate to be you when this blog finds an error you make. I just don't think we should throw the baby out with the bath water and be so quick to crucify those we work with. A simple, yet helpful one on one conversation with the rover would fix the problem and it would likely never happen again. If it did or something similar happens again and again, then that's another issue altogether. We're much too hard on each other when it's my belief that we'd be much better off acting towards our peers as a cohesive support system instead of whispering and finger pointing other's errors.
Simple ! Forfeit his/her lunch !
I'd say, the responses so far have pretty much covered this topic!! This new rover (obviously new) is an eager beaver and is applying the rules as she read them in the literal black & white sense. Or maybe, it was a slow day and she wanted some action.
I don't umpire in states, and got to the blog accidentally. Of course the call was a mistake, even if he do it earlier. as ITF suggests, no foot-faults should be called if a rover umpire is outside court. Only if you are inside the court you should rule a fault like that. The only exception would be if it was something ridiculous, like the player taking two steps into court or something.
What actually surprised me, is the fact of people bashing the he/she like if they were never inexperienced or made a mistake in life.
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