"I'm not so sure you really meant what you said."
In the tennis officiating world, this is not always true. Many times we say something and then don't back it up, or just simply ignore a written rule for some unknown reason. Consider these examples:
* FAC says no bathroom breaks in men's tennis (FAC, p. 250) yet the only school that enforces this rule is Baylor University. If coaches and officials regularly disregard this rule then why have it in the first place?
* The USTA tells us that we must pass a background check and also be registered on Nucula in order to be a certified official yet we all know that isn't true in Texas.
* FAC says we are not to give warnings and call foot faults yet many officials (even at the ITA level) warn players before calling a foot fault. One official even said they weren't calling footfaults because "the player wasn't going to net."
* FAC gives us step by step instructions on how to deal with coach's and player's behavior in a match yet it seems not to be followed in Tulsa.
* FAC says there are to be no outbursts in a foreign language yet we permit players to regularly scream "Vamos" with no penalty. Swedish words are beautiful so why don't we let them scream out in Swedish?
* FAC says to code references to a deity when in conjunction with curses. That leaves out "Jesus Christ" but you can add it back in when it says to code words that are considered patently offensive to court personnel, players, or spectators.
* Schools teach us that we shouldn't code "Jesus" but should code "Jesus Christ" because He has to have a last name before we can code it. Sorry guys but Jesus' last name was not Christ...
These are just a few examples of saying something and then doing something else. Perhaps we need to "right the ship" a bit...
11 comments:
Quote the book correctly. Pg 248 If a loud outburst in a language that the official does not understand, the official shall caution the player.... Really, who in Texas or has ever watched Nadal play, not know what "Vamos" means.
Following this theory, "Love" should be changed to "Zero" and "Deuce" should be "Tied." I believe these were originally French terms. I don’t think it will be long before “Vamos” appears in the English Dictionary.
Agree with anonymous on Vamos.
Also, as I grow older and visit the bathroom more frequently, I can't see any wisdom in a rule that makes someone hold it when they need to go. Just more discrimination by the large bladders against the small bladders. Change the rule.
Like many rules the ITA has, a couple of coaches get together at the annual coaches meeting in December and get a new rule passed with a few voters, while the majority of coaches are having happy hour.
Coaches get hit with that new rule in some early matches and you hear them ask; "When was that rule passed?"
Most of these special ITA rules come about due to poor officiating and this is how the coaches try to solve a problem they don't like.
The no-let serve for men would not have come about if they had strong officials overruling those phantom lets that always popped up on those ace serves. Although now, I actually like the pace of play with the no-let serve.
No bathroom break rule came about because of officials letting players go to the bathroom at 5-6 final set. Here again stronger officiating would have eliminated this tactic of gamesmanship. Some coach lost a match when his player choked after the wait; so they fixed the rule.
The 1 injury timeout per match was actually not due to poor officials, but for coaches/players abusing the medical timeout with multiple phantom injuries. I had a match once when the coach came out on court and told his player to take an injury time out and the player said; "but I'm not injured". He took the Medical.
Can someone help me with that rule about 6-7 years back that came out in December and we had paper handouts instructing us on the rule and then by mid-season it was cancelled. That one didn't fly.
I love the new rule that was instituted early in 2011 whereby a 3rd party coach can protest a team's previous line-up that they are about to play, even if they were not directly involved with the match. This means that if a coach is not competing against a team whose line-up is in violation, they can report the infraction to the ITA. There have been a lot of coaches that have cheated and moved their players more than one position between matches. Now coaches about to play the cheaters can protest resulting in sanctions against the offending coach for as long as he/she is coaching a team, which will carry over year after year.
So, if a player is about to have diarrhea, we should not let him go to the bathroom? Will he get arrested if he pulls his pants down over at the corner of the court and lets loose? What kind of rule is this?
I enjoy reading the different and varied comments but I must admit that some worry me a bit...
As far as having an ITA guru answer the questions, that probably won't happen since there isn't a real ITA guru anywhere in America and there sure isn't a higher-up USTA official that would openly write on our blog.
RM, have you forgotten about the self-appointed ITA guru from California? From my observations nothing gets done in the ITA world until she blesses it. She even gets calls from the field during a match to resolve issues. Your group even consulted her during the recent discussions concerning Coaches code of conduct topic.
Not sure who you mean by "my group" but noone in my closest set of officiating friends would ever call the California guru about anything. Period.
So how about some group of regional or local ITA "guroids" put together a list for ITA Rules committee interpretation?(guroid: noun, A cross between a self appointed guru and a pain in the backside. Guroidial: adj, Acting in a guroid fashion. pontificating while others role their eyebrows. Example: "Man, Chuck's Baylor love-rants are delivered in a guroidial fashion".)
Signed,
The Grape of Wrath
BTW....who's the Bunny among us?
RM, I'm quite certain that the self-appointed California ITA guru and Bruce Avery were both consulted in the recent Coach's conduct & penalties topic discussion here. Their interpertation of the ITA FAC was contrary to general opinion. The FAC needs some additionl clarifications next year on this topic of how to handle Coach conduct penalties.
I am new in ITA. My first college match as a referee I've had a dillema: where is exactly the "borderline" behavior of couches? FAC states: "coaches do not participate in the cheerleading. Good shot! and a polite clap is not considered cheerleading." So anything beyond this would be punishable as a code violation?
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