Adorable Misunderstandings Of The Rules

your sister is going to be corrupted by the USTA!

[mucat]

Originally Posted by tnnisfan

I have one to add to the fun... We were playing a friendly club doubles match and didn't warm up our serves beforehand. We decided to play "first in" with our serves. Well, the sweet newbie got her first serve "in". We played it out and won the point. She got mad and demanded a "re-play" because it wasn't fair that her first serve went "in".

I love "first in", I can just serve to the wrong side of the court all day to practice my serve. On the other hand, I can touch my opponent's first serve before it land on the court and negate his turn to warming up his serve.

[jonnyjack]

Originally Posted by mucat

I love "first in", I can just serve to the wrong side of the court all day to practice my serve. On the other hand, I can touch my opponent's first serve before it land on the court and negate his turn to warming up his serve.

I rather do warm up serves instead of playing first in. Some of my playing partners insist on FBI though so I'm going to try the tactics you just described!

[Cindysphinx]

If it is a social match and people don't want to warm up serves, I think it is good practice to just let the first ball count for everyone. You just hit an easy serve and then deal with the consequences. It teaches you to win points behind a serve that is far from your strongest, which is a good skill to have.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by Cindysphinx

If it is a social match and people don't want to warm up serves, I think it is good practice to just let the first ball count for everyone. You just hit an easy serve and then deal with the consequences. It teaches you to win points behind a serve that is far from your strongest, which is a good skill to have.

That goes back to my injury prevention tips for you in another thread. You should never serve cold. Even if you tell yourself it is an easy serve, you will put in effort. You should either do FBI or hit some practice serves.

[spiderman123]

Originally Posted by JW10S

My partner & I arrived early for our court reservation and while we were waiting for the couple on the court to finish we overheard the server call the score '15-5'. The returner won the point and then the server called the score '15 all'. Turns out they were new to the game and had heard other players use the slang term '5' instead of '15' and thought a game was scored '5,15,30,40,game'.

That is awesome!!

[li0scc0]

Originally Posted by sureshs

That goes back to my injury prevention tips for you in another thread. You should never serve cold. Even if you tell yourself it is an easy serve, you will put in effort. You should either do FBI or hit some practice serves.

You know...I actually agree with you here. If I am in a social match and nobody wants to warm up serves then I will just let my partner serve the entire match.

[Cindysphinx]

Originally Posted by sureshs

That goes back to my injury prevention tips for you in another thread. You should never serve cold. Even if you tell yourself it is an easy serve, you will put in effort. You should either do FBI or hit some practice serves.

Nope, I disagree.

I am perfectly capable of hitting a warm-up serve when I want to hit a warm-up serve.

[li0scc0]

I had one from high school tennis.
Although I had watched tennis from the time of Borg/McEnroe until my freshman year of high school in 1987, I had never personally played a match. My sophomore year I tried out for tennis and made varsity.
Somehow, along the way, I never learned the rule for a let on a serve. Maybe in my challenge matches I never had something happen? I cannot remember. But...I assumed that if the ball hit the net and bounced over, it didn't matter if it went IN the court, you got your serve again as a 'do-over'. I also thought that if you had a let on 2nd serve, you got to start over.
Imagine my surprise in my first match playing #5 singles when my opponent hit his 2nd serve that hit the tape, bounced over the net on my side but out of the service box. I grabbed the ball and threw it back to him. He went to serve into the other court and I yelled out 'no, that was a let, its first serve on this side!'.
Thankfully the kind soul explained the rule to me.
I won the match but felt like a moron.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by Cindysphinx

Nope, I disagree.

I am perfectly capable of hitting a warm-up serve when I want to hit a warm-up serve.

One is not enough. That is why you complain about injuries.

I would suggest then at least ghost-serving a few times before actually hitting the ball.

[li0scc0]

Originally Posted by sureshs

One is not enough. That is why you complain about injuries.

I would suggest then at least ghost-serving a few times before actually hitting the ball.

Suresh - I am agreeing with you here again!
Ghost serve a dozen times. Then hit 10 'serves' into the side netting if indoors or against a wall if outdoors. On these you won't be swinging hard but fluid and smooth. From this you can go into real warm-up serves.
With my bad shoulder and elbow it takes this to be able to actually hit warm up serves without pain. Great preventative care as well.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by li0scc0

Suresh - I am agreeing with you here again!
Ghost serve a dozen times. Then hit 10 'serves' into the side netting if indoors or against a wall if outdoors. On these you won't be swinging hard but fluid and smooth. From this you can go into real warm-up serves.
With my bad shoulder and elbow it takes this to be able to actually hit warm up serves without pain. Great preventative care as well.

I hit half serves into the netting if that is all I can do

[li0scc0]

Originally Posted by sureshs

I hit half serves into the netting if that is all I can do

Yep, same idea. I actually warm up hitting about a dozen backhands into the netting, with the 1hbh it warms up my shoulder and elbow. Then the 'serve' motion, then the 'serves' into the netting. All this takes very little time. Certainly less time than Nadal takes between serves

[Cindysphinx]

Originally Posted by sureshs

One is not enough. That is why you complain about injuries.

I would suggest then at least ghost-serving a few times before actually hitting the ball.

What makes you think I don't do this?

[cak]

The 2.5 captain left her practice court today to ask us seasoned folks if it was true you could only have two let serves. I'm still curious what they thought should happen if you nicked the tape a third time in a row.

They were also telling each other you couldn't call out and hit the ball at the same time. On a ball that was obviously out. And her partner was the one calling it out. We just walked away from that one.

[tennis_ocd]

I used to dread the fbi stuff - but a real serve warm-up for a social match would be too long anyway. Learned to defer first serve to partner (while stroking him over how great his serve is - a win for both us ) take many shadow swings during first several games and make certain I don't hit the first two or three serves in.

Even then, it probably takes me an entire set or perhaps 30 serves into the wall before I start to feel loose. A lotta stuff going on in the wrist, elbow, shoulder, back joints. Even waiting three games during doubles becomes problematic.

[jswinf]

Originally Posted by cak

The 2.5 captain left her practice court today to ask us seasoned folks if it was true you could only have two let serves. I'm still curious what they thought should happen if you nicked the tape a third time in a row.

.

Used to be in table tennis one 'let' serve would be replayed, but 2 in a row meant loss of point. I'm not sure if this still applies, they changed a lot of rules sometimes in the last 40 years while I wasn't paying attention.