Perfect Foot Fault Resolution

[Tennusdude]

I just had a revelation. If you are playing an opponent who constantly and blatantly foot faults, I have the solution Anytime their serve hits the line, call it out. Since they are always stepping way over the line, you are actually being more than fair since you are only calling their serves out if they hit the line.
Wow I cant believe what a great idea this is.

[boramiNYC]

what if the opponent starts calling out your serves that hit the line in retaliation? such escalation has no end. get the official if the match matters, if not forget it and play ur game.

[pvaudio]

Unless you're playing doubles, you seriously need higher level opponents if you have time to notice they are foot faulting.

[ATP100]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

Unless you're playing doubles, you seriously need higher level opponents if you have time to notice they are foot faulting.

LOL, I was thinking the same thing....

[Tennusdude]

Yes I am old and even though I was a formidable single player who went to National with USTA team. I now only play doubles since my body is old. If I play a singles match, I still do well but need at least a week to recover.

I was referring to doubles for sure! Sorry about that! And many of these guys admit they footfault. I was thinking of these guys in particular who dont think footfaulting matters. For them it wont matter if you call them out when they hit the line since they dont respect the lines. Of course I would warn them in advance. I think its a good deal for them. After all they still get to footfault and many even ace you as long as they dont hit the lines.

[Tennusdude]

By the way, in high level junior matches, it is not uncommon for a player to return serve even the ball is out. If they hit a winner or great shot, they play the point, if they see that they are going to make an error they call the ball out. This sort of tactic is more prevalent than you realize. Sad though

[kopfan]

Normally when i spot a footwork.. i called out Fault! and tell my opponent to repeat the serve since it was foot fault. Normally after the first catch, they have tendency to check their stand or stand a few inch below the line from that onward. Of course... before you start to catch other foot fault.. make sure you are not foot faulting as well.

[pvaudio]

Originally Posted by Tennusdude

Yes I am old and even though I was a formidable single player who went to National with USTA team. I now only play doubles since my body is old. If I play a singles match, I still do well but need at least a week to recover.

I was referring to doubles for sure! Sorry about that! And many of these guys admit they footfault. I was thinking of these guys in particular who dont think footfaulting matters. For them it wont matter if you call them out when they hit the line since they dont respect the lines. Of course I would warn them in advance. I think its a good deal for them. After all they still get to footfault and many even ace you as long as they dont hit the lines.

I presumed this was about doubles, all of the adult league matches I watch someone always foot faults terribly. This is at 7.0 mixed level, however. When I watch some of the league matches my sister plays in which is an 8.0 or 8.5 league, hardly anyone foot faults and if they do, it wouldn't really matter. Truth be told, unless they're hitting the net a lot versus hitting long, it's not an issue to focus on in my opinion.

[charliefedererer]

Most don't realize why they foot fault.

The common advice is to tell the player just to back up.






Foot faults usually occur because a player does not squat down with their body like all good servers do, and Sampras does in the pics below:



In pic one, Pete has just released the ball. He is standing pretty erect.

But with his arm held high, he does a "squat", bending his knees deeply in pics 2- 9 into his trophy position.

In this deep squat, Pete's body weight is pushing him down - he has no choice but to push up hard with both feet at the same time.

That hard double leg push off will propel him "up the mountain" to help use his legs to power his serve.





On the other hand, many who have never had instruction in serving remain standing tall and just rock back onto their rear leg. Then when they start to bring their hitting arm forward, they have no choice but to step forward to keep their balance and in the process foot fault every time.




So if you foot fault, take a cue from Pete and squat down (bending your knees) while your tossing arm is held straight up.
Then use your leg push off to power your serve and to stop foot faulting.




Some might feel self conscious pointing this out to one who constantly foot faults.
And you have to tell them in a way without coming off as a know it all. (You can say you saw this tip on TT and think it really works.)
But you will be helping them a lot more than just telling to back up (which they may need to do for that match - but they have something to work on to really correct their problem in future matches.)

[pvaudio]

CF, the reason why I don't feel that it matters is your last bit. If it's an older player, the odds that they'll go out and work on their lower body coiling for an hour a few times a week until they can improve their serve is next to none. They want to get on court and enjoy the sport. Stepping on the line changes nothing in that regard. If you're in a high level match with legit stakes, then take all you can get. If it's just a league match, they're not going to be like I dunno...me for instance and take their camera to court and watch themselves hit hundreds of serves just to make sure one tiny detail is ingrained. I did do this with foot faulting. I would lift my left toe up before I bent my knees which often put it over the line. Took a few weeks to get rid of that, but I cannot imagine anyone who just gets off work and wants to hit doing that.

[charliefedererer]

pv,

I totally agree with you.

For many, tennis is at best a weekly outlet for some fun and exercise, and using a microscope to call a foot fault is just a waste of time.

My comments were mainly to younger and more fit players.

Maybe even there are some kids out there who will use their foot fault correction to learn how to get that squat/knee bend in the interval between when the ball leaves the hand, and when they actually form a bow shape in the trophy position.

They may actually get quite a few decades of a better serve, as well as correcting their foot fault, by making this adaptation.

[dman72]

After watching from adjacent courts, half of the guys in my league foot fault on every first serve. Of those 50%, half have weak serves, so I don't care.

The other guys, when there serve is going in, are tougher to handle. And some of them play S&V, which means they are getting a double advantage.

I've resolved that I will start foot faulting intentionally against these guys if I start losing. I tried it once against a blatant foot faulter last season, and I hit twice as many aces as I normally do.

The alternatives: bringing it up, or letting them get away with it..don't work for me. .

[SystemicAnomaly]

Originally Posted by pvaudio

Unless you're playing doubles, you seriously need higher level opponents if you have time to notice they are foot faulting.

Not really. If the foot faulting is blatant, as the OP qualified, it is not difficult at all to detect it. If it is a minor fault, then I might agree with you. With some footfaults, the server is stepping across an imaginary extension of the center mark. In this case, the serve appears to come from the wrong direction. This is also noticeable if it is blatant.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by charliefedererer

For many, tennis is at best a weekly outlet for some fun and exercise, and using a microscope to call a foot fault is just a waste of time.

As I am explaining in a thread in the Adult section, it is the fear of FF being called that is more important. FF rule must be enforced if only for this reason. The server must fear the consequences and try to overcome it, and this adds to the pressure. I am disgusted with the impunity with which club players FF.

[pvaudio]

Originally Posted by SystemicAnomaly

Not really. If the foot faulting is blatant, as the OP qualified, it is not difficult at all to detect it. If it is a minor fault, then I might agree with you. With some footfaults, the server is stepping across an imaginary extension of the center mark. In this case, the serve appears to come from the wrong direction. This is also noticeable if it is blatant.

Again, I did not say it is right, I'm just saying that unless they're serving from inside the court, you really shouldn't be looking to see if your opponent's toe is on the line. If you're playing doubles, as I said, then that's fine as when you're not returning, you can easily see. If your opponent is serving on the hash mark, then again, that's quite obvious. I'm talking about stepping on the line or toeing the line. If it's a league match and it's quite obvious, a simple "hey, you're foot faulting when you step up to the line, you might want to take a step back" on a changeover is all it takes.

There is even a guy at our local tennis center who does footfault religiously. He's inside the baseline when he makes contact and it's quite funny. He doesn't play in leagues, only friendly pickup matches, and not a single person has complained even though it's blatant. Why? It just doesn't matter when you're playing a 65 year old guy who doesn't go out and work on his technique like younger players do. Just enjoy returning serve and focus on other things.