....on your opponents during a competitive dubs match?
Just curious as I hate these guys who continually step over the lines.
Boy. I have played a lot of USTA matches, and I have seen a lot of footfaulting.
I have never seen it called. Not once.
My rule of thumb is this. If it really bothers you so badly then you should just be "that guy" and call it all the time. Pick up matches, team practice, league play, when you are getting killed, or when you are rolling. If someone is consistent in calling it then I would just shrug my shoulders like I do when people try and enforce time limits strictly on defaults. They are entitled to do so and I will abide by the rules but I think it is a bit ridiculous to not use some common sense.
....on your opponents during a competitive dubs match?
Just curious as I hate these guys who continually step over the lines.
Just curious as I hate these guys who continually step over the lines.
the best thing to do is quietly subtract the distance of the ff on your line calls to create balance.
didn't even think an opponent could actually call it.
I'd be interested to know what the actual rules are on who can call this.
There was a long tumultuous thread on this issue.
The fact is that you don't have any right to call an opponent's foot faulting so you need to call an umpire or use persuasion.
In America you can call a footfault where there is no recourse to an umpire, and the offence is repeated and blatant.
Given that the accuser and accused are likely to have different perspectives this could get interesting in America.
But, to repeat, there is no immediate right to call a footfault and at most people's level and outside of competition there is nothing really gained by doing it or making an issue of it.
If someone is touching the line I wouldn't call it. If someone is stepping way over the line (I've seen people step 2 1/2 feet into the court), I will call them out and tell them not to do that.
In the 2013 "Friend at Court" rule book, I found this on page 13:
"When may the receiver or the receiver’s partner call
foot faults? The receiver or the receiver’s partner may call foot faults only after
all reasonable efforts such as warning the server and attempting to get an
official to the court have failed and the foot faulting is so flagrant as to be clearly
perceptible from the receiver’s side."
So it appears that the players calling a foot fault is a last ditch effort. USTA prefers that an official should call a foot fault. Players can only call it if it is "so obvious". And, you should warn your opponents first... perhaps during the change over.
You know, like "hey, I noticed you foot faulted a couple of times."
Yes, that's the rule in America, but elsewhere if there is no official you either have to live with it, persuade the other fellow he has a problem or steal the same amount of advantage for yourself.
You are telling me that if someone decided to set up 3 feet inside the court to serve that outside of the US there is no recourse at all within the rules? I just can't believe that could possibly be true.
No, you can call a linesman over.
By the way, I don't actually foot fault and since I don't serve and volley would actually prefer not to get too far in.
If not serving and volleying was the determining factor for foot faults, no one on tour would foot fault anymore and, and clearly they do get called occasionally. I'm not saying you foot fault, I have no idea if you do and don't care, but don't use flawed logic to try to convince us (or me at least).
1. I don't actually foot fault (might be innaccurate but I don't think so)
Although I'm usually a very generous opponent, I find chronic and eggregious foot-faulters intolerable. I'll let it go for one game, then mention it to the server or his partner at the next change over (note: this pertains to dubs only; you really can't judge foot faults accurately enough to enforce them in singles). Foot faulting is sloppy technique too often used to gain an unfair advantage. I don't believe it's gamesmanship on my part to mention it.
This is a flawed logic. You admit you are not sure, so you can't declare that you don't foot fault.
If you have ANY foot shift during your service motion and you like to toe the line at address, more likely than not you foot fault and you probably don't even realize it. The only time I see guys don't foot fault at all are when they never shuffle their feet before the contact.
Please. If my partner is FFing (or grunting, or returning obvious faults, or calling lines badly), please do not drag me into it. Complain to her directly.
I'm not about to take your side or get involved or scold my partner or call her out. All you'll get out of me is a shrug and maybe some WTF hands.
In truth there is no way to be sure without looking at your feet so yes maybe that statement was flawed logic.
I have a very compact service motion and it is actually very likely that I don't foot fault. The only motion I make with my feet is a very short step bringing my back foot to my front foot which doesn't move as I am too old to jump. I'd also add that I recently played someone who watched for this who commented I was the first person he had played in a long while that didn't foot fault.
I know you don't feel it, but every person who foot faults believe they don't foot fault either.