Foot faulting rules as a captain

vcat

New User
Had a league match last week where the opposing team's captain comes up to me (I'm the other captain) and says my singles guy is foot faulting every serve and can I give him a warning. So I go over and watch a bit of the match and my guy does do a foot fault, barely half a finger's width into the line, but it's a foot fault. The other captain says "see, please give him a warning", so I'm thinking ok whatever, and between points I tell my guy.

A little later, he says my guy just did it again and it should be a penalty. I say "first of all, I didn't see him cross that time, and secondly it's not under our authority to start roaming courts and penalizing foot faults, and thirdly your player hasn't even complained about anything or requested a line judge".

We left it at that...but upon reflection I don't think I should have even given my guy a warning, I think this captain may have been trying a brad gilbert'esk maneuver. If so I should have replied "no beer for you!" like the soup ****.
 

Spokewench

Semi-Pro
Here we don't have roving refs at league matches. It is self-policing. It is up to the players to call foot faults - no captain can do this and should not get involved in disputes on the court. The players need to know the rules of court, etc. and deal with these issues on their own.

The other captain was way out of line.
 

Cindysphinx

G.O.A.T.
Around here, players must resolve all issues that arise among themselves. Captains are not supposed to intervene.

If that is the rule in your area, I think it is best to stick to it from the beginning. Otherwise once you meddle, other issues can come up, as you found.
 

spot

Hall of Fame
The only time I would ever consider telling my player that they were footfaulting is if they were being called for it in a match and they were losing their heads convinced that they weren't footfaulting. Every time I have ever seen a footfault called in a match, the player was badly footfaulting and was somehow convinced they weren't doing it even though they were looking up at the ball while the opponents were looking at their feet. And in this situation I would CONSIDER telling my player that they were indeed footfaulting just to make them understand that the opponents weren't lying to them. Calling a footfault has always been armageddon when its called and to me having the player who was wrong be told it by their own teammates is about the only way I could see it being resolved. I know that the rules are that all disputes must get settled by the players on the court, but I do think an exception should be made to tell a player from your own team that they are wrong.

But yeah... in this situation there is no need at all to get involved.
 

anontennis

New User
It was the opponent's call to make, not sure why the captain was bugging you about it. Maybe he realized his player would not call it but wanted it to be dealt with or wanted to get under your players skin. Or maybe he just didn't know the rules...
 

beernutz

Hall of Fame
Code:
16.  Spectators never make calls. 
A player shall not enlist the aid of a spectator in making a call. 
No spectator has a part in a match.
 

J_R_B

Hall of Fame
LOL. I think 80% of the players around here foot fault to some degree, and it's never called. Some are worse than others. I actively try not to, but I'm not looking at my feet, so I can't say for sure if I do unwittingly or not.
 

JLyon

Hall of Fame
sounds like the captain just needs to gripe about something, even at the 4.5+ level 50% of players foot fault, many by a wide margin. Tell the captain to get over himself or go play ITF's and leave USTA to the players who like to play for fun.
 

Jim A

Professional
We only have one guy who routinely complains about foot faults that I run into, which is nice. If the person is hitting his serve 2 feet into the court that's one thing but on the line etc I could care less

besides when someone starts playing card, all I do is back up about 6" and start hitting harder as if anything I tend to hit long and now have more margin for error!

If I thought someone was doing it for gamesmanship I would do it right back the next game as well as toss/catch a few of my service tosses
 

vcat

New User
LOL. I think 80% of the players around here foot fault to some degree, and it's never called. Some are worse than others. I actively try not to, but I'm not looking at my feet, so I can't say for sure if I do unwittingly or not.

That was my understanding for the whole thing, if you're not stepping well into the court I personally would let it slide. This guy really thought that extra quarter inch was significant. We'll probably play this team again in playoffs...should be interesting.

Funny...this was a 4.5 match, I kind of thought this stuff went away once you got to the higher levels.
 

dizzlmcwizzl

Hall of Fame
LOL. I think 80% of the players around here foot fault to some degree, and it's never called. Some are worse than others. I actively try not to, but I'm not looking at my feet, so I can't say for sure if I do unwittingly or not.

Interesting .. never thought I did but someone said something a couple months ago and after posting about it here I asked two teammates to point it out every time they saw me do it. So I could correct it.

In any event they have been pointing out that I turn my front foot on the toss so that it is about 1/2 inch is over the line. Never thought I was one of the offenders but it appears I am. The easy fix is to move back an inch, but I am trying to pre-open the foot so I wont move that foot at all.
 

JavierLW

Hall of Fame
Anyone that is not involved in the match is a spectator. Spectators have no part in enforcing rules in someone else's match, that is not just a area rule, that is a Code rule.

If the other captain came to me to say that, I would just tell him exactly that, there isnt anything we can do about it....

If he proceeds to tell his team that my guy is foot faulting, then I will complain because that's coaching. (he cant tell them to watch for it, or call foot fault or whatever...at least not while the match is in progress)

I am even a person that thinks that foot faulting can definately be called by players and it should if it's flagrant.

But the teams that have captains or other players roaming around obsessing about what is essentially someone else's match is kind of a annoyance in the league at times.
 

jmverdugo

Hall of Fame
What about a USTA official? In my last USTA tournament (not league) one of my opponent foot faulted every single serve, I did not notice it on the baseline but he also did it sideways, like when serving from the add side he would step in to the deuce side, my wife later told me about it. In any case there was an USTA official right next to my opponent and she did not do anything about it. I told a friend of mine that it wasn't a big deal but he told me that the guys was a whole foot inside the court while serving...
 

Fedace

Banned
Had a league match last week where the opposing team's captain comes up to me (I'm the other captain) and says my singles guy is foot faulting every serve and can I give him a warning. So I go over and watch a bit of the match and my guy does do a foot fault, barely half a finger's width into the line, but it's a foot fault. The other captain says "see, please give him a warning", so I'm thinking ok whatever, and between points I tell my guy.

A little later, he says my guy just did it again and it should be a penalty. I say "first of all, I didn't see him cross that time, and secondly it's not under our authority to start roaming courts and penalizing foot faults, and thirdly your player hasn't even complained about anything or requested a line judge".

We left it at that...but upon reflection I don't think I should have even given my guy a warning, I think this captain may have been trying a brad gilbert'esk maneuver. If so I should have replied "no beer for you!" like the soup ****.

AGree, tell him next time "I don't see any Foot-faults, looks like he is in the air when he makes contact with the ball, i recommend you get a better contacts or glasses" and Leave it at that...or just walk away.:):)
 

Bedrock

Semi-Pro
What about a USTA official? In my last USTA tournament (not league) one of my opponent foot faulted every single serve, I did not notice it on the baseline but he also did it sideways, like when serving from the add side he would step in to the deuce side, my wife later told me about it. In any case there was an USTA official right next to my opponent and she did not do anything about it. I told a friend of mine that it wasn't a big deal but he told me that the guys was a whole foot inside the court while serving...

A foot fault is a big deal. Usually it is a clear sign of lack of technique. The players who developed foot-faulting habit, do not have serve at all and as result cannot win a single match once they forced to follow common tennis rules. USTA does not handle foot fault error well. It is very disrespectful to those who actualy pays attention to this rule (and practice in the way not to foot-fault).
Through the years I found an axiom - "Player who cannot serve without foot-fault, should not step on tennis court".

If my opponent does foot-faults regulary, I just get to service-line and serve an ace right from there. Why I should care about the rules ?
 
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Cruzer

Professional
The old foot faulting dilemma again. I sure fire way to tick off someone real fast is to mention that they are foot faulting. The reaction by 98% of the recreational players is "What does it matter is someone steps on or slightly over the baseline on their serve? They are not getting any advantage from it." To which I reply (if I am looking to escalate the point) is "If it doesn't matter if a server steps on or over the baseline then why is there a rule saying you can't do it?" If I really want to get to someone I say "If a couple of inches doesn't matter then why do you call a ball out that is only out by a couple of inches? Why don't you just play it?"
The fact of the matter is probably 90% of recreational tennis players foot fault some or all of the time. I have learned that bringing up foot faulting during a USTA match will escalate the animosity level by 10X in about five seconds. As a result I don't mention anymore. It is not worth the aggrevation.
The foot faulters will get their due when they play in league playoffs or a tournament with roving officials that don't give warnings on foot faults. They simply call them on the server. I won a match at district playoffs a few years ago when a roving official called a foot fault on my opponent as he was hitting a second serve on a set point for me.
 
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