Foot Faults

[Tempest344]

How do you deal with someone who foot faults??

Today I lost to a bloke who must have foot faulted by at least 20-30 cm
and it did make sense coz some of his serves were finding the lines on the occasion he was over the line

I didn't realise of course until my coach who was watching told me about it

so then we were playing in doubles and so we called him a couple of times for it
and of course he went ballistic

is there any easy way to do this?
I mean you should tell someone that they are foot faulting coz they may not be aware of it but its a pretty tough call I guess you really need an Umpire

 

[raiden031]

If you tell them and they are honest, they will make an effort to stop doing it. If they are dishonest, they will keep doing it anyways or get angry. You should tell and if they keep doing it, then get an umpire.

 

[rasajadad]

I used to play in a league where everyone footfaults. I was playing doubles against two of the biggest culprits (who both S&V). After asking them to stop, what I did on my next service game was to stand halfway between the baseline and service line and served from there. I told them I'd stop when they stop! I only served one point to each of them that way and called over the pro to call footfaults.

 

[Loco4Tennis]

i would say the following, and only if this is a counted mach where there is something on the line, if its just practise and stuff i would just talk to them at the end of it:
1 "hey buddy you footfaulted on the last point"
2 "hey buddy you footfaulted again"
3 "hey buddy watta F man, watta F!!, you want me to interupt you in mid serve to remind you, im looking out not to foot fault, you should too"
if they contine after that, i would call it right when they try to serve and redo the point over
calling a line judge good but not always possible, and i think that the only way you'll win a point ofut of them if they do this, if their is a line judge that can back you up, otherwise, its yours against his,
what can you do but redoo

 

[hyogen]

I used to play in a league where everyone footfaults. I was playing doubles against two of the biggest culprits (who both S&V). After asking them to stop, what I did on my next service game was to stand halfway between the baseline and service line and served from there. I told them I'd stop when they stop! I only served one point to each of them that way and called over the pro to call footfaults.

lol...sounds like something I would do...but normally i don't care too much--if the other player NEEDS to footfault in order to beat me or be competitive with me...oh well--i'll just be a better play for it i think.. We're not pros...so no sense in nit picking this stuff--and ending up playing shorter and lower quality points.

 

[shintan17]

If you tell them and they are honest, they will make an effort to stop doing it. If they are dishonest, they will keep doing it anyways or get angry. You should tell and if they keep doing it, then get an umpire.

If I am playing for fun with my friends or friendly matches, I don't care about foot faults, and I never did care before unless it's so obvious the player is taking advantage of it so much. Playing the league match, you should never do it.

Yep, some people are just stubborn and they think they are doing everything right...so if you tell them and they get angry...f**k them..

 

[LuckyR]

FFing is cheating, pure and simple. It may be unintentional cheating, but it is cheating.

In singles it would be the absolutely egregious FFing that would be able to be seen and therefore called. In doubles, lesser FFing would be visible to the netman.

As a practical matter I would alert the guy in stages. First, I would call him to the net, alert him that he is FFing and not take the point that had just been played. Then if it continued I would call it and take the point. Eventually asking for an umpire (probably ain't gonna happen) or serving from the service line and other "visual aids" would be used.

 

[Kaptain Karl]

Even in "friendly" matches, it's against the rules. I do this:

1 - "You may not know it, but you are foot-faulting."

2 - "Fault!" (Only in Dubs or really flagrant stuff in Singles.)

3 - Stand at the Service Line when it's my serve. When they complain I reply, "You want me to let you get away with it. Why don't you allow me to???"

4 - Pack up and leave (cuz #3 usually ends the play anyway).

I don't stand for FF's. See my sig.

- KK

 

[hyogen]

Hmm, u know --i think to me it's hard to spot it when they're all the way on the other side of the court. If I'm at the net when playing doubles I can most likely see it...

 

[Kaptain Karl]

I remember a guy who would step across the Center Tick. He would be serving from the "wrong" side. That's a FF you can certainly see in Singles.

(So many people got on his case, rather than change ... he quit. Good riddance.)

- KK

 

[rasajadad]

I think the big picture is that at the recreational level about 2/3 - 3/4 of people foot fault. 97% of the time I don't care if my opponent does it, but 3% of the time it really bugs the you-know-what out of me.

 

[Commando Tennis Shorts]

I think the big picture is that at the recreational level about 2/3 - 3/4 of people foot fault. 97% of the time I don't care if my opponent does it, but 3% of the time it really bugs the you-know-what out of me.

. . .and exactly where did you get this information? random-made-up-stats.com? i also love how precise you got on the 97%---i suppose it's better than the over-used 99%

but anyway. . .i completely disagree with your statement about how many rec players foot fault. it is nowhere near that high. it's definitely a lot less than that---less than half

 

[Cindysphinx]

I'm surprised that people are so confident that they *aren't* foot-faulting. I see it all the time. I think a lot of less experienced players don't even know what a foot fault is.

I was watching the end of a lesson my pro was giving to another student. He did the weirdest thing. He took his racket and laid it on the ground between her feet as she prepared to serve, so she was straddling the handle. Then she had to serve.

I asked him later what the sam hill he was trying to do. He said she tended to chase bad tosses that had gone too far into the court, kind of taking a step or a shuffle into the court in order to reach them (a foot fault, of course). If she stepped on the handle (or tripped over it!), that was her clue that she was doing it again.

So yeah, a *lot* of inexperienced players will footfault to chase a bad toss and have no clue that they're doing it.

Cindy -- who has never accused anyone of footfaulting because she is so busy watching the toss and worrying about her own problems that she often can't be sure, and who can't see well half the time anyway