Touch Tennis
- Thread starter Sartorius
- Start date
fatsandrew7
New User
i know! i’m trying to set up an amateur league similar to a challenge ladder in the charlotte nc area
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
fatsandrew7
New User
i know! i’m trying to set up an amateur league similar to a challenge ladder in the charlotte nc area
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Im(moral) Winner
G.O.A.T.
Not at that level but I played with those type of balls as practice a few times as a kid.
D
Deleted member 756486
Guest
This looks cool and far easier than real tennis.
MeatTornado
Talk Tennis Guru
for a sport with an actual broadcast, sponsors and crowd (however small) I'm surprised I've never seen this before.
Sartorius
Hall of Fame
Yeah tried it beforehand.
Apparently this has been around for sometime: https://www.touchtennis.com/gb/about.php
Seeing as you’ve made it this far, why not sit back, relax and learn a little about the origins of a game which could just shape the future of your leisure-time forever...
The brainchild of Rashid Ahmad, touchtennis began life in the outskirts of London in the balmy summer of 2002. Initially devised as a means of entertaining his young daughter in the back garden, the opportunity to dish out daily thrashings at her expense eventually led Ahmad to label himself the ‘G.O.A.T’ (the Greatest of All Time). It was a title which he felt he had earned and one which simultaneously fed his ego while ignoring years of torrid defeats at his local tennis club.
Alas, as is so often the way of the vainglorious, the need to further bolster his sense of importance and reinforce his status as ‘the G.O.A.T’ eventually saw him challenge more appropriate rivals; many of whom were over the age of 5.
238 weeks and 20 Grand Slam victories later, Ahmad finally saw his domination challenged by a new generation of players ready to test his superiority. Like a Brit' in a Wimbledon semi-final he wilted; he has never recovered.
While ‘the G.O.A.T’s’ reputation may lie in tatters, the standing of touchtennis has gone from strength to strength expanding across the globe to be played by a cult of racquet wielding brothers and sisters bound by the game’s addictive simplicity.
An attractive alternative to the mainstream game, the key to touchtennis lies not in manipulating the ball with raw power but rather with deft stroke-play and chess-like manoeuvres. Played on a compact court with foam balls and 21 inch kids racquets, its carefully calibrated regulations aim to level the playing field for competitors by fostering long, intense rallies and clever angle play.
(there's more in the link)
Lmao was watching some of these videos one of the players in another youtuve video in a tourney grunts loudly on each point as in its legit hinderance id complain to the umpire straight away. Come on man its like a nerf ball and the court is too small to make sounds like that it will legitly hinder other dude
van_Loederen
Professional
titoelcolombiano
Legend
I like the looks of it, I'd give it a go.
heninfan99
Talk Tennis Guru
better than pickle ball but still...
WYK
Hall of Fame
It is LOADS of fun. Becoming popular in Europe. We've been using the kids courts here. So all we needed to do was cut down some sticks or use kids sticks and the TT ball. It's also been my way of being able to avoid the horrific carpet courts we use here in Ireland because our kids courts are on tarmac.
Djokodalerer31
Hall of Fame
This looks like porn and even porn has better acting...
mental midget
Hall of Fame
better! they'd be #1 in pretty short order. kind of like when federer took a stab at 'real tennis', everyone wondering if he'd be able to pick it up...was phenomenal at it in about .0004 seconds.
Shaolin
G.O.A.T.
Interesting...I didnt know Fed tried his hand at Real tennis.
Reminds me of Monfils taking up paddle tennis on a lark and beating the world #1 player in a tournament a day or two later.
Freddy Cat
Professional
Oh god. Imagine Dr Ivo playing this. It'd look like table tennis.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Are you allowed to come to net? If so, I’m in.
WYK
Hall of Fame
https://www.touchtennis.com/gb/rules.php
The main differences from regular tennis
- The court dimensions:
- 12 x 5 metres for singles
- 12 x 6 metres for doubles (by creating a tramline 50 cm from the singles sideline on each side). The rest of the internal dimensions are in the diagram below
- The net height at the posts must be no shorter than 80cm (31.5in) and no higher than 91.5cm (36in). In tour events like Masters and Slams the net height minimum is 85cm. For smaller events and for social play you can use pretty much any mini net and it will probably be no lower than 80cm but its always worth checking. Especially when you know some ridiculous 6-4 Karlovic style players are likely to show up.
- Racquets must be no shorter than 20.8 inches and no longer than 21.5 inches. Most manufacturers "21 inch" racquets fall within this variation despite being labelled as 21 inches in length. Head size may be no greater than 107 sq inches;
- The official ball of touchtennis is the touchtennis ball which is 8CM in diameter and made from cut foam. It really does make all the difference.
- If the racquet leaves your hand in order to make a shot, then that shot will still count so long as your racquet does not fly over the net on to your opponents side of the court;
- If once you are disarmed and you have made a shot with your racquet throw, then you may continue that rally with your body parts! Note though, that you MUST have made the shot prior to this with a racquet that was NOT in your hand and thrown to make it
- No Let Rule – if the ball clips the net and then lands in the correct service box (diagonal to the server) then that ball is considered "in play"
- Grunting – it is recommended that you grunt during play as it is known to distract your opponent!
- Ball toss – once the server tosses the ball upward to serve then that player is obliged to hit it. Unlike tennis we do not want any Pat Rafter specials of 10 ball tosses followed by "Sorry mate!" You throw it, HIT IT! Or you lose one of your serves
- If your serve hits your opponent without bouncing then it is a fault UNLESS they are touching the service line or are inside the service box when the ball hits them in which case the server wins the point.
- A serve may not be volleyed back by the returner
- Only ONE serve is permitted in touchtennis
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WYK
Hall of Fame
Tournament rules:
Rules for tournament play
Rules for tournament play
- You must be 16 or over on the date of the event. No exceptions may be made to this rule by an organiser
- Warm ups are prohibited after your first match. Once each player has played an initial match no further pre match warm ups are permitted on that day. Should a tournament stretch over more than one day then a further 3 minute warm up is permitted for each player assuming one or both of them have not played before on that day in a tournament match;
- Foul language: One audible obscenity of any description is an IMMEDIATE point penalty. 3 audible obscenities in a match means immediate disqualification
- Racquet abuse: If you smash a racquet you are immediately disqualified. You are also fined £20.00 which must be paid prior to playing any further tour matches. However, if you do no damage and you can still play with it, then you may continue playing as long as you use the same racquet for the rest of the match…even if you break a string during the match after you have whacked it against something, you still need to continue using it.
- Serving: Overarm or underarm serving is permitted but it is mandatory to inform your opponent that you are about to serve underarm. This also allows people to abuse you for taking the soft option!
- If you win the toss in doubles you can either choose to serve, or choose which member of the opposing team serves first!
- We use short sets to 4 games and if a set goes to 4 games all then a tiebreak is played
- Each game is scored like a normal tennis game i.e 15-0 30-0 40-0 game with the exception of games where the score reaches deuce (40-40). At this point a deciding point is played and the receiver decides which side the server must serve to. This point decides the winner of the game. Its also referred to as a sudden death point. You don't return to deuce. (this is also played at 4 points all in a tiebreak - see below)
- In all events that are NOT slams (one of the 4 major trophies) all matches including doubles are played as best of 3 sets (first to win 2 out of the 3 sets wins).
- The 3rd set is also played fully to 4 games and at 4-4 a tiebreak is played
- In doubles matches the 3rd set is a match tiebreak and it is played to 7 points
- Singles tie breaks are first to 5 points. Players change ends every 4 points. At 4-4 in a tiebreak a deciding point is played. The receiver at that point decides whether to take the serve on the deuce side or ad side.
- In Slams we play best of 5 sets
- Prize money is only payable to those players that actually win a match. You don't qualify for prize money if you get a bye and then get smoked in your first match! You have to win a match first!
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
This is so superior to pickleball! I hope it eventually supplants it.
This reminds me of when I went on a cruise ship that had a reduced-size tennis court roughly pickleball length, maybe slightly bigger, on the deck. A group of us staged a doubles tournament on it using dead tennis balls and regular racquets. It was awesome!
This reminds me of when I went on a cruise ship that had a reduced-size tennis court roughly pickleball length, maybe slightly bigger, on the deck. A group of us staged a doubles tournament on it using dead tennis balls and regular racquets. It was awesome!
newyorkstadium
Professional
Marcus "Cartman" Willis, of Wimbledon fame, occasionally plays touch tennis tournaments.
WYK
Hall of Fame
Grunting is specifically suggested as a strategy in the rules. Not many take it srsly, tho.
WYK
Hall of Fame
It's nothing like pickleball. The way the ball is in TT allows you to swing out and use your 'normal' tennis strokes, which is also why you see a lot of two handers - they don't need it for the power, but for the technique. So if you are good at tennis, you will be good at TT. Spins, serves, etc all the same. The bad news is the ball slows down pretty fast since it has little inertia VS a tennis ball. So you have to really try to put it away. No, that's not the 'real' bad news in itself - the bad news is if you are good at blocking or are a rabbit or just a wall, you can keep rallies going on forever until a great putaway or error comes along. The good about that is you can hammer the ball - dip it in to the court, swing for the fences etc, and someone with just decent skills can often block it back or at least put it back in play. So you can have fun playing people of different skill levels much more so than in typical tennis. In other words, it is a lot of fun to play super aggressively.
nvr2old
Hall of Fame
I posted about this a year and half ago. Found it after my wife wanted to play pickleball. We transitioned from pickleball to our version of touch tennis with initially foam balls and then kids stage 1 and 2 balls and then to actual tennis since she was new to the game. It truly helped with her development and hand eye coordination with racquet skills. Touch tennis is actually a very fun game and uses same tennis stroke as full size tennis only the balls used don’t allow for massive power and favor spin, touch and rallies. Any 21” racquet is legal I believe but balls are different.
D
Deleted member 3771
Guest
Looks like a fun game to play.
How did they come up with the 21.5" racquet length limit?
Should there be a combined arm length + racquet length limit instead of just a racquet length limit?
How did they come up with the 21.5" racquet length limit?
Should there be a combined arm length + racquet length limit instead of just a racquet length limit?
WYK
Hall of Fame
I assume for the continuity. I've used a 27" stick for fun, and ya literally end up blowing the ball up, and get silly ball speed in the process. Well, right up until it explodes.
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mellowyellow
Legend
I like it and the pace but I feel the court is too small and or net too low for ball bounce... Almost like table tennis but standing on the court.
I actually started up touchtennis in my small town. Had to really convince some of my tennis player friends to try it out because they said they already have pickleball. But now we have a small group that play every week. Honestly, the comments about pickleball being repetitive are true. touchtennis really does feel like playing tennis but easier. I traveled to Vancouver,BC and played pickleball at a community centre and mostly seniors were there but there was a younger person that asked how long I played pickleball ball. I mentioned that I don’t really play that much and that I’ve started up touchtennis and he said “you know what that is?” He was inspired by my efforts to get it started where I was from that now he wants to try and do the same.
High Altitude
New User
Way more fun than PB. Have started it here in Canada to get us through long cold winter.
WYK
Hall of Fame
I measured one of the official Touch Tennis balls. I got: 29-30 grams - about one ounce. And 25cm circumference. So about 7.5 ish cm wide or nearly 3 inches diameter.
The balls also have some interesting characteristics that standard tennis balls do not have. They have much more bounce on carpeted surfaces than tennis balls do, even standard indoor non court types of carpet like one would find in a convention centre or home. I assume because of the size - even at short distances and high speeds, they are easier to pick up than standard tennis balls. And if you frame them, you tend to have a more favorable effects than if you framed a tennis ball, and often does't effect the speed of the return. This is compared to a Slazenger tennis ball, which I think is one of the smaller balls currently available on the market. I noticed not long ago that the Penns I had were slightly larger. Go figger.
The balls also have some interesting characteristics that standard tennis balls do not have. They have much more bounce on carpeted surfaces than tennis balls do, even standard indoor non court types of carpet like one would find in a convention centre or home. I assume because of the size - even at short distances and high speeds, they are easier to pick up than standard tennis balls. And if you frame them, you tend to have a more favorable effects than if you framed a tennis ball, and often does't effect the speed of the return. This is compared to a Slazenger tennis ball, which I think is one of the smaller balls currently available on the market. I noticed not long ago that the Penns I had were slightly larger. Go figger.
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LoboR1
Rookie
Have been playing Touch Tennis for just over two years now...in the winter since there are no indoor tennis courts where I live. It's the closest thing to real tennis I've found since you can hit out and really use the same strokes you utilize in the regular game. Absolutely have a blast playing it....go and try it out!!
