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LESSONS LEARNED BY AN OPPONENT’ S OUTBURST
During a recent
USAPA-sanctioned tournament, we were reminded of past lessons learned and we wanted to share them with you. So if you happen to run into a similar scenario, you will be better prepared and educated to keep the game on track.
During a heated doubles rally, our opponent( not in the featured photo) hit a backhand volley. The ball’ s point of contact was possibly either her paddle / hand or her paddle / shoulder. This player was five feet away from the referee who immediately called“ Fault!” which caused us to stop play.( A fault is any action that stops play because of a rule violation.) The referee stated that the ball had hit the player’ s upper arm / shoulder. Immediately the opponent voiced strong opposition and had an over 10-minute heated debate with the referee( who stood by his call). Throughout this debate the opponent claimed that the play was captured on a video camera and it will show that the referee was wrong. The referee should have turned to the rule book …
Rule # 14. F. Referee’ s Officiating Duties: Referee is responsible for all decisions related to procedural and judgment calls during the match … The referee’ s call will stand … Spectators are not part of the game and, therefore, cannot be consulted on calls.
Lesson Learned: Players looking for evidence of a particular event from spectators or a video camera have no basis to ask for that review. So don’ t allow time to be used for that request.
All momentum of the 13-13 game had been lost and it was decided that the point would be played over. The opponent requested that a new referee take over and play continued to the end of the match.
Rule # 14. L. Removal of a Referee or Line Judge: A referee or line judge may be removed when both teams agree to the removal or at the discretion of the Tournament Director.
Lesson Learned: All players need to mutually agree on replacing the ref( we were never consulted and the tournament director was unavailable). If all players do not agree, the current
ref stays – so don’ t allow a ref change if you don’ t agree to the change.
The interesting thing is that these lessons learned are all scenarios we have experienced before in our 6 + years of pickleball and we know these rules. Yet, in the heat of competition and dealing with fatigue, annoyance, crowd participation, etc., things happen … We just want to play pickleball, not witness a player’ s character.
For those of you who may think this scenario through even further, the following could have happened:
Technical Foul( 14. M) – The referee is empowered to add one point to a player’ s score or a team’ s score when the opponent violates one of the rules calling for a technical foul or, in the referee’ s judgment, the opponent is being overly and deliberately abusive.
Match Forfeiture( 14. H. 1) – A referee may impose a forfeit when a player refuses to abide by the referee’ s decision or engages in unsportsmanlike conduct.
These rule numbers come from the International Federation of Pickleball Official Tournament Rulebook that the USAPA uses. •
Jennifer Lucore and Alex Hamner started playing pickleball in 2010, and have competed in numerous tournaments in the USA as well as Jennifer competing internationally. Between them they have 21 national titles, but they are perhaps best known for winning the gold medal in Women’ s Doubles at Nationals for four consecutive years( 2011-2014). They live with their respective families in North San Diego County.
Photo credit: Patrick Kelley
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