scene on the court
Occasional Observations from a Pickleball Curmudgeon
By Craig Laughlin
A Few House Rules
Rules are like recipes — it takes a long time
to get them right . The USA Pickleball rules committee was busy in 2020 , and we applaud them for their yeoman ’ s work . The new rulebook gets a lot right , and there ’ s still room for improvement . Here ’ s my take on two of the changes ...
First and foremost , I want to say , “ Hallelujah !” The committee addressed an issue I ’ ve been grumbling about for years — when a player insists his team is entitled to a replay because he calls , “ Ball on ” as his shot is sailing out of bounds , even though the stray ball has no effect on him whatsoever . I saw this as blatantly poor sportsmanship , and so did the committee . The new rules state :
“ Since its inception , pickleball has established a tradition of good sportsmanship , courtesy , and cooperation among players . To that end , players cannot claim a hinder from a ball rolling on the court after they hit a ball ‘ out ’; they gave up their ability to call the hinder by choosing instead to hit the ball .”
While I applaud this addition , I wish the committee could have dug a little deeper . For example , let ’ s say my opponents are at the net and , because a ball is rolling along the back fence more than 20 feet behind them , someone from two courts over hollers , “ Ball on !” as my opponent puts a ball away that I ’ ve just popped up . Should I be able to claim a replay ? In my book , to do so would be another example of poor sportsmanship , but I see it happen all the time .
Furthermore , should players from two courts over even be hollering for us to retrieve their ball when it presents no danger to anyone and we ’ re in the middle of a rally ? Some instructors teach that , out of an abundance of caution , any ball approaching an adjacent court should stop play — no matter how far it is from the action . Why not use common sense and , if it ’ s safe to do so , let the players complete their rally ? Additional guidance regarding these situations would be appreciated . Line calls are my other pet peeve . Again , “ Well begun , there ’ s more to do .” God gave us two forwardfacing eyes so as to have depth perception , and a large brain capable of computing the relative position of objects on the one hand , and of comprehending the effects of parallax ( the phenomenon that causes the apparent position of an object to change depending on from where it is viewed ) on the other . The new requirement is : “ To be absolutely certain when calling a ball ‘ out ,’ players must clearly see a space between the line and the ball when it lands ...” This , unfortunately , takes none of those God-given abilities into account .
Not allowing parallax to be taken into account when making a line call requires a player to refrain from calling out any balls in the same position , when seen from the same point of view , as those described as “ out ” in Figure 6.1 of the new rulebook . The requirement that opponents be given the benefit of the doubt notwithstanding , this makes no sense to me . If I ’ m standing deep to receive a serve , parallax will prevent me from seeing a space between the line and a ball that is two inches deep . Does that mean I can ’ t be absolutely certain it was out ? Of course not . Need I say more ? •