| 2359 | May 29, 2025 | Guy | I see no reason for this addition. Since line calls are the responsibility of the players even in officiated matches, you only need to ask the team who made the call what the call was if you are unclear. If they communicated by only a hand signal and the other team saw this signal, there will be no argument about what the call was. Your only responsibility as a ref is to record the agreed upon line call and rule on an appeal if asked. in fact, if they did not play the ball, the team whose call it is has up until the next serve to make the call per 6C7b. You do not need hear the call made to be able to update your score sheet and move onto the next rally.
|
| 2359 | June 15, 2025 | Enrique | This is unrealistic. It has already become accepted common practice to indicate that a ball is out by using the hand signal with a finger pointing out. Players are not going to change that practice and trying to force them by including this in the rule book only makes the rule book seem like it is out of touch with the evolving sport. If anything, referees need to adapt as the sport evolves. Just as players do in noisy environments, where they look for the referee’s hand / arm to know when the score is called, referees should continue to allow players to call a ball out using a hand signal.
|