Rule Submission TitleEliminate waist requirement for volley serve
USAP Board VoteDisapproved
USAP Board Vote ReasonIt is not appropriate to eliminate the rule simply because it is difficult to enforce. Referees have the 'questionable/re-serve' tool to help with enforcement. Further study would be needed to ensure that there will not be unintended consequences of removing the rule.
Existing Rule #4.A.7.c
Proposed Rule Change

Eliminate 4.A.7.c

Original Rule Text

4.A.7.c. Contact with the ball must not be made above the waist. (See Figures 4-1 and 4-3)

Reasoning Behind Suggested Change

No one can tell you definitively where your waist is, much less do it during a serve motion so any fault is just a guess and differs massively between any two refs. So a player gets faulted by one ref but not another and that's not consistent. And how many times have we heard that he's serving above his waist but slo mo video doesn't show that, or does it? No one can tell! MLP did away with this requirement for two years and there was no weaponization of the serve, according to Courtney Johnson, Head Ref for the tour.

If the referee can't objectively tell that a fault has occurred, it's a bad rule.

Scenarios In Which the Rules Applies

Server serves and strikes the ball somewhere in the vicinity of this waist. Half the spectators, and both his opponents think it was above the waist. The other half of the spectators would swear it was level with his waist but they think that's illegal, too! The ref can't tell because the server swung his paddle really fast plus the ref doesn't really know where the waist is. He's got kind of an idea but isn't really sure. So was the serve legal or not? No one knows but if this rule change proposal is passed it won't matter! The ref can tell if the highest part of the paddle was above the player's wrist line and he can tell if there was upward motion of the arm at contact. But the waist? Not really sure!

Rule Book Year2026
Rule Change ID2079
Date CreatedApril 5, 2025
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