CAN YOU BELIEVE IT - FOOTFAULTS ARE IN THE NEWS AGAIN

By Charles E. Vasoll

In our warm-up hut recently there was talk about “footfaults” and “roaming footfault judges”. I did not know the source of the new interest in the subject until I reviewed the latest issue of PlatformTennis the APTA Member Publication. There it was, in “From the Publisher”, Wayne Dollard’s column. Some things never change. I guess the good news is that someone was actually reading the magazine.

Mr. Dollard noted that the Western Pennsylvania Platform Tennis Association (WPPTA) “in this past month was bombarded with footfault complaints”. I believe most of the rest of the platform tennis community has given up on complaining about this violation of the rules.

The solution that Mr. Dollard suggested is not new. Volunteer judges at tournaments who walk around the courts pointing out footfault violations have been around for decades. How many remember Nancy Mangan, the Hall of Famer, head of the women players, tip-toeing around ranking tournaments pointing out this indiscretion to her brood. She was called the “footfault fairy” and you did not disobey her.

Adding fuel to the discussion, Dollard is holding a contest for a new letter-sized “NO-FOOTFAULTING” banner. The original signs, used by the Association, were the brainstorm of Michael Dougherty, then a resident of Garden City, Long Island and a Life Member of the APTA. He served the old-fashioned way, under-hand, with both feet on the ground and behind the end line. It was a great idea to publicize the problem but the problem has not gone away.

I contend that most of the footfault violations are minor and give very little advantage to the server. The server is simply lacking discipline in the serving motion. Some violations, however, are not minor and should not be tolerated.

The greatest problem, as I see it, is still the difficulty of the opponent to properly observe the footfault error. The contact of the paddle with the ball and the foot striking the deck can be so simultaneous that one would need more than the naked eye to make a proper call. I submit that even a roaming judge viewing the serve from an ideal position will have some difficulty.

My solution, which will go absolutely nowhere, is to require that both feet be in contact with the deck when striking the ball. I can hear the “boos” from Dr. Detroit already.

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