Footfaults, Again Well, the US Open (tennis) concluded almost two months ago. Notwithstanding the winners and the losers, the biggest story of the Open was Serena William’s unsportsmanlike conduct following her being called for a foot fault.
I found it interesting that much of the media coverage said how surprised they were that a foot fault would be called at such a late and crucial time in the match. Isn’t a foot fault a rule of the game? Shouldn’t all rules of the game be enforced equally? Imagine if “out balls” weren’t called after an hour into a contest because the match had reached a critical stage? Last year at this time I wrote an article about foot faults in our sport. I received many, many responses about how the foot fault rule should be enforced. Yet, here we are again a year later. The APTA talked about having roving foot fault judges at all major tournaments last season, and sadly, that program did not see wide implementation. I often wonder whether Albert Einstein was right when he said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Is trying to go after those who foot fault just insanity? After all these years of trying to enforce the foot fault rule, is it time to just put the rule to pasture? For member clubs this year, the APTA is issuing a wonderful wall calendar that also shows the major tournament schedule. The background image for the poster is a classic of one of our game’s founders, Fessenden Blanchard. It was brought to my attention that if the picture is in fact of him serving, rather than his hitting an overhead near the baseline (and there is debate), the picture shows him foot faulting. How ironic it would be if the game’s inventor couldn’t follow today’s rules. Maybe Fessenden envisioned foot faulting to just be a part of the game and for 81 years since he invented platform tennis we have it wrong? You say foot faulting is not pervasive? It’s only done by those who are new to the game? Check out the picture below from the recent Premier Cup, an event for the top sixteen male players in the game today. what do you think? let me know! info@platformtennisnews.com |
© 2003-2010 Platform Tennis News.