Are we looking at more service rule changes in the near future?
JUST IN - PPA proposing new serve rule to “de-weaponize” the serve
— Grayson Goldin (@GraysonGoldin) August 14, 2024
PPA is putting tape 4 feet inside of the baseline and saying you have to serve into the box because the serve has been deemed “too much of a weapon by the player council”
Very interesting 🧐 pic.twitter.com/oikXFBnXVB
A quick history on the service rules:
- Major League Pickleball has adopted a more lenient service rule compared to USA Pickleball – essentially, the player just has to have the paddle moving in an "upward" trajectory. MLP doesn’t care where – compared to your body position – the ball is hit from.
- On the PPA Tour, the rule in 2024 has been that the ball also needs to be hit below the hip and dropped from below the hip.
- Last week, Zane Navratil tweeted this. Essentially, the PPA eliminated the drop-from-below-the-hip rule.
PPA tour is reverting back to USAP service rules today. I’d have to agree that the no-toss rule wasn’t great. I think @MajorLeaguePB has the best service rules at the moment @PPAtour @Pickleball
— Zane Navratil (@ZaneNavratil) August 9, 2024
If you want to go back and re-watch some very high serves from this last week, you can watch the singles gold medal match between Tyson McGuffin and Connor Garnett. Skip ahead to the second game, as Tyson didn’t get to serve in game one 🤣.
Herein lies the problem: It seems the referees know the rule is for the ball to be hit below the hip, but it is VERY subjective where exactly the hip is, and referees are hesitant to call a high serve.
In order to fix the problem, the PPA and the players are trying out ideas. I assume no one wanted this experiment to be leaked, but here we are. It would be like asking a marketing team to brainstorm ideas and the public gets to look at every idea – good or bad.
Guest Author
Initial reaction
This would make pickleball look even closer to tennis, and I don’t think that is good for the game. In addition, if we want to take subjectivity out of the game, this would be yet another line that players would have to call in or out – which we have witnessed doesn’t work well.
Players reacted quickly to the leaked footage from Goldin’s post:
Insane, if true. Guys, it’s an underhand serve https://t.co/J1VCAxggk6
— Zane Navratil (@ZaneNavratil) August 14, 2024
What if we just started the point with the return? @Pickleball
— Zane Navratil (@ZaneNavratil) August 14, 2024
Each team has a ball machine on their side, exact speed, direct and spin that the top players consider optimal. You feed the ball and it serves for you.
— Jimmy Miller (@JimmyMiller_PB) August 14, 2024
Think we should stop messing with the rules of the best game ever created and just enforce the current serve rule more strictly, and make paddles 10% less powerful. Let’s see how that goes before any radical changes like the experimenting that went on today at the site.
— James Ignatowich (@jignatowichpb) August 14, 2024
We will see if this becomes a real thing. I doubt it does. If some players believe the current serves are bad for the game, they will continue to problem solve ways to fix it.
This just seems like another bad idea in a big brainstorming session. Let’s not get too upset about it.
