In an email to players ahead of its upcoming Atlanta Slam (Sep 9-15), The PPA Tour revealed its latest installment of provisional rules. The focus? Once again, the serve.
Service has been a hot topic of late, especially following the recent PPA Tour Las Vegas Cup men's doubles gold medal match (Dekel Bar & Zane Navratil vs Andrei Daescu & Gabe Tardio) that was plagued with service do-overs and faults that left many fans confused.
In combination with a recent video of the PPA experimenting with the implementation of service lines, and suggestions that the serve needs to be "de-weaponized", it seems we still have a long way to go before we have longterm clarity on what is and is not a legal serve.
PPA Player Email - Sep 7, 2024
Provisional Service Rule. This provisional rule will be under evaluation for 60 days. After which, a determination to alter, abolish, or implement will be made.
- The ball must be released downward from the waist area. A drop from the hand may not be tossed upwards but can incur minimal and natural lift (up to one ball length).
- The swing on the serve must be underhand (around 45 degrees or less) and the paddle must clearly travel in a low to high direction.
- Serves where either the ball is tossed too high on the release or the swing was not clearly in a low to high motion will first result in a service warning and re-serve. Each player is allowed one service warning per match. Subsequent violations will result in a fault.
After receiving the email, Zane Navratil, co-host of PicklePod, quickly took to X to offer his thoughts.
I can’t wait to watch @PPAtour referees attempt to enforce “up to one ball length” of “natural lift” and “around 45 degrees or less” on the serve. @Pickleball pic.twitter.com/SuNIi3wqim
— Zane Navratil (@ZaneNavratil) September 7, 2024
Reactions
After The Dink posted the the provisional rule on Instagram, many offered their opinions in the form of comments. Most responses resembled this one from dinkdifferentpickleball:
Many other IGers called for an installment of a drop serve to solve the serving "problem" instead:
Mostly, though, users wondered if there was a problem at all.
How we got here
The service rules on the PPA Tour are now going through their third iteration this year alone.
Service rule change No. 1
Just before the 2024 PPA Masters in January, the first event of the year, the PPA implemented a provisional service rule.
From Don Stanley, Director of Officiating, Carvana PPA Tour
"At the prompting of the pro player council, PPA will be beta-testing a new service rule for the pro and senior open brackets. The Palm Springs tournament, (Jan 9-14, 2024) will be used as a test basis for the new service rule. After the tournament has concluded, the results will be reviewed for implementation, revisions or possible deletion. The driving force behind this rule change is to make the serve less of a weapon.
New Rule: “On the serve, (1) the ball must be released with the non-paddle hand, (2) no spin can be imparted on the ball at the time of release, and (3) the release of the ball must be downward and below the top of the hip."
Application: All current serve rules still apply. There will be no re-serves for a questionable release. The release will either be completely legal or the referee will call a fault. Thank you for your help as we test this new service rule."
Service rule change No. 2
Without much warning, the PPA Tour returned to the USA Pickleball rules - allowing players to lift or toss the ball again - for PPA Kansas City. This was the second change to service rules in 2024.
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
Check out our overview of all the changes:
Jason Flamm
Third Service Rule of 2024
This brings us to the latest "Provision Service Rule", which Navratil has dubbed the 'Dekel Bar' rule:
Fixed it pic.twitter.com/1CXTl5h4IN
— Zane Navratil (@ZaneNavratil) September 7, 2024
It's probably not a stretch to infer that the Vegas men's final contributed to this new rule implementation from the PPA.
Is it enforceable?
As many have pointed out online, the new rule is quite vague. Rules are usually meant to be enforceable. How will referees determine what is and isn't “around 45 degrees”?
Is 50 degrees “around” 45 degrees? Is 55 degrees “around” 45 degrees?
Brooks Wiley (Co-Founder and former Commissioner of Major League Pickleball) commented on Zane’s Post:
“too high “ and “around 45 degrees or less” are both vague and lazy rule writing.
— br00ks.sei (6,6) (@Brooksasaurus) September 7, 2024
Fans weigh in:
Lololol they used the word around in an official rule. Just make your best guess 🤷♂️ what could go wrong.
— BTPpickleball (@BTPpickleball) September 7, 2024
Ridiculous
— Arnold Diamond (@DFire54) September 7, 2024
Imagine being a pro player and being afraid of your opponents serve
— Apollo Vermouth (@McbillsonBill) September 7, 2024
People don't like change. People definitely don't like constant change, especially when it comes to something as pivotal as serves. It's understandable that most feedback from fans could be categorized as either confusion or negative.
But as Navratil, Thomas Shields and various guests have asserted on PicklePod, isn't experimenting a good thing? At a certain point, too much experimentation can stunt progress. But overall, AB testing is important for establishing rules that lend to the most competitive, suitable-for-TV, product.
We're looking forward to hearing Navratil, who has emerged as one of the most influential thought leaders in pickleball, expand on his X post during this week's episode of PicklePod.
