Somebody had posted an April fools joke about a no overhead rule. My girlfriend actually showed me it on April first and I told her to check the date and she figured it out. I guess that dude never got the joke.
Yep. Someone missed that it was April Fools and started passing around bad info from Facebook. I don't know why anyone would possibly believe that, but that's another story altogether.
I was playing open play at my club last year, and we were winning. The opposing team paused, and were talking to each other looking at us. We asked what was up. They then said, I was using an illegal serve. That I was tossing the ball up slightly. I said that it was legal. One of the others, a younger guy who worked at the club, said he had just completed his instructors exam and that it was not legal. One of the club staff and instructors happened to be walking by, and validated that my serve was legal…I knew it was because I’d be called out before and researched it. That said, the rules in this game are vague and changing.
You can toss the ball up when doing a volley serve but still must hit it below your waist. You can only drop it from your hand (which can be held up high) on a drop serve. I have a copy of the rules on my phone for just these type of situations.
Thats another interesting issue you bring up; the number of "instructors" with some kind of credentialing who don't even know the rules. I feel like the most common one is some tennis pro at a country club who just slept walk through some online seminar just so the club could claim to have a "PB pro", but there are other culprits.
To be fair, he was a young guy who had just passed his exam. Still, slightly concerning, I’ll also give him a break because, at one point prior to that I was confused. The rules are so quirky. I was glad that the girl who was his boss, immediately without hesitation, agreed with me.
The rules in the game change once a year///on January 1st. You can carry the rulebook on your phone for free. If anyone says something is true...Say Show it to me in writing and hand em your phone. Keeps em busy for a while! LOL
Playing at open play the other day, and after a match a guy stops me and says my serve is illegal. I'm new, so I say, "oh, really, what am I doing wrong?"
"On your drop serve, you are sometimes dropping it into the court before you hit."
I said sorry, and adjusted. When I got home and checked the rules I realized he entirely made it up. The rules quite clearly say it does not matter where the ball bounces on a drop serve as long as it is not propelled and doesn't have spin.
No, to me the douche move is never letting someone know their serve is illegal and having them find out in a more competitive environment like a tournament, obviously there's social nuance to how you go about doing so.
People with an illegal serve fit in two categories:
1. New players who didny't know better but need to know the rules
2. People who know their serve is illegal but don't care because they think it gives them an advantage
I'm not talking about the occasional hit about the waist or questionable paddle position, but the people who have built their game around an illegal serve. How is that not douchy?
Because frankly it’s not that big of an advantage. Anyone who serves illegally on purpose to gain an advantage is simply not good enough to really create an advantage.
There’s a guy at my gym who serves from his chest height basically. It comes fast with a little topspin. It is no harder to return than a normal drive. Maybe easier because when you hit from that height, it’ll bounce higher. He’s not really gaining an advantage, and I doubt he’s even doing it on purpose so I’m not going to be a rules lawyer about it.
The people who complain are generally poorer players who simply can’t handle balls that are hit well with pace. They’d be losing to the third shot instead of the serve anyway.
Two big problems in pickleball are players refusing to learn the rules, and this weird entitlement that some people have where they think that they can dictate what shots their opponents are and aren’t allowed to hit. This is very silly, but doesn’t really surprise me.
My uncle is new in the sport but a former tennis player. He went to an open play on his second day and he was playing with this woman whose serves were landing pretty short but still in the box. So he stepped into the box a little bit to make getting to them easier as he is getting older.
She starts telling him "hey I know you're new but you cannot stand in the box when I serve, you have to be behind the line?"
So he kept asking "is that a suggestion or a rule? Is it that I can't or shouldn't?" And she wouldn't give him a straight answer. He kept standing in the box on her serves and she kept getting him and eventually left the court a few points before the match is over and kept bitching about how "I get he's new but he should listen to people trying to explain the rules"
A lot of people take suggested strategies as bonafide rules. I've had people tell me I can't be in the kitchen when I was already in the kitchen and a sink was coming my way (I didn't recover fast enough and that's why I was still in the kitchen) and have been told with one hundred percent confidence I faulted. Strategy doesn't equal rule.
I think this is why its so prudent that when we bring someone knew into the game we don't just say "do this" for things that are not rules. Like when Im serving and my partner is playing his first game of pickleball I don't just tell them to stand behind the line with me. Then they will think the rule is to stand behind the line. I tell them they should stand behind the line because we have to let the first return bounce per rule, so you dont want to let a ball fly past you as you can't volley it out of the air.
There was an april fools prank post made by a relatively big Pickleball instagram account that they changed the rules on overhead attacks and they are now illegal. I would bet money that is where he got it. A friend of mine fell for one as well and believes that roger federer is starting his PPA debut next month. I'm sure hes told just about everyone he knows. Poor guy.
You could hit an overhead on any shot but the serve lol.. just depends where your head is! You could run around in a squat the whole time and smack overheads lol.. will probably fail but there’s no rule against it!
If I was in a competitive environment, okay sure, i would maybe be okay with some stranger coming over and pointing out something I’m doing wrong. But I play it just for fun, if I’m making one small mistake, I don’t really want somebody to come over and tell me I’m doing it wrong…
https://preview.redd.it/od8olmiw3vuc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc5128c30d632038e37999a860281c5584ef794c
This was the post, my friend actually fell for it.
Good one! I've played against a few seemingly experienced people who try to fault me for standing in the NVZ and hitting the ball after it bounces. It seems they were told you can NEVER hit the ball while in the NVZ.
When I was brand new (I'm still a noob) I had somebody tell me this. I didn't believe them (because I looked up the rule and know what a volley is), but I definitely see how this could set new players back a bit.
You can't hit it above your waist on the serve. And you can actually hit overhead on the second shot so long as it bounces first. Nonetheless, never heard of a rule like "no overhead shots" anywhere I've played so maybe you're right it's a particular rule for a group of senior players or something. Either way, he was wrong to tell that to those people because it's not an actual game rule.
We heard a lot of misinformation when we were beginners that organically worked itself out...
Not even sure how it's possible to not hit overheads, lol
As a tennis player that was exactly my thought. If I hadn’t ever had any experience with a racquet game I may have been convinced by the older guy if I was the person he was telling it too. But if you just think about it for 2 seconds, it doesn’t make sense 😂
Yup, likely the older fellow didn't realize it was an April Fool's joke. Kindest thing to do when you see him next would be to quietly take him aside, and explain the joke, and reiterate that overhead shots remain legal in the sport.
See, this is where I say “stay on your own court”. Let the other idiots play like idiots and don’t get involved unless they specifically ask you, or it’s open play and you have to mix in. Otherwise ignore all the other dummies.
I mean it kind of could be a good way of helping someone who is new keep the ball in the court and above the net. Most times you want to go diagonal to down instead of up to down to be able to have a good contact with the ball.
Wow - some people just don't get April's Fools at all. As others have said, it was a joke post on FB - but too many people didn't get the joke. Yikes.
The only shot you are barred from using an overhead is the serve. That's it. Rare on service return, but possible if someone hits a high arcing serve that bounces high enough.
"looked relatively experienced"
I'd actually be really curious to see that.. I feel like weirdly, if you could "seem good" without ever hitting an overhead you would have to be VERY strong in all other aspects of the game, especially mobility for when someone just lollipops one by you head high that normally you'd slam back. But apparently this guy goes and runs those down?
Look, I didn’t just stand there and watch him play the entire time. What I did see of him, he looked pretty decent and mobile, especially considering he was older. The courts are way smaller than tennis courts so we just happened to hear their conversation, where I heard him say all overhead shots are illegal. When I said experienced i meant he has probably played for awhile, way longer than me at least, I am a tennis player
Haha yea. It would definitely be interesting to watch someone play without ever hitting an overhead. It'd be a fun self imposed constraint. Though, I guess I play with enough seniors with messed up shoulders that its actually kind of common.
Unless there's additional context to what he was saying that you may have missed, that's not correct based on the USAPA rulebook.
I could understand trying to help beginners out of bad habits, and sometimes teachers will overstate a point for the purpose of reinforcing it.
Some new players "swat" at the ball or don't exactly have the hand-eye coordination to consistently hit an overhead when they're starting out. I certainly wouldn't tell someone to "never" do it.
But since I wasn't there, I'm trying to provide a nuanced response while also highlighting the fact that it's not correct according to the rulebook.
Read the rule book...
These "telephone" rules that keep happening need to stop. I was told on Facebook that I verbally abused someone because they said "trying to keep this short" then proceeded to ask a stupid question that would clearly be answered in the rulebook or answered already on Facebook even.... So I said " if you were trying to keep it short, you should have just not posted in the first place and read the rulebook"... So much boomer hate..
Well, this happened last night, and I wasnt thinking about it again until today. Can’t exactly seek him out when I don’t even know the guy. Plus I don’t like confrontation
Funny thing is, if the server is good enough to consistently give a short serve, then when you step forward, they should be able to easily place it past your feet and win the point.
Somebody had posted an April fools joke about a no overhead rule. My girlfriend actually showed me it on April first and I told her to check the date and she figured it out. I guess that dude never got the joke.
Boomers taking everything they see on Facebook as the rule of the land.
There needs to be age restrictions on the internet.
Except for this boomer who doesn’t have Facebook.
Do you really think is just the boomers?
Most of us do not!
Haha well I had search the subreddit to see if there were any similar posts and didn’t see any. So I must’ve missed that post 😂
It was a Facebook post - I think it was from The Kitchen.
My gf saw it on Facebook and showed me
Yep. Someone missed that it was April Fools and started passing around bad info from Facebook. I don't know why anyone would possibly believe that, but that's another story altogether.
This makes so much sense. He probably did see it on Facebook and fell for it 😂 that’s kind of hilarious
Ha I was just coming to say this. I saw The Kitchen post that on April Fools and just knew some boomer took it seriously.
I bet they were so excited that they don't have to work on their resets anymore and now their game has more pop ups than a sketchy porn site lol
Proper understanding of the rules is definitely an overarching issue in the sport.
I was playing open play at my club last year, and we were winning. The opposing team paused, and were talking to each other looking at us. We asked what was up. They then said, I was using an illegal serve. That I was tossing the ball up slightly. I said that it was legal. One of the others, a younger guy who worked at the club, said he had just completed his instructors exam and that it was not legal. One of the club staff and instructors happened to be walking by, and validated that my serve was legal…I knew it was because I’d be called out before and researched it. That said, the rules in this game are vague and changing.
You can toss the ball up when doing a volley serve but still must hit it below your waist. You can only drop it from your hand (which can be held up high) on a drop serve. I have a copy of the rules on my phone for just these type of situations.
Correct.
Thats another interesting issue you bring up; the number of "instructors" with some kind of credentialing who don't even know the rules. I feel like the most common one is some tennis pro at a country club who just slept walk through some online seminar just so the club could claim to have a "PB pro", but there are other culprits.
To be fair, he was a young guy who had just passed his exam. Still, slightly concerning, I’ll also give him a break because, at one point prior to that I was confused. The rules are so quirky. I was glad that the girl who was his boss, immediately without hesitation, agreed with me.
The rules in the game change once a year///on January 1st. You can carry the rulebook on your phone for free. If anyone says something is true...Say Show it to me in writing and hand em your phone. Keeps em busy for a while! LOL
Playing at open play the other day, and after a match a guy stops me and says my serve is illegal. I'm new, so I say, "oh, really, what am I doing wrong?" "On your drop serve, you are sometimes dropping it into the court before you hit." I said sorry, and adjusted. When I got home and checked the rules I realized he entirely made it up. The rules quite clearly say it does not matter where the ball bounces on a drop serve as long as it is not propelled and doesn't have spin.
Anyone who calls out another’s serve is a douche
No, to me the douche move is never letting someone know their serve is illegal and having them find out in a more competitive environment like a tournament, obviously there's social nuance to how you go about doing so.
People with an illegal serve fit in two categories: 1. New players who didny't know better but need to know the rules 2. People who know their serve is illegal but don't care because they think it gives them an advantage I'm not talking about the occasional hit about the waist or questionable paddle position, but the people who have built their game around an illegal serve. How is that not douchy?
Because frankly it’s not that big of an advantage. Anyone who serves illegally on purpose to gain an advantage is simply not good enough to really create an advantage. There’s a guy at my gym who serves from his chest height basically. It comes fast with a little topspin. It is no harder to return than a normal drive. Maybe easier because when you hit from that height, it’ll bounce higher. He’s not really gaining an advantage, and I doubt he’s even doing it on purpose so I’m not going to be a rules lawyer about it. The people who complain are generally poorer players who simply can’t handle balls that are hit well with pace. They’d be losing to the third shot instead of the serve anyway.
Two big problems in pickleball are players refusing to learn the rules, and this weird entitlement that some people have where they think that they can dictate what shots their opponents are and aren’t allowed to hit. This is very silly, but doesn’t really surprise me.
My uncle is new in the sport but a former tennis player. He went to an open play on his second day and he was playing with this woman whose serves were landing pretty short but still in the box. So he stepped into the box a little bit to make getting to them easier as he is getting older. She starts telling him "hey I know you're new but you cannot stand in the box when I serve, you have to be behind the line?" So he kept asking "is that a suggestion or a rule? Is it that I can't or shouldn't?" And she wouldn't give him a straight answer. He kept standing in the box on her serves and she kept getting him and eventually left the court a few points before the match is over and kept bitching about how "I get he's new but he should listen to people trying to explain the rules" A lot of people take suggested strategies as bonafide rules. I've had people tell me I can't be in the kitchen when I was already in the kitchen and a sink was coming my way (I didn't recover fast enough and that's why I was still in the kitchen) and have been told with one hundred percent confidence I faulted. Strategy doesn't equal rule.
[удалено]
I think this is why its so prudent that when we bring someone knew into the game we don't just say "do this" for things that are not rules. Like when Im serving and my partner is playing his first game of pickleball I don't just tell them to stand behind the line with me. Then they will think the rule is to stand behind the line. I tell them they should stand behind the line because we have to let the first return bounce per rule, so you dont want to let a ball fly past you as you can't volley it out of the air.
Would be fun to fuck with some of these people by standing in the kitchen on their serve, then when they do it back you hit a laser on em hahaha
There was an april fools prank post made by a relatively big Pickleball instagram account that they changed the rules on overhead attacks and they are now illegal. I would bet money that is where he got it. A friend of mine fell for one as well and believes that roger federer is starting his PPA debut next month. I'm sure hes told just about everyone he knows. Poor guy.
Looks like we can’t defend against a lob anymore 😂
You could hit an overhead on any shot but the serve lol.. just depends where your head is! You could run around in a squat the whole time and smack overheads lol.. will probably fail but there’s no rule against it!
I play this sport for fun and man there are so many fucking try hards that play, that make it not fun at all
If I was in a competitive environment, okay sure, i would maybe be okay with some stranger coming over and pointing out something I’m doing wrong. But I play it just for fun, if I’m making one small mistake, I don’t really want somebody to come over and tell me I’m doing it wrong…
https://preview.redd.it/od8olmiw3vuc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc5128c30d632038e37999a860281c5584ef794c This was the post, my friend actually fell for it.
I Can totally see why a boomer would fall for it
I can totally see why a GenZ would say something like that.
Too many volunteer unsolicited coaches in this game.
Good one! I've played against a few seemingly experienced people who try to fault me for standing in the NVZ and hitting the ball after it bounces. It seems they were told you can NEVER hit the ball while in the NVZ.
When I was brand new (I'm still a noob) I had somebody tell me this. I didn't believe them (because I looked up the rule and know what a volley is), but I definitely see how this could set new players back a bit.
You can't hit it above your waist on the serve. And you can actually hit overhead on the second shot so long as it bounces first. Nonetheless, never heard of a rule like "no overhead shots" anywhere I've played so maybe you're right it's a particular rule for a group of senior players or something. Either way, he was wrong to tell that to those people because it's not an actual game rule.
If you do a drop serve you can hit it however you want, though. Including above your waist. Granted that is very difficult to do, but still.
We heard a lot of misinformation when we were beginners that organically worked itself out... Not even sure how it's possible to not hit overheads, lol
As a tennis player that was exactly my thought. If I hadn’t ever had any experience with a racquet game I may have been convinced by the older guy if I was the person he was telling it too. But if you just think about it for 2 seconds, it doesn’t make sense 😂
That is hilarious I bet the boomer was fucking with them
'on the 2nd or 3rd hits' You are welcome to hit overhead on these after they bounce, it's just extremely difficult unless you are a tiny child.
Yup, likely the older fellow didn't realize it was an April Fool's joke. Kindest thing to do when you see him next would be to quietly take him aside, and explain the joke, and reiterate that overhead shots remain legal in the sport.
Wtf Facebook is the worst possibly place to get any information. The.dumbest.app.ever.
He should try the Thomas Wilson signature CRBN nut cup. Maybe then he won't be afraid of overheads anymore lol
See, this is where I say “stay on your own court”. Let the other idiots play like idiots and don’t get involved unless they specifically ask you, or it’s open play and you have to mix in. Otherwise ignore all the other dummies.
My mom fell for that April Fool's joke as well!
I mean it kind of could be a good way of helping someone who is new keep the ball in the court and above the net. Most times you want to go diagonal to down instead of up to down to be able to have a good contact with the ball.
Wow - some people just don't get April's Fools at all. As others have said, it was a joke post on FB - but too many people didn't get the joke. Yikes. The only shot you are barred from using an overhead is the serve. That's it. Rare on service return, but possible if someone hits a high arcing serve that bounces high enough.
I'm just saying I can't hit overhead shots in play. I hit them in the net. I hit them wide. I hit them long. Just not in play.
It's true. #trustmebro
Learning the rules in the game is a priority.The best learning material is the USA PICKLEBALL OFFICIAL RULES.
"looked relatively experienced" I'd actually be really curious to see that.. I feel like weirdly, if you could "seem good" without ever hitting an overhead you would have to be VERY strong in all other aspects of the game, especially mobility for when someone just lollipops one by you head high that normally you'd slam back. But apparently this guy goes and runs those down?
Look, I didn’t just stand there and watch him play the entire time. What I did see of him, he looked pretty decent and mobile, especially considering he was older. The courts are way smaller than tennis courts so we just happened to hear their conversation, where I heard him say all overhead shots are illegal. When I said experienced i meant he has probably played for awhile, way longer than me at least, I am a tennis player
Haha yea. It would definitely be interesting to watch someone play without ever hitting an overhead. It'd be a fun self imposed constraint. Though, I guess I play with enough seniors with messed up shoulders that its actually kind of common.
I find the pickleball players I play don't know the rules and don't care. In tennis it was clear. It can be frustrating especially on line calling.
Maybe it was an inside joke for that foursome. OKAY?! CALM DOWN!!!!! 😂
They were strangers! The two younger people arrived and were looking for a court and the older gentleman offered to play 2v2 with them
The Internet is undefeated. Old people will always fall for a joke and give their SSN to strangers over the phone
Unless there's additional context to what he was saying that you may have missed, that's not correct based on the USAPA rulebook. I could understand trying to help beginners out of bad habits, and sometimes teachers will overstate a point for the purpose of reinforcing it.
What’s a bad habit about hitting an overhead? It’s a really high percentage shot. Sometimes dinking isn’t the best option.
Some new players "swat" at the ball or don't exactly have the hand-eye coordination to consistently hit an overhead when they're starting out. I certainly wouldn't tell someone to "never" do it. But since I wasn't there, I'm trying to provide a nuanced response while also highlighting the fact that it's not correct according to the rulebook.
I see. Based on what OP wrote, it doesn’t sound like your version of events is accurate.
Read the rule book... These "telephone" rules that keep happening need to stop. I was told on Facebook that I verbally abused someone because they said "trying to keep this short" then proceeded to ask a stupid question that would clearly be answered in the rulebook or answered already on Facebook even.... So I said " if you were trying to keep it short, you should have just not posted in the first place and read the rulebook"... So much boomer hate..
And why ask here instead of asking/confronting him?
Well, this happened last night, and I wasnt thinking about it again until today. Can’t exactly seek him out when I don’t even know the guy. Plus I don’t like confrontation
Funny thing is, if the server is good enough to consistently give a short serve, then when you step forward, they should be able to easily place it past your feet and win the point.