Query on Serving Rules

StuartMarquis · May 17, 2015

When serving, does the ball have to be thrown straight upwards such that it falls straight down? just wondering if the ball can be thrown in such a way that it's flight path is more of an arc- shape so that contact with the ball can be made in a different position relative to the table to where the ball was initially thrown.

TT_Rogue · May 17, 2015

the rule is that you have to throw it straight, but honestly nobody cares about it. Steffen Mengel from Germany is doing it extremely wrong and he has no problems with it. I have to say i would call every serve of him an error

JHB · May 17, 2015

I agree with TT Rogue. So long as your throw is more vertical than horizontal you shouldn't have too many problems with most umpires. It's players who don't throw it up far enough who will get called, and rightly so.

StuartMarquis · May 17, 2015

Yes, I play local league level and I would say that 50% of the serves I see are technically illegal - mainly because the ball tends not to travel upwards 6 inches...but I tend to throw 3-4 feet upwards when I serve so hence my question about throwing more of a deliberate arc to add an extra dimension to the serve. But if that would be illegal I certainly won't do it...I'm the kind of player that would think that I'm just cheating myself as well as my opponent if I resort to rule breaking to get a point.

JHB · May 17, 2015

Actually I've never known a sport like this one - except maybe football - for players not knowing or caring about the rules. Playing doubles the other day I had to stretch a bit too far forward and my free hand touched the table; no-one said a word. Yet they'll call "wrong side" on your service if the ball is anywhere near to the centre line !

Amayzde · May 17, 2015

Well, following the serve rules you have to throw up the ball horizontal. But this rule is made up to prevent players to throw the ball straith onto their bats and impart huge amounts of spin with almost no movement at all.

Tinykin · May 17, 2015

StuartMarquis said:
Yes, I play local league level and I would say that 50% of the serves I see are technically illegal - mainly because the ball tends not to travel upwards 6 inches...but I tend to throw 3-4 feet upwards when I serve so hence my question about throwing more of a deliberate arc to add an extra dimension to the serve. But if that would be illegal I certainly won't do it...I'm the kind of player that would think that I'm just cheating myself as well as my opponent if I resort to rule breaking to get a point.

As much as 50%? That's very good for local league. In my estimate, more like 90% of serves in local league are technically not adhering to the serve rule. But very few of those players are serving deliberately illegal to gain an advantage. Put another way, I don't regard it as cheating.

TT_Rogue · May 17, 2015

If you really feel that it is disturbing to you and you dont want to play your opponent like this when he is doing wrong serves that is giving him a huge advantage and no official referee is present, you have to leave the table, cancel the whole game and call for an official umpire.. If it is the case that you dont want to do that i just can tell you get it out of your mind that his serve is wrong and just focus on receiving it else he has double advantage form it.

raazzz · May 17, 2015

JHB said:
I agree with TT Rogue. So long as your throw is more vertical than horizontal you shouldn't have too many problems with most umpires. It's players who don't throw it up far enough who will get called, and rightly so.

Thats true but some umpires will not allow it, and it's always better to practicing on having a good serve that plays by the rules.

Tinykin · May 17, 2015

raazzz said:
Thats true but some umpires will not allow it, and it's always better to practicing on having a good serve that plays by the rules.

I fully agree

BeGo · May 18, 2015

If I am not mistaken,

The rule did not said that the player must be stationary when serving, so,

One potential evil way is to walk or dash upon serve.

Waldner do this all the time.

One other variety is to toss the ball from the left hand straight up whire strifing left and hit using forehand strokes. 👿

Iczy · May 18, 2015

The rule spells "near vertical". So it's left to umpire's interpretation.

The server shall then project the ball near vertically upwards, without imparting spin, so that it rises at least 16cm after leaving the palm of the free hand and then falls without touching anything before being struck.

StuartMarquis · May 18, 2015

That does leave some room for subjectivity...and it also leaves room for creating an arc that would result in the ball finally being struck a couple of feet away from where it was initially thrown provided that the ball is thrown high enough when thrown "near vertically".

Kobe02 · May 18, 2015

I was watching a national junior tournament at the weekend where an over enthusiastic umpire was calling virtually all of the players serves as being illegal - including an international standard player who has played hundreds of matches without any issues before. The reason given for saying it was illegal was that he believed that the player was able to get more backspin than usual and why the opponent was sticking the return into the net - therefore the throw up could not have been vertical enough.

The main issue is really consistency of umpiring.

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Query on Serving Rules

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