If you plan on playing a tournament in twenty twenty one,
you're going to want to listen to this because it could happen to you.
Attention players with Tony Roig, please report back to court 14.
Your match is being restarted. Thank you.
Stay tuned.
Don, let's hit just a couple, what do you
think are the most from a player's perspective, right, from the player's
perspective. What are the most significant changes that are going to have impact on
our tournament players who are listening in tonight?
OK, I'm going to go through these pretty quick.
I had a list of I had a list of 16 of the top 10.
So we've touched on many.
I'm just going to go through real quick now.
When there's an change at six,
that's considered a timeout so you can
coach now during the change, it's a normal timeout.
There's that one.
The pro players committee came up with
along with there's now going to be a game forfeit.
OK, let's say let's talk about technicals for a second.
Right now, the phrase is three strikes and you're out right.
Next year, it's going to be three strikes, meaning three technicals.
It's going to be a game forfeit and then four strikes would be a match forfeit.
So it's more of a progressive penalty for technicals now, which I think is good.
There's also the tournament directors can also do an ejection and an expel.
You can be expelled from the venue and not even you've got to get off the site.
So there's more levels of penalty for that technical foul.
Let's talk about that.
Technical fouls now.
Instead of a point to the opponent, it is
a point deduct from the one the team that committed the foul.
Here's why that changed.
This again was from the pro player committee.
They said, you know what? We really don't want a technical foul.
To end a match, you know. Well, it still
can in a very, very rare scenario. Let's say the surviving team is serving at 11
10, and the receiving team commits a tech foul.
They got a point.
Now it's 11-9.
The match is over, so it still can cause the match to end or the game to end.
Sorry, but it's a very rare scenario that that could happen.
So now a tech foul is a point deduct unless you have zero,
because I don't want to be calling the score five-negative one, two.
OK, so now if you have zero, it is still a point for the other team.
But technical fouls are point deduct, not a point for the other team.
There's a verbal warning now for profanity.
You know, every refs level of threshold
for profanity is different and that can be very hard on players.
When they were in a previous match with a ref and they let a lot of profanity go on
and now the next ref is very sensitive to it.
So now the ref is allowed to give a verbal
warning issued to everyone that basically says,
folks, my threshold of profanity is about to be reached.
So watch it now.
So a verbal warning is allowed now.
That doesn't mean that you have to give
the verbal before you give the technical warning.
Somebody could say MF real loud and you
could do an automatic warning or maybe even a technical foul, depending on how
bad they said it. But the verbal warning is new and it's just for profanity.
You can take time outs in between games, but you don't have to be on the court
to do it. Right now you have to be on the court, to say time out.
In between games, you can say, hey, ref, I
want to take one or both of my timeouts because I've got to go to the restroom.
So you can say that you don't have to be on the court.
The ref will do the two minute
switch and if he runs into a timeout, you'll deduct a timeout.
You'll tell the opponents if it runs into
the second time out and you take their second time out tell the opponent's.
After that second timeout runs out, if
you're not back, you say game two time in we're playing ball.
You may have a team serving or receiving to an empty court.
So there's that.
But at least you you don't have to be on the court physically to call a time out.
OK, players, you know that you can o
verrule a line call to your own disadvantage.
Let's say the judge calls it out.
You saw it as in, you can overrule that line judge to your disadvantage.
That's a new rule this year. I love it.
I think it's the height of the sportsmanship.
We've added that now, that even includes you can overturn the referee.
I like it.
I love it because refs are not gods and we still make mistakes.
OK, so let's say
let's say the ball goes.
They call it out.
They the other team appeals to me, I say, well, I clearly saw that ball in.
The other team can still say, ref, I saw
that ball. Sorry, let's see, they call it out.
The other team appeals.
I say I saw it in.
But then the team that appeals, one player
says, no, no, no, I clearly saw that ball out.
They can overrule the ref if it's to their disadvantage.
And so many refs got upset at this.
I'm not going to get on a soapbox, but
it's not saying that the ref was wrong is
just saying if you want to overrule to your disadvantage, knock yourself out.
So, yes, you can overrule a ref if it's to your disadvantage.
Now, let's see a couple more.
OK, this could come into play.
I never want to know, as ref, that I did
something, I made an error that ended a match.
OK, let's say it's match point, it's the wrong server.
I don't catch it.
The server wins point, game, match.
OK, they won that match because I didn't do my job.
I didn't catch the server error.
OK, now I won't waste time with going through the whole debate process.
Now, up until the time that scoresheet is
turned in to the operations desk, if you somehow discover.
That you clearly made a mistake, let's say the player was videotaping the match, OK,
and you clearly saw, oh, crap, I screwed up.
Up until the time you turned in the scoresheet, you can call those players
back to the court and redo that properly because the game should not end.
Even though we're human and we make mistakes, it should not end on a error.
An d I'm glad they've given us time to correct that. Don can I ask you
about that one, because that one blew my mind.
My mind was my mind.
I read that rule change and my brain, like, exploded into a million pieces.
Because I'm just like I mean, Jill and I
play I don't even know, like forty something tournaments.
Right. I would lose my mind if
we are done with the match.
We've signed the score card because
remember we both signed the darn score card.
Right.
And just like in golf, C.J., so we signed a little thing.
Right.
And we're done and I'm off doing taking my shoes off and whatever.
And all of a sudden the ref comes to me and says, you know what?
They say that Joe was serving.
And I'm like, no, I was serving.
And now we're getting into this fight like five minutes after the match.
I lost my mind when I read that rule, obviously.
And if you tell me I got to go back on the
court and play again, I mean, I'm going to be like, really?
And then even the video thing, because there's a video replay now, I'm like, no.
Wait, like matches over like, sorry, you know, there's a mistake.
There's a mistake. But that blew my mind.
I got to tell you, that's my view on it.
So I would say two answers to that.
The overriding goal was to get the call right.
That was the overriding goal.
I know me personally as ref.
I would lose sleep at night knowing that I messed up and cost somebody the match.
So they did and as far as debate, if I wasn't sure if I said we'll wait it out,
I'd almost have to see a video . I'd have to see a video.
Doesn't it bring a video replay that now you're like then it's like, I don't like
to call. Hey wait you k now, my mom was videoing Don.
Let me show you the out ball if you want to get your mind.
Just kind of slippery slope.
And I'm just like, no, man, the game's over.
Yeah, that that was all debated
judgment calls, things like that that.
Don't be doing it to me Don because I will lose my S H I T and that's
what is going on. Are you crazy? I'm like, no way.
I would say, Tony, do you want to win the game that way on my error?
No, I want to go because obviously there's a conversation about it.
I mean, I'm not agreeing.
I'm saying, no, that's not what happened.
But anyway and the other one explained this to me, Don.
So I understand it. So
I understand the whole thing that you're
saying about like like it's a dead ball thing.
But back in that, if I'm correct, back in
when I used to play like if you served before the score was called, it's a fault.
Right?
But now what I'm understanding is I can go back there like no score has been called.
I just serve and it's like, hey, hey, don't do that anymore, OK, whatever.
But there's no like there's no problem with that.
Right? L
et's be specific about that.
When when a ref calls time, let's say,
time, I'm going to let's say a serving team switches courts right?
We've got to give the receiving team time to readjust. The ball's dead.
I mean, we're in a dead ball play.
Why did the one rule that says if the
server happens to serve while we're switching places you call a fault on
them. Why did that one have its own special clause to call a fault?
It was the it was the outlier.
So they made it consistent.
No fault can happen other than NVZ.
No faults can happen or be called when we're in a dead ball.
So in this situation, let's say switch service courts, I say time and we give the
receiving team time to readjust and now we call the score.
If the server happens to serve the ball, say, hang on, hang on, get the ball back.
I'll recall the score.
It's not a fault.
I suggest to you and this is again, having
played a lot of tournaments, not all players are going to do this, but I played
with a fair share of players that are going to they're going to mess with that
rule and they're going to mess with the other three that have to do with, like,
the calls that I can make before the serve is hit.
Right.
Because it used to be like I know you're absolutely right from referees.
It's kind of a nightmare.
You have to like, when is this and when is that?
But the fact that, like, right before the server hits the ball, I can say timeout.
I can say check the ball for cracks or I can say I didn't like the last call.
Right? So the server is back there.
They they dropped the ball or whatever
they're doing and they get ready to hit it.
And I'm like, ref, check the ball.
And there's no like I don't there's no limit on how I can do that.
I mean it is like a weird like well I know
there's like a weird like if I, if I feel too much or something but yeah.
I mean
I'm telling you, I can name players that are going to do
like go nuts with that stuff and they're just going to keep hitting it.
But anyway. And that's a good point.
And if they do, if they do, the ref can
can give them a technical warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
If if I if I sense that a person's constantly doing that.
And I think, OK, you're just trying to frustrate the server now. I can call a
technical warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
All right.
I hope you're my ref, as long as you don't call
the match, and make me go back to play after the match is over.
We'll say over the P.A..
Tony, please come back to the court.
You really don't want to win that one.
I can't believehe's.
He's going to guilt you into that.
You know that I did that.
OK, so so let's go back.
Let's talk just a little bit about the time outs.
Right.
So you can call timeouts before the serve is hit, but not the service motion.
That's a change right?
Service motion has nothing to do with anything next year.
OK, so yes, you can call timeout.
They moved everything to the serve of the ball.
You can say the t of timeout.
If I as a ref hear the T of
timeout before I hear the pop of the ball, they've called a timeout.
Yep, yes, So all those other rules, C.J.,
like remember, like the you know, before the service motion
starts, before the score is called All That's Gone, right? It's that Pop.
So yeah, we'll see how it goes.
I mean, I'm curious to see how it plays out.
So
can I answer this one about the three strikes?
Yeah.
OK, so it was a quick, easy way to remember this this year.
Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Before you answer it, I have to say what what is the question you are answering?
Because you see the question, but not everybody else does it.
Oh, thank you.
That's that's that's why you're the pro right there.
So you think I would know that.
Dale says, please explain the three strikes situation again.
OK, great question.
If you basically think of technicals and
technical fouls and warnings as strikes like in baseball.
OK, a technical warning is a strike.
All right.
A technical foul. Right.
A full blown technical foul is, in essence, two strikes.
So let's say you had a technical warning for profanity
and then you got a technical foul for throwing the paddle.
Well, that's one strike and then plus two strikes with the tech foul.
That's three strikes.
The match was forfeited.
OK, so the easy way to remember that was three strikes and you're out.
OK, now, this year it's three strikes and the game is over.
And then if you happen to commit another
strike, four strikes during the match, the match is over.
So it's three strikes.
The game is over, four strikes. The match is over.
And a strike is a individual technical,
although a technical foul counts as two strikes.