Hey, everybody, it's CJ.
I was on my way to shoot the rules video and this happened now.
Luckily, Tony's in Florida, so he's
got us covered. A nd I get to go deal with this.
Have fun. You're in the middle of a pickleball game
and your opponent calls out the wrong score.
What should you do?
Stop play and correct them or finish the rally.
In this video, we'll give you the answer.
Let's get into it. Hello.
My name is Tony Roig from In2Pickle and together with my partner, CJ Johnson from
Better Pickleball we formed weArePickleball.
WeArePickleball is designed with you in mind.
It's the only reason for being is to help
you become the best pickleball player you can be.
All right, another pickleball rules question video.
And so we have our glasses. We got our computer.
The pickleball rule is spooled up and we're going to get into it.
Question here is, should you stop your
opponent when your opponent calls the score incorrectly?
So to frame it out a little further, you're playing, your opponent calls out.
The score is like five, four, one.
But the score is actually four, four, one. Right?
So the score is called out incorrectly at
the time that your opponent is getting ready to serve and the player serves.
And a lot of times you'll see players basically catch a ball, stop the action
and correct the score before not continuing the game.
Should you do that or not do that?
Our suggestion is not to do that.
And I'm going to tell you why. Let's go to the rule.
So the rule is 4K.
4K is titled The Wrong Score calls.
It's a good name of the title.
If the server or referee calls the wrong
score, any player may stop play before the third shot occurs to ask for a correction.
Now here's the consequences.
4k1 says if the score called was incorrect, then the player referee will
recall the correct score and the ball will be served with no penalty.
So if the score was called out as four,
four, one, but it's actually five, four, one, let's say and you stop playing.
All they're going to do is basically call the score correctly and serve again.
And there's no penalty. There's no upside for the correction.
4k2, however, says after the serve has occurred, a player who stops play and
challenges the call score when there is no error has committed a fault.
So now you catch a ball, you stop play,
you tell the server the score is actually five, four, one, you call four, four, one,
and there's a conversation and you're like, oh, yeah, you're right.
It is four, four, one. You know what?
They just won a point.
So that's not good for you. 4k3.
A player who stops play after the third
shot occurs will have committed a fault and shall lose the rally.
So there it doesn't matter whether you're right or wrong.
So if you stop it after the third shot and
you're right, you still lose the rally and they score a point.
If you stop the rally to correct the
score, there's no upside for you, but there's a potential for downside.
If you did it too late after the third
shot, it doesn't matter if you're right or wrong.
If you do it and you're wrong, you lose the point.
If you do it and you're right, what you gain nothing.
All you got them to do is recall the score correctly.
Instead of doing that, what you want to do
is you want to wait until the end of the rally and then you can correct the score.
Because just because they call the score
as four four when it should have been five, four doesn't lock the score in.
The score can always be corrected later.
So forget about correcting the score.
If the score is called out incorrectly, let the rally play out.
Fix the score at the end of the rally by talking to your opponents and going
through the motion of figuring out what the right score is.
But do not under any circumstances.
Whether you're playing in the tournament
playing a wreck play, you're not under any circumstances.
Stop play during the rally.
No upside.
All downside.
If you'd like to learn more about the rules, including the serve rules for the
coming year, make sure that you click on the playlist right over here.
And if you want to get out of this into
some warm weather and improve your pickleball game, join us at a WeAreP
ickleball camp because together we can train smart, live, bold and age well.