Breaking: New Serve Rules Announced

Breaking: UPA Introduces New Serve Rule

On Saturday, UPA announced a new provisional serving rule, which will be in effect for PPA events, for the next 60 days:

If you haven’t been following (or watching our recent pod interviews), here’s a quick background of what prompted this change. There’s been a lot of talk about the serve, largely starting in Bristol as we reported, and addressed during KOTC’s live pod with Connor at Utah Open. Watch Connor discuss “de-weaponizing” the serve:

Pardoe’s key point in the interview was that PPA recognizes that as new players come in, the serve and play style is evolving naturally. The response is to learn how these things are changing, and simplify the rules to make it easier for refs to make a call. “We want to get more feedback, we want to get more pros to give their two cents,” he said, suggesting the ideal scenario will be the refs making calls “a lot more strict.” Connor felt the new rule put in place earlier this year was too subjective (there’s not supposed to be any upward tick in the ball, which is difficult to discern).

After PPA Vegas last week, there was an exceptional amount of chatter, both from fans and pros, about questionable serves, and how few calls were made. The focus seemed primarily directed toward Dekel Bar, with he and Christian Alshon having an exchange on X:

Zane came to Dekel’s defense, going so far as to offer a $10 venmo to anyone who could send him video evidence. He knows Dekel’s serve is well-practiced and within the parameters of the rule.

Speaking of Zane, when he sat down with KOTC at the Utah Open, he (similarly to Pardoe) pointed out how the game has changed with players pushing the boundaries of acceptable serves. He observed that this is a normal part of any sport, but the current rules are unenforceable because they are too difficult to see. Overall, his POV is the to-call-or-not-to-call standard should be “more likely than not,” instead of requiring refs to be 100% certain before making a call. Check out his comments here:

Collin Johns— frustrated by everything these days, it seems— has been a driving force of change, as member of the player’s council. He’s expressed physical and verbal frustration with power serves as of late, even seeming to taunt refs into making a call by haphazardly whacking at the ball on his serve:

Hopefully the refs will be trained and prepped ahead of the provisional rule, on how to identify these new parameters. For example, what is 45 degrees measured from? How sure must the referee be to make a call? How do they identify “one ball length”? The problem really isn’t the rules as written, but rather their lack of enforcement. Let’s see if this new rule will be any easier to enforce.

September Tournament Landscape

There’s a lot to be excited about this month: September 1st was the much-anticipated “go” date for the implementation of Close Call Replay. September also brings another MLP tournament after 6 weeks off. Mark your calendar for the next set of tournaments, and get your tickets with code KOTC for both registration (PPA) and spectator tickets (MLP and PPA).

September 9-15: CIBC Atlanta Slam (progressive, and Georgia State Championships)

September 19-22: MLP NYC in Central Park

September 26-29: MLP Virginia Beach. This is the first event with MiLP amateur team events, alongside pro play. Register your team here.

September 30- Oct 6: Stratusphere Gin Virginia Beach Cup (progressive)