by [email protected] | Sep 2, 2014 | Rockets Ramblings
To Overrule or Not to Overrule: That is the Question
We hear this question quite often as we travel the pickleball tournament trail:
In an officiated match, when should the referee overrule a call made by the players? 
Well the answer is NOT, “anytime they see a wrong call made.”
If you are one of those great volunteers who steps up to referee during a tournament,
let us start by saying THANK YOU!
To us, one of the top things that help make a great tournament (besides lots of players) are the referees. A shortage of available refs is death to running a smooth, on-time event.
But when you are refereeing, what can make your life easier? It is knowing when or when NOT to overrule a player’s call.
First, understand that this is the player’s match and they should be in control of it. Not the referee. A referee only has a few responsibilities when on the court. Number one is to keep track of the score and make sure players are in their proper serving and receiving spots (but only when asked).
Number two is to watch the non-volley line for foot faults, and number three is to watch for service foot faults.
THAT’S BASICALLY IT.
Contrary to what a lot of players think, it is NOT the responsibility of the referee to make line calls, or even to overturn bad line calls.
Players are responsible for making their own line calls. To be even more specific, the receiving team is responsible for the line calls when the ball comes to them.
If there is doubt between the two receivers, then they SHOULD call it IN. More on that in another issue. But if the receivers call it out and the hitting team thinks otherwise, the HITTING team is permitted to ask you one question, “Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. Referee, did you get a good look at that ball?”
Now is the moment when good referees become great, respected referees.
If you clearly, and I mean 1000% ,saw that the ball was IN, then you may overrule the call. But you should only make that overrule if you clearly saw the ball hit directly on or inside the line. And most of the time you can only CLEARLY see that on the side of the court you are standing on.
If you did NOT clearly see it, then it is absolutely and most of the time expected for you to say, “I did not get a clear enough view to overturn that call”.
Two of the players will be miffed for a minute, but it is the proper and respected thing to do.
However, if you overrule a call from clear across the court, that was very close, then two players are going to be mad and they will doubt whether you or anyone else could have clearly seen it from that far away. And they have a right to doubt. So be very, very careful about overruling a call that is far away from you.
Remember, you have a lot going on during a point to make sure the kitchen stays clean, so if you don’t see a close called ball, it is more than ok.
Don’t ever be afraid to say, “I didn’t get a good enough look”.
In the end, players will always respect that and you will be a great referee.
Keep up the great work and thanks again for reffing,
-Rocket
by [email protected] | Aug 18, 2014 | Tournament and Clinic Highlights
The USAPA currently holds five official pickleball tournaments each year: The National tournament in Buckeye, Arizona, along with four regional tournaments, the Atlantic South Regional, the Mid South Regional, the Southwest Regional, and the just completed Great Lakes Regional in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
SportONE / Parkview Fieldhouse was the scene for 3 days of fun, exciting pickleball. Things kicked off Thursday night with an open practice session for all the players. After practice, players took off for some of Fort Wayne’s famous bevy of great restaurants, like Granite City Brewery, Mad Anthony’s Brewery, as well as B Antonios and the fabulous Fort Wayne Casa restaurants.
After the traditional rules and guidelines talk, Friday morning kicked off with the National Anthem and then began a day of singles matches that ran from 8:30 am until 3:30 in the afternoon. All 12 courts were busy and buzzing in a day which included one of the best men’s 5.0 brackets ever assembled east of the Mississippi. After the dust had settled, Will Wilson, age 21, of Commerce Township, Michigan came away with the coveted Gold, followed by 19 year old Kyle Yates of Fort Myers, Florida and Rob Elliott from The Villages, Florida.
Just a funny side note, a Fort Wayne Journal Gazette writer, Frank Gray, after we told him that pickleball is a great social sport that helps seniors stay active, titled his newspaper’s tournament article, “Pickleball, Perfect For Non-Athletic Seniors”. Whoa, you should have heard the buzzing throughout the building when the word of the Sunday article’s title was discovered. Some present and former collegiate tennis and racquetball players weren’t too happy. Apparently he wasn’t paying attention to the action and athletes on the courts. 🙂
See all the Singles and Doubles winners by clicking here:
Saturday morning, our biggest day by far, we knew we had a huge task ahead with a building full of men’s and women’s doubles teams waiting to start. As we readied the courts for play, Roger Workman, our tournament operations manager, looked at us and said, if everything goes the way it should, we will be done by 7:00pm tonight. So with a small amount of disbelief in our heads that we could possibly get it all done on time, we played the National Anthem and headed everyone towards their assigned courts. Many hours later, the final match wrapped up and we herded everyone to the USAPA medal podium for one last awards presentation. As we walked towards the podium, we looked at the clock and it said 7:07pm. 7 minutes late. Not bad Roger!
Sunday had another huge crowd of mixed doubles teams, but once again the many tournament volunteers came through with flying colors and another almost perfectly timed day. Roger said we’d be done at 5:00. Roger would have been dead on except for the very last match, a 3.5 (65+) mixed battle (won by Bill and Eileen Regan) that ended up 11-9, 11-7, 7-11 and 15-13.
So after 287 matches played over three days, we ended at 5:30 Sunday.
A great tournament put on by a great city with a ton of tremendously dedicated volunteers.
A quick shoutout to co-tournament directors, Ken Flora and Julie Hollingsworth, plus referee coordinator Winnie Montgomery.
A lot of people were giving undue credit to the Grubbs family for putting this tournament together, All and we mean all the credit is deserved by these great people and their teams.
Thanks for letting us be a part of it.
We love this game!
Josh, Abby, Zack and Rocket
Our video Thank You to all who helped: Click Here
For more tournament pictures, check out our Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/Pickleball
by [email protected] | May 8, 2014 | Rockets Ramblings
The pickleball fanatics are at it again. This summer for the first time ever, we are bringing sixteen high level players to tiny Brookville, Indiana for what will be a fun memorable weekend of pickleball.
This summer we have decided to have a Men’s Pickleball Rocks 5.0 Doubles Summer Shootout in Brookville on June 28th and 29th.
We were looking for 16 high level players to come to Brookville for a shootout like never before.
No need to bring a partner, as this will be an every-man-for-himself doubles shootout.
Well the shootout draw is NOW FULL.
Here is what the players can expect:
Over 2 days you will be playing a 15 match round robin, where you will play one 15 point game (win by 2) with each and every other player entered. YES, you will have a new doubles partner for each of your 15 matches.
Individual points will be tallied after each match with 20 points awarded to the match winners and the losers receiving their actual points scored during the match (maximum 13). The tournament winner will be the individual with the most total points at the end of your 15 matches. Tiebreaker will be most match wins, then Head-To-Head.
Day 1: Play will begin at 10:00am on Saturday June 28th with 8 matches scheduled. There will be a break for lunch with a bag lunch provided. After play has concluded, a cookout will be provided at the Grubbs home in Brookville.
Day 2: On Sunday June 29th, play will begin again at 10:00am with 7 matches scheduled. Sunday lunch will be provided with play concluding around 4pm.
Entry fee for this event is $25 and cash prizes will be provided as follows:
Winner Receives $150 CASH, Second Place Receives $100 CASH, Third Place Receives $75 CASH, Fourth Place Receives $25 in Pickleball Rocks Bucks (good for Pickleball Shopping), Fifth and Sixth Place Receives $10 in Pickleball Rocks Bucks for pickleball shopping.
Should be a weekend to remember. I know I’m looking forward to it.
-Rocket
HERE IS THE MATCH SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEKEND:
The Confirmed Players are:
Zack Grubbs – Fort Wayne, Indiana
Jeff Siebert – Brookville, Indiana
Paul Colletta – Flat Rock, North Carolina
Gary Ball – Monroe, Michigan
Paul Sprainitus – Canton, Michigan
Alvin Stinett – Terre Haute, Indiana
Jim Hackenburg (injured and rehabbing) we’ll miss Jim. Hurry back!
Al Hager – Eloy, Arizona
Ian Titus – Terre Haute, Indiana
Josh Grubbs – Fort Wayne, Indiana
Rob Ziegler – Hebron, Kentucky
Matt Smith – Fort Wright, Kentucky
Mike Swartz – Florence, Kentucky
JT Schwarz – Union, Kentucky
Jack Froman – Batesville, Indiana
Prem Carnot – Oceanside, California
Andy Gensch – Overland Park, Kansas
Rodney Grubbs – First Alternate
________________________________________________________________________
Final Tournament Results Below:
After 2 days and 15 matches:
First Place $150 Paul Sprainitis (279 pts).
2nd Place $100 Josh Grubbs (275 pts).
3rd Place $75 JT Schulz (241 pts).
4th Place $25 Matt Smith (232 pts).
5th Place $10 Andy Gensch (230 pts).
6th Place $10 Paul Coletta (228 pts).
7th Place Rob Ziegler (220)
8th Place Gary Ball (211)
9th Place Tie Jack Froman and Jeff Siebert (207)
11th Place Zack Grubbs (202)
12th Place Rodney Grubbs (198)
13th Place Ian Titus (189)
14th Place Mike Schwartz (181)
15th Place Alvin Stinnett (175)
16th Place Al Hager (148)
2014 Shootout Winners
by [email protected] | Feb 15, 2014 | Tournament and Clinic Highlights
Rodney Grubbs and the team at All About Pickleball recently announced an exclusive marketing agreement with Pickleball Specialties of Ft. Myers, Florida. The agreement allows Pickleball Specialties to be the exclusive vendor for the famous “Pickleball Rocks” trademarked brand of apparel at a series of 2014 tournaments throughout Florida, South Carolina and Michigan.
We are happy to say you will find the top selling “Pickleball Rocks” shirts at all the following tournaments:
THE PLAYERS TOURNAMENT @ STONECREST – March 7-9, 2014 in Stonecrest Community, Summerfield, FL
EAST NAPLES SKILL LEVEL TOURNAMENT – March 21-23, 2014 at East Naple Community Center, Naples, FL
ORLANDO CLEAR ONE INDOOR DOUBLES CLASSIC – April 5-6, 2014 at ClearOne Pickleball, Badminton & Table Tennis Facility, Orlando, FL
CHARLOTTE COUNTY SENIOR GAMES – April 11-13, 2014 at South Regional Park, Punta Gorda, FL
BRIGHTON BULLDOG CLASSIC – July 26-27, 2014, Brighton (Ann Arbor), Michigan
PALMETTO INDOOR DOUBLES INVITATIONAL – August 16-17, 2014, Aiken, South Carolina
SEASIDE CLASSIC – September 26-27, 2014, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
TAMPA BAY SENIOR GAMES – October (dates pending),2014 – Tampa, FL
RIVERBEND RESORT CLASSIC – December 5-7, 2014 – Riverbend Motor Coach Resort, Labelle, FL
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