Theyre Receiving My Serve With Their Hands ......grrrrrrr

Question
When I was serving the ball, I noticed people setting the ball on the serve when received, or trying to. I always thought that if you pass an overhead bump on the serve, that you had to have your hands together rather than apart. It drives me crazy when I have a great serve and someone just slaps the ball with hands apart and no one says a thing.

Answer
Good morning and welcome to www.allexperts.com!

If this was 1999, I'd be saying, "You're right!  What your describing is illegal.  What are the refs in your league doing?"

But it's 2009.  And the only call that can be made on the "slap" is a lift.  As a coach, I encourage my players to do it unless we have a strict referee; however, so far this season, we've played in 4 tournaments, and we have yet to have one single lift call on serve receive.  So we lap it more!  haha  

The rational of this rule change:  To make ball control a little easier, to make great athletes like the game a little more, to lesson kills and aces, and to make rallies last longer, etc. In other words, the people in charge believe that the "no double on 1st contact" rule makes the game more exciting to watch and to play.  Many people agree.  Some don't.

So, finally, the ref in your league can call a lift on the serve receiver, or call nothing.  Those are the ref's only options in the year 2009.

I hope you have a great day.
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