New Rule? Old Rule?

[rainmaker]

I'm pretty sure it's not a new rule, I just put that in the title, cuz it sounds interesting.

At a tournament last weekend
Team B loses the serve as the ball gets shanked toward the back wall.
Team B player rounds up ball and tosses it to Team A -- over the net.

Team A players kept insisting they should get a penalty point for that. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?

[Andy]

I always ask players to roll the ball back under the net to help prevent someone that may not be looking getting bonked in the head by a ball thrown back to a team.

Some officials that I have seen are more stringent on that than I am, I will gently remind players if they are throwing the ball back over, some of my collegues will issue a yellow card, then red card if the behavior continues. As you know, a red card carries a penalty of a loss of rally/point.

My guess is that team A was either a victim of one of these red card "penalty points", or it happened in a game they were involved in or watching.

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Andy
I always ask players to roll the ball back under the net to help prevent someone that may not be looking getting bonked in the head by a ball thrown back to a team.

Some officials that I have seen are more stringent on that than I am, I will gently remind players if they are throwing the ball back over, some of my collegues will issue a yellow card, then red card if the behavior continues. As you know, a red card carries a penalty of a loss of rally/point.

My guess is that team A was either a victim of one of these red card "penalty points", or it happened in a game they were involved in or watching.

I see, Andy. Thanks for the hypothesis -- it makes sense! I have seen very little of passing the ball back abovve the net, so that in itself isn't a concern. Just wondered about the rule.

[lightenup]

I follow the same rule as Andy. I tell that to both teams before the match which usually does it but I will remind them once if it happens during the match. To this date, I have never had to issue a yellow or red card for this. Hopefully this streak keeps going.