Ever made this call?
 

I typically officiate at a big, east coast AAU tournament over Memorial Day weekend but some of our club players wanted to get together and form a team to play - and I was the only coach available. So I was able to still enjoy the tournament but spend about half of the time that I normally would.

I got a chance to see a lot of different officials than I normally would at local tournaments. All quality officials with different styles and personalities. All-in-all not much to complain about from a coaching standpoint.

But (and there's always a but!) there was one call made against our team that I can't recall ever seeing before. My one middle was working on her jump-float and she was starting near the back edge of the sport court. I wasn't watching her as she served, my focus was on our opponent. The served ball contacted the top of the net about a foot inside the antenna (R2 side) and dropped down on the opponent's side of the court. We all began to celebrate the ace when I noticed the R1 awarding the point to our opponent. I then watched as he gave the "out" signal.

I was a little puzzled, thinking that maybe he thought that the ball had contacted the antenna (although the line judge signaled 'ball down'). He obviously could tell that I was confused about the call because he looked at me and said, "She started off the court", as he pointed to the back of the sport court. Since I wasn't watching the server I couldn't say if she was or wasn't contacting the floor outside of the sport court when she started her serving motion (although I did ask her and she told me that she was contacting the floor, so the official was correct).

I have certainly seen players prepare to serve while contacting the floor outside the sport court but I (and every other official that I have ever seen) have always just motioned for the server to get on the sport court before beckoning for serve. I suppose I might make a call if the same player repeatedly started her serving motion off of the sport court surface but I can't recall ever doing that - or seeing it. Anyone else?

That's one of those calls that'll get you in trouble as the referee. Preventative measures should be applied (like you mentioned, motioning the server on the court).

I would never make that call, regardless of how many times I have to remind the server to step on the court. At most, I'd maybe give a delay warning after repeated reminders, but I don't see myself doing that either.

If anyone did opt to make this call, they'd use the foot fault signal as this would be classed as a service fault instead of it being "out".

Can't say that I have.I'd like to think we'd all use a little bit of preventative officiating in this case.Facilities I've worked in have been all sport court or surface separated by nets.

I thought this was an illegal service, with the illegal service signal. I could be wrong though.

I could be wrong too. I always think that hand signal refers to the contact though, so that's just my left field brain process.

It refers to a drop (no contact) as well, so who knows? :-)

To answer the original question, I would always use preventive officiating to keep them on the court. I stop the serve and say loud enough "don't stop on the concrete." They have always gotten the hint after the second time, if not the first.

Not that it's happened, but after I've warned twice, if a player were to make absolutely no effort not to step on the concrete and blatantly does it again (for example, the entire foot), I'd probably call it. It's never come to that. Yet. :-)

Interesting situation. I think the official was correct in the decision to grant the opponent the point, given what was described, but this might one of the calls he/she just had to make a signal up on because he/she had never seen it before either.

I personally would not have called it, but would have let the player know that she needed to be in proper position during the serving action.

I think this is one of those that requires preventative officiating unless the player repeatedly ignores said preventative officiating measures, at which point you need to call it as an official.