Pickleball Magazine 1-4 | Page 39

brackets posted at the tournament site , the referee will know what format you are playing in , but the referee ’ s number-one responsibility is to watch that non-volley zone line and call foot faults when they occur . Calling the non-volley zone is essential to ensuring that one team doesn ’ t gain an unfair advantage over another team by being illegally closer to the net to put balls away . The referee also calls the score each point , keeps up with who the first and second servers are , and can be solicited to validate a call if asked by a player . Otherwise all other lines , except the non-volley zone line , is the responsibility of the players to call .
Line Judges . In my first tournament , I thought we had line judges , so why would I have to call the lines ? Well , line judges are typically used in your gold medal matches only ; however , some tournaments will include line judges in bronze medal matches as well . The line judge ’ s responsibility is to call the ball in or out for the line he / she is judging .
Please remember that referees and line judges are volunteers doing the best job they can , so always be courteous to them and thank them when your match is completed .
If after reading about the referees you are thinking you might prefer to be a tournament referee rather than a tournament player , then check out the USAPA ’ s Rules and Referees at www . usapa . org .
Refereeing sounds awesome , but I still want to play … can I do both ? Yes , you can .
OK , so how do I know what skill level to enter if I ’ m playing in a skill level tournament ? There are multiple ways and it ’ s not a one-size-fits-all . The best you can do is determine your skill level based on how well you fare against other players who have been given a rating by a club , the USAPA , or perhaps a tournament . If you don ’ t have access to those options to help assess your skill level , you can always visit the following website that will give you some guidelines as to how best to determine your skill : www . usapa . org / ratings-usapa /. Once you have a few tournaments under your belt you ’ ll get a better idea of what your “ true ” skill level is .
What do tournament directors do to help newbies learn the ropes ? This varies from nothing , to providing clinics before the tournament , to offering newbie brackets , to having folks around the tournament site who can answer questions . The best advice we can give you here is to reach out to the tournament director and ask what you need to know for participating in that tournament . This is good advice for the veteran player as well !
We hope you ’ ve found this article informative , helpful and , most of all , motivating to sign up for that first pickleball tournament . Grab your lucky paddle and go have some competitive fun .
If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact pickleballtournaments . com anytime via email at info @ pickleballtournaments . com or via phone at 602.284.2678 . •
JULY / AUGUST 2016 | MAGAZINE 37