Some questions on Service rules

Grenville Pereira Asked 12 years ago

Hi Alois

I have entered one tournament till now and had no problems with the serves with respect to the rules.
However I had a few questions which I wanted to clarify.

1) Can my hand or any part of the body rest before the line , like when I am serving from the corner of the table however I will ensure that when I contact the ball during serve , it is always behind the line. Is this correct ?

2) Also for some serves , i do not throw the ball high , like for my tomahawk serve but I feel the height of the throw is higher than the height of the net . Is this ok ?

3) Also in this serve , althought it was supposed to be a funny video but I was interested in why Chen Weixing was faulted by the umpire. I could not spot the fault in the serve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6URMm5LiKmY

Thank You
Regards
Grenville

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Grenville,

1) Your hand or any part of your body can be in front if the end line as long as the ball is behind the end line.  You do also need to ensure that you are not putting any part of your body between the ball and the net so that your opponent can see the ball throughout the serve.

2) The ball has to be at least the height of the net away from your hand.  So even though it goes up higher than the net, it still has to be that amount clear of your hand.  So if your hand follows the ball up after it has left your hand you need to make sure it is clear of the hand.

3) Why was he faulted, I can only guess that the umpire thought that he was hiding his serve with his shoulder on contact so that his opponent couldn't see the contact.  Everything else looks fine.  I don't think this is a funny situations, I think Chen Weixing is completely serious.