PICKLEBALL IN THE VILLAGES with George Brewer

George Brewer is an Icon in the Florida PB area and has written many articles for the local paper at the Villages where they now have a total of 78 courts and expect to have 90 when built out. WOW!!! Here we are in South West Florida, the hosts of the State Championships and have zero public courts.  Here is a recent note, on possible changes to PB serving rules,he sent to me. Thanks George. To read some of Georges earlier articles (4 or5)check back through some of the historical Pickleball Blogs on this site 

PICKLEBALL IN THE VILLAGES with George Brewer
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about  there being some new Pickleball rules we all will be playing by in 2007. There has been a re-write of the old rules the Villages has always played by but nothing new was added, nor was anything removed. There are no new rules. None. Zip. Nothing…Yet.

The USAPA (United States of America Pickleball Association), the organization we adapt most of our rules from, is in the midst of a complete Rules review but as of November 15, 2006 the USAPA has re-written and approved only one section of their rules (Section 2 - Equipment) and nothing else is even close to being adapted.  I received a letter from Mark Friedenberg, the President of the USAPA, just before the Geezerjock/Villages Pickleball Tournament and Mark informed me they had discussed two (2) major changed is Section 4 (Serve Rules) that you might be interested in but none of these changes have been adapted.

CURRENT RULE:  (4.A.) The serve must be made with an underhand stroke so that contact with the ball is made at or below waist level.
PROPOSED (4.A.) The serve must be made with an underhand stoke so that contact with the ball is made below waist level. Underhand is defined as:  The arm must be moving in an upward arc and the paddle head shall be below the hand when striking the ball.
Note: This would eliminate side arm and cross body serves that often appear to be made above the waist.

CURRENT RULE: (4.B.) The server must keep at least one foot behind the baseline during serve. The server may serve with on foot inside the serving court baseline, as long as the other foot remains on the floor at the time the ball is struck.
PROPOSED (4.B.) The server must keep both feet behind the baseline during serve and one foot must be on the court surface behind the baseline at the time the ball is struck.
Note: The history of why Pickleball allows the server to have one foot on the court when serving is interesting. Senator Joel Pritchard (the inventor of the game) was building the first ever PB court in his back yard when they discovered there was a tree too close to his new court.  The senator didn’t want to cut down the tree so the server was allowed to step over the baseline with one foot so the tree would not obstruct the serve.

CONGRATULATIONS to Scott Wilder who masterminded the recent Geezerjock/Villages Pickleball Tournament and served as the Tournament Director.  I worked with Scott for many months leading up to the event and I was impressed with his professionalism and leadership. We are lucky to have Scott in PB.

UPDATE: With the new Becall Recreation Center now open The Villages has 78 PB courts. 32 North of R/466 and 46 South of R/466.

C U on D Courts…….George Brewer