How often have we all heard this
statement or something similar to it? I understand the sentiment,
but I’m starting to think that maybe the “Devil” would rather that we
disregard the “details”. In squash there is a detail that I think
we need to give renewed attention: Foot Faults.
This is a rule that has long been a
source of frustration for me, but it really raised its head the past
two weekends at the College Squash Association National
Championships.
First, in full disclosure you should
know that I have a very high “C” (Compliance) score on the DISC
personality profile which means, in a nutshell, I’m a rule
follower. I figure that if someone felt strongly enough about an
issue to get other people together to discuss the issue and then make a
rule about it, then it must be important. So if our squash
forefathers felt that it was important for us to keep at least one foot
“completely” on the floor inside the service box, then dag-nabit you
had better do it!
Sometimes I see converted tennis
players pull their foot off the floor as they leap high into the air so
that they can reach a maximum altitude while trying to smash a ball
that doesn’t bounce into the front wall and then directly to me.
At which point I tap it back for a drop shot winner (most of the time)
because they haven’t come back down to earth yet. But these
aren’t the foot faults that bother me.
The foot faults that bother me are
when a player strides toward the “T” on their serve, tosses the ball
out in front of their body, then drags their toe well outside of the
box as they swing their racquet. By the time they actually make
contact with the ball, they are often directly over the “T”. For
players with long enough arms, they may almost be serving me a “rail”
along the wall! These are the ones with which I have an issue.
Being the server is advantage
enough. You already get to feed the ball to yourself in almost
any way or manner that you are comfortable with. You basically
get a “free shot” at the entire back quarter of the court.
Following your shot, you are ensured of unobstructed access to the
“T”. But the receiver is also supposed to have a few factors in
his/her favor. He knows that your serve is heading into
just one-fourth of the available court space. Ok, maybe that’s
the only factor in his favor.
I’ve never met the originators of the
game, but I’m willing to bet that they put that service box as far from
the “T” as they did for a reason. I’m guessing that the reason
was to prevent the very thing that I’m seeing happen far too
often. We all recognize and respect the rule that says if you hit
the “line” (any of the lines on the court) then the ball is out.
Clearly this seems like an area where we could be a little gracious
with each other and give a guy a break or cut him some slack. How
often have you said, “Hey, that would have been a great shot, that I
couldn’t return, if you hadn’t caught the upper edge of the tin.
So you should win the point.” No way, right? So why are we
so quick to say, “Hey, your foot was about 4-6 inches out of the
service box when you hit the ball, but I don’t care.” Either the
details matter or they don’t.
The past two weekends, I watched a
lot of college squash matches. Some of players were at the
highest level of the game and many were still too new to our
sport to tell a stroke from a no-let. But one thing I saw at all
levels was foot faulting. At one point I had a chance to speak
with one of the professional referees who was working the Harvard vs
Yale match about this. When I asked him why I never see anyone
call a foot fault in these matches, his answer was interesting.
His first response was that there hadn’t been any foot fault.
Then after I pressed him and told him how many times I saw them lift
their toe he changed the answer slightly and said that he hadn’t
noticed. He was more focused on the location of the ball, and if
it was on a line or out of bounds. And therein lays the
problem. He hadn’t noticed. He wasn’t looking for
this. I think that so many players for so many years have
realized that “no one is looking” that they get away with it.
But is there anything we can do about
it? I hope so. Unfortunately, this seems to be the new way
of thinking in much of the world. “If no one is looking, then I
can get away with it.” How many times do we open the paper or
turn on the news and read about someone else getting “caught” doing
something that they never would have done if they thought someone was
watching.
Maybe keeping our feet on the floor
during the serve is just a “detail” and maybe the Devil is somehow to
blame for this. So I’ll close by paraphrasing the Bible, “Get
thee behind me Satan, and watch me return this serve for a drop-shot
winner!”
Geoff McCuen is the men's and women's squash coach at the University of Notre Dame.
What's On My Mind is a column by rotating writers. Contact DailySquashReport@gmail.com
