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Q: I've seen several players who start the ball behind the end line and then move their hand in a slight curve so the hand moves slightly forwards and then continues slightly backwards to toss the ball. The effect is that the ball is behind the end line at the start of the serve and at the contact, but not necessarily in between. Last weekend we were discussing serve rules after one of the umpires failed to call some faulty serves at a tournament. I asserted that the ball had to always be behind the end line, but when someone produced the ITTF handbook I didn't see it in the ITTF rules.

- submitted by David Marcus.

A: The requirement that the ball must be behind the end line throughout the service is implied by the ITTF rule, which reads:

2.6.1 At the start of service the ball shall be stationary, resting freely on the flat, open palm on the server's free hand, behind the end line and above the level of the playing surface.
2.6.2 The server then shall project the ball near vertically upwards

And this is where the rule implies that the ball must be behind the end line throughout the whole service. Since the ball has to be behind the end line before the toss, and is supposed to be tossed nearly vertically, when this requirement is met there is no way the ball would get above the playing surface. Only when the toss is not from behind the end line or is not vertical (in both these cases the umpire can call fault or, when he/she is unsure about the legality of the serve a warning), can the ball travel over the playing surface during service. When this happens, the service is technically a faulty serve, because it violated at least one requirement for the good service.

It is because the vertical toss has not been religiously enforced, players have gotten the wrong idea that they can swing their hands around and toss backwards or sideways. If a player wishes to do that, to somewhat distract the opponent, he/she is allowed to do that but, before the toss (Remember that until this time the ball was not in play!), he/she must bring the ball back behind the end line and above the level of the playing surface and start the service when the ball is stationary, resting freely on the flat, open palm.

When this is tolerated at one-star local tournaments, players form this bad habit. When they later enter an event at US Open or another prestigious tournament they should not be surprised when they are penalized for this violation of the Rules..

We can see some player toss the ball extremely high. Sometimes the player has to step back after the high toss in order to be able to reach the ball. This can only happen when the toss was not "nearly vertical". Do not be misled by the fact that you may not have seen an umpire call "FAULT" in such situation. Such service is technically a faulty serve, because the requirement of the vertical toss had been violated.

- answered by Paul Kovac - your friendly on-line USATT umpire