"Umpire" literally means an official who watches a game or match closely to enforce the rules and arbitrate on matters arising from the play. A large number of games being played all around the world, won't have the liberty to have someone always available to play the role of an empire. This become extremely tough, when we are talkiing about a game which is fast happening and have several minute rules to follow.
Here, we discuss some basic rules and guidelines that can make playing such a game a little more professional so that you can have a good experience playing the game, without having a lot of arguments and even heated fights.
Basic Rules
It is important to actually know the international standard rules than simply following the local rules. So, let's go over them.
If you are a begginner, you might not be able to follow these rules fully or even your opponent might not be able to. Cut some slack in these situations; let the person know that they are doing that wrong, especially when they are beginners and give time for them to get better and to follow those rules.
Golden Rule - "Not about accuracy"
You might already know this that now all umpire decisions are correct. They are taking the best decisions possible based on the information that they have. The accuracy of thier decisions varies based on the what they see, what info they recieve from the line umpires and the technology placed around them. Even then, accuracy is not 100%. Hence, you see "Umpire's decision is final" note everywhere.
Now, when you are playing umpireless, expect this accuracy to be much lower. Expect that the decisions won't be accurate. It's about who is at the best position to call the shot and take the decision, based on the scenario. Respect that person's decision and move on.
Golden Rule - "No re-serves"
Generally, what we have seen is, when there is a dispute, the final settlement is a re-serve; which is to just cancel the rally and do it again. This is bad for a professional and pleasant experience since the powerful person always ends up calling re-serves multiple times and that becomes the norm whenever there is a dispute. Avoid this at all times. Decide the disputed point - based on the rules below - and live with it.
Serve touching the net
General rule says that a serve when touched the net had to be served again. This can go on for several times. Locally, sometimes there is a restriction that if 3 serves touched the next, it's a point loss. This is usually enforced to make sure that the game moves on to the next stage faster and someone cannot keep on letting this happen for a long time. So, there's a bit of merit to this rule and you can follow the 3-limit rule if everyone is onboard with it. Else, stick with the global standards.
But, the bigger point is "who" gets to decide whether the serve touched the net. The easiest way is;
"If someone called a net touch, that's to be considered as net touch serve and do it again"
This makes it so much easier to move on and forces the serving person to do a better serve next time.
Serve touching the center/middle line
When playing doubles, there's always this dispute that the serve touched the middle line, especially on spin serves. To avoid disputes, it's always best to give the decision making power to the recipient of the serve. The only exception here is that, if the recipient is standing very close to the table near the middle line, then the serving person gets to make the decision.
"For a middle line dispute, the recipient decision is final. Only excerption being the recipient being close to the middle line, in which case the servinng person's decision is final".
An argument genmerally is made to this rule that, since the serving person knows what is being tried. a servinf person is at the best person to make this decision. Yes, generally. But, he/she is also intending to make the serve right. So, there is high possibility that a biased decision will be made here. Hence, the above rule.
Edge Shot or Side Shot?
During the play, if it is an edge shot you get the point. But, if the shot was on the side of the table, you lose the point. Most of the time, this a recipe for an argument. There is a easy solution to this. Look at the angle at which the ball bounces after it hits the board.
"If it bounces above the plane of the board, it's an edge shot. if it bounces farther away from the table, it's an edge shot.
If it bounces down/below, it's a side shot."
Hitting before pitching
During the play, sometimes players end up hitting the ball before it touches on the board. In any case, the decision is simple here.
"If the ball was hit before it touched the board or at the same instant, you will lose a point."
Don't try to argue for accuracy. There's always enough time to hit the ball after it has bounced. If you are doing it too close, that's an unprofessional approach and there should be a cost to it.
The same applies to hitting the ball before the first bounce within the board area.
"If there's even a small doubt that the ball was hit before the first bounce within the board area, you will lose a point."
Always avoid hitting the ball too close to the board and give enough space.
Who tracks the score?
This is the most common trouble maker in the whole game. Different people track score in thier minds and every now and then starts disputing that the scores are incorrect. This is a complete turn-off to have a good experience from a game.
A very simple rule to follow is that,
Option 1: "Whoever serves keep tracks of the score at that time and announces before each serve, loudly."
Then, when the serve goes to anbother person, thyat person does the trackinbg and announcement and the game goes on. The advatnage is that, this keep the responsibiliy equally distributed and no one person will feel tired to watch the points all the time.
Another less desired, but working option is,
Option 2: "One person in the game keep tracks of the score at that time and announces before each serve, loudly."
The above options will work only if the below golden rule is followed.
If you believe that the tracker person did a mistake, call it immediately after it was announced.
Golden rule: "Dispute to a point can be raised ONLY immediately it was announced. Disputing for past points are not allowed."
Most people cannot track what happened multiple points before and having an argumet on past points is pointless. So, if you cannot be a part of the team and track points at individual level, that means that you're probably wrong and the person show is tracking at individual level is probably right than you. So, track the points at each point level and raise disputes at that level, not afterwards. Disputes on past poiunts are completely forbidden. Just follow the person who is tracking points and respect his/her effort.
General etiquette
Here are general bonus etiquettes that you could follow.
No big sounds - During shots, don't make big sounds.This affects the opponent's reflex and they won't be able to perform at thier best. Please avoid.
Treating Next one in queue - "Rotate at every game"
Especially when you are playing locally, there may be people waiting in queue to play. If there is someone waiting, regardless of thjier skill level and age, please give them a chance immediately after a game. Everyone time is precious and everyoine deserve an opportunity. You can always come up with a mrule that whowver was playing more, can step out and give the new person an opportunity. Also, when you invite the new person, step of the playing place and invite. If you just stay in your position and invite, that means your body language is saying that you dont wan't to give up your position. That's unprofessional.
Conclusion
These are not hard rules that it's iexpected to follow as it is. They just act as some guidelines for you to come up with rules that you can follow to make your gaming experience better and proifessional. Have a good game. Enjoy!
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