By Mark Renneson
Note: This essay originally appeared in week 31 of The Pickleball Lab — an online pickleball magazine offered for PB fans everywhere. While the material we publish in The Lab is typically exclusive for subscribers, we occasionally give everyone a taste of the kind of high-quality material we produce. Learn more about The Pickleball Lab here.
Let me start by saying how great pickleball’s volunteers are. The growth of the sport owes much to the men and women who give up their time to do things that frequently go unnoticed. And this includes people who give their time to be line judges. This article isn’t about line judges as people, but as people who occupy a specific position.
Quite often major (even not-so-major) tournaments consider medal matches important enough to have line judges on the court. These kind souls are responsible for calling out balls at the sides and back of the court so that, presumably, the match is played fairly. Like any official, the line judge is to be an honest broker, impartial about who wins or loses and by what margin. The trouble, however, is that when it comes to officiating pro level matches, having line judges actually causes more problems than it solves.
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Insufficient Training. I can’t count the different ways I have seen line judges indicate that they thought a ball was out. I’ve seen them point fingers skyward. I’ve seen them point sideways. I’ve seen them point down into the ground. I have seen arms raised in the air like a touchdown was scored and I have seen them waved across the body as though a players just successfully slid safely into second base. I have heard line judges yell “out”, and watched them say nothing. Why so many different ways to call the same thing? Because line judges do not typically have adequate training that ensures a consistent protocol and a chance to practice it. In many cases, line judges are literally making things up as they go along. That’s not good enough.
Fans First. Let’s be honest, if people are going to be line judges it is because they love pickleball. And there is a good chance that they are not only fans of the game, but very often fans of the people playing. I’m not saying it is impossible to make a fair call against your favourite pro, but it sure makes it a lot harder to overrule the person whose autograph you just got and whose signature paddle you covet. I have seen many instances (including as a player) that the line judge catches themselves literally cheering after a point is won or lost.
Actual footage of a line judge considering overruling her favourite pro player.
Unfamiliar Territory. The skill level of pickleball players operates on a bell curve and most people, by definition, are average. Of course, like most people many line judges occupy that middle ground as players. People who play at the 3.0 and 3.5 levels are accustomed to seeing the kinds of shots that other intermediate players send. They are used to the levels of speed, spin and shot-making that exists at that threshold. The trouble is, when people who are used to one kind of environment are all of the suddenly put into a very different one, it can be a real challenge.
As we know, the best-of-the-best hit far harder, with far more spin and with far more precision. They have to if they want to be competitive. They hit with angles and speed that many of us can — and do — only dream about. I would argue that the lack of experience dealing with these kinds of shots on a personal level doesn’t make it impossible for line judges to get the calls right, but it sure makes it a lot harder. And without the right training (see point 1), the challenge is even greater.
We Got This. I spend a lot of time around pro level pickleball. Whether it is playing, observing, shooting video or commentating for a broadcast, it’s a world I’m pretty involved in. And I can count on less than two hands the number of times I’ve seen blatantly bad calls made by pros against one another. On the other hand, I have seen far more missed or incorrect calls made by line judges who I believe were doing their best but still got it wrong.
Going Forward. As much as pickleball is growing, it is still a tight community, especially at the top of the sport. The pros see each other all the time. They are friends. They travel together. They train together. They often end up being opponents in one tournament and partners in the next. The closeness of the community means that if you get a reputation for being a cheat, you’ll pay a heavy price. This closeness creates an excellent opportunity for the players to police themselves. And for the most part, they do.
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I’m not saying there are never bad calls with the pros - there no doubt are. But what I am saying is that there aren’t so many that we need to designate well-meaning but often poorly prepared people to do it for them. In addition to the points above, I would also argue that many line judges don’t like being put in the position to have to arbitrate pro matches. It is stressful. Tiring. Hard. There is money at stake and it seems to me a disservice to put people in a position where failure is not only significant, but significantly likely. Instead, if we want to have line judges, let’s limit it to the lower brackets where there is less on the line (so to speak). Let’s let the line judges off the hook and let them, like the rest of us, sit back, relax, and watch some great pickleball. 0-0-2.
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