Your League Tennis Podcast
Tennis talk, for people that love to PLAY tennis.
Your League Tennis Podcast
Unsportsmanlike Conduct and Cussing during Tennis Matches
Get set for a deep dive into the labyrinth of tennis rules and regulations. Now, have you ever wondered about the consequences of colorful language on the court? Can you cuss? Can you call someone a jerk? We're going to take you on a journey through the ins and outs of cussing on the court – it's penalties and the intriguing interpretation of these rules. Brace yourself as we decode the Friend at Court book and how the rules differ for ITF tournaments, league matches, and even friendly matches.
We'll be wrestling with complex notions like unsportsmanlike conduct, misconduct, and the point penalty system as outlined by the USTA regulations. Prepare to have your mind challenged as we grapple with the difference between intentional and unintentional acts and how body movements and gestures on the court come into play. We will also shed light on the referee's role when it comes to defaulting players and the implications of misconduct by someone associated with the player.
And just when you thought this couldn't get more engrossing, we reexamine the USTA regulation regarding unsportsmanlike conduct. So, whether you're a tennis player, an avid fan, or just curious about the sport, this episode promises a fascinating journey through the rulebook. Tune in for an episode that's sure to serve up some food for thought!
That was loud, hey, everyone, i miss with the sound here a little, so it doesn't blow my eardrums. So if you're ever thinking about starting a podcast, there's this website called Audio Jungle and that's where I got this song from. You know, there's a lot of things like this, just beats, instrumentals. A lot of sounds too. Actually, if I look up tenor sounds, there's ball balls hitting the floor, people serving, people grunting. It's really cool. You can do a lot with it. So go on Audio Jungle and you can. Just they let you buy. I think this song cost me like three bucks or something and you can reuse it for as many times as you want. Really cool, but anyway, so let's get into it here.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to talk about another set of rules that I actually put out, a little Instagram poll. Maybe like 12 people responded, i think. But hey, that's fine. And I asked does anyone want me to research the foot fault rules or look into whether or not you can cuss on the court? And obviously we know the answer to the cuss on the court thing, right, and we also sort of know the answer to the foot fault thing. You can't do it, but I thought it would be interesting if everyone does pick the cussing thing to sort of look into it a little more. Like what is cussing? I hope the rules get into that. What's the penalties for it? right, because that's important. So when you're looking at rules, if you're not focusing also on what are the penalties, then you're not truly understanding the rule, because maybe you know, especially in the law, maybe there's a different rule that you want your client to violate, right, i mean not to violate, but to be found guilty of. Like, oh, if they get found guilty of this one, it comes with X plus two, but if they get found guilty of this other little one, it's only X punishment. So the punishments are important to look at. So, long story short, the Instagram followers that followed me and voted ended up choosing cussing, and so I looked into it and that's what I'm going to be doing here a little, and I will say that the answer is pretty simple. Obviously, like I said before, you can't cuss on the court, But we don't really know what that means, right? Does it mean you can't flip someone off? Does it mean you can't mumble under your breath A cuss word? can you mumble in different languages? Right, there's a lot of open questions that I didn't know before researching this And, to be a little honest, i feel the more I get into these rules I'm a little unsatisfied with them, the complexity of them or the way they're written.
Speaker 1:You know, i'm not trying to be all you know, i don't know Rude about it, i guess, because I don't. I didn't make this podcast to be like that, you know, which is why I intentionally try to talk about nice things, family things, good things, but I can't help but just feel like these rules sometimes get a little confusing and if, even if they're not confusing, i can't help but feel that they're not fully giving me the answer that I'm looking for. You'll see when I get into it, you know today regarding the cussing rule, so I won't go into a crazy tangent like last time. If you listen to my last YouTube and this one, i'm going to try to put this one on Spotify. So I don't, i'm not going to reference videos like I did last time, which made me not able to put it on Spotify, but this one I'm going to edit after with some pictures, maybe throw the rules up on the screen for you. If you're watching on YouTube and if you're listening in Spotify, it's going to be fine. You're not missing anything really. but, like I said last time, i went on a crazy tangent about the ITF rules and who made up the ITF and the Titanic. It was pretty nuts actually. When I listened to it later I'm like what am I talking about? but I just was interested in the little extra thing, so that's why I kept going off.
Speaker 1:The only little tangent I'm going to go off on here is the more we get into these rules, the more you need to understand the book. It's called the Friend at Court and, like I said, you can look it up on the USTA website. It's called the Friend at Court and I guess it's your friend at court like on the tennis court, i guess. So even the name is a little confusing to me. It seems like every year they're sort of updating it, so it's important to get the latest updated version the 2023 Friend at Court Within that book.
Speaker 1:The Friend at Court. I tried to explain this last time, but I'm understanding it even more. The more I look into more rules because I didn't really get it Last time is the first time I ever opened that book, about a week ago The more I open the book and understand it I'm now understanding it better where the book has the ITF rules, the rules that are sort of there for the ITF tournaments, the pro players. The book has USTA rules for us, the league matches and probably the rules that would apply. The USTA rules would apply to our friendly matches too, like you know, matches that you set up with a friend. I guess you can make up any rules you want because it's technically not USTA regulated. That would be interesting, right, sort of make up your own street rules before you go into a tennis match. I like that actually. I never thought about that.
Speaker 1:But the other confusing part with this Friend at Court book is there's something called the code and it's right in the middle of the book, i think, if I remember how it is, because I only look it up digitally. But there's this thing called the code and it's like that thing really throws me off Because it is providing providing more information beyond what the rules are. But that's actually a little scary too if you think about it. I don't like that If I can't look at the penal code to see what I violated when I'm driving and doing something wrong and I have to look at a different book. That's a little scary. It's scary for the people who might violate those rules because it's not clear. That's scary when rules aren't clear. It's also scary for the lawyers who are defending those people, because I think there's different ways to interpret things when there's multiple sources to look at. Okay, so I think it gets a little confusing. But again, this is my tangent part. So I apologize and I am gonna get into the cussing part, which won't take long.
Speaker 1:But there's a little preface or preface. I'm not really sure how you say it, i always call it a preface. But the preface is it says the code. Remember, i'm telling you about the code. There's three parts to the friend at court ITF rules, usta regulations and rules and the code. And it says in the code the code is not part of the ITF rules. Players must follow the code except to the extent which an official assumes some of their responsibilities. Okay, that's a little weird to me already. And then it says the principles in the code apply in cases not specifically covered by the ITF rules or the USTA regulations. Okay, so again, there's these ITF rules, there's these USTA regulations, and then they're admittedly telling us that those are sort of lacking in some respects because they had to draft this thing called the code and there's literally a line in the code that says the principles in the code apply in cases not specifically covered by the ITF rules and USTA regulations. Again, it's a little confusing. I'm still trying to get it. Hopefully someone maybe will school me one day and explain why this is done this way. But when you read the code, it's helpful if you just read the code by itself, because it goes into sportsmanship policy, it goes into things like that, and there's a paragraph in there that talks about the unwritten rules and tradition of tennis. That stuff's important, right, because tennis is a fun game, it's a community game, you get to know your neighbor, kind of thing. But again, it doesn't help my brain when I'm trying to find an answer to a question And I don't like there's some thing here that says here's the unwritten rules, it's like, wow, that's messing with my brain. Okay, so let's get past the tangent, let's now go into.
Speaker 1:When I opened up that friend at court, i liked looking at the digital version, obviously because I can control F, right. So I go control F on my keyboard and I start control F-ing things. F-ing things. Sorry, that sounded bad. I started to control F things like cussing, cursing, flagrant misconduct, unsportsmanlike conduct, code violations, all these things, right, because I don't wanna miss something. I can look at the book fresh each time and go page one, page two, page three, but I choose to control F these types of things first to see where I'm going to try to make sure I'm not missing anything. If I'm just skimming, right, it's a couple hundred pages, this friend at court. So you can't really do that every time. So I started to control F and we'll mess that up again, and I started finding the words that I thought, okay, i wanna focus on these unsportsmanlike conduct.
Speaker 1:Then there's something called misconduct, sort of the same right, little confusing The point penalty system, like what's gonna happen when you do this bad thing. And then I do wanna touch on the hindrance rules just a little, because I think it's a good background going into then the misconduct. But let me get into that. But that was sort of the thought process and the research process that I went to for this particular one. So hopefully by the end of this we'll find out the basic question of can we cuss on the court? Like I said, we sort of all know the answer, but it's good to sort of read the rules out loud for me to look at them all, to see what the penalties are, to see how those rules apply.
Speaker 1:Like I said at the beginning, i think we're all gonna be a little unsatisfied because it doesn't help answer some very specific questions that I had. Like, if I gave an example of someone doing something on the court, i couldn't necessarily find the answer here And I hate that. And if it's gonna be up to the interpretation of the ref, that's tough right, because one person might say this, the other person might say this, and I don't like that kind of stuff. Anyways, let's go a little into the hindrance rules. We all sort of know, like the hindrance right, an example of that. You can't talk during the point, okay, so that doesn't necessarily match up with cussing right. That's different And we were sort of assuming people are cussing not in the middle of swinging right. When I was thinking about someone cussing on the court, i wasn't necessarily thinking someone in the middle of a serve saying yeah, son of a, that kind of thing. It was more like talking trash on the changeover or if someone hits a lucky shot, you cuss them out, things like that.
Speaker 1:But I did find it interesting that the hindrance issues and the hindrance rules apply. There is hindrance issues with talking during points, okay. So I think there's ways there to even get you sort of busted when you're talking, even if it's not cussing right. That goes into the hindrance rule. So I didn't really research that enough, but I thought it was important to at least bring up I found some other hindrance rules about body movement. Okay now, the only reason again I'm bringing this up is because later on I'm gonna talk to you about gestures. Oh, i almost did it. Did I do it on camera? I might have done it subconsciously, but gestures, where is that? misconduct, unsportsmanlike conduct, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:So the hindrance issues or the hindrance rules also touch on body movement And it says like a player may faint with their body while the ball is in play. However, other things like waving your arms, it says stamping your feet I don't know, maybe I'm a moron, i always say stomping. I don't know, maybe now I realize it sounds dumb, but it says these things aren't allowed Stamping your feet, waving your arms, but player fainting the body, that's okay, right, that makes sense. So a lot of these things do make sense And I always say this too.
Speaker 1:In my world of law, like a lot of the rules just make sense. They're common sense. There's only some nuance to some very particular rules. Talk under the hindrance issues a little more. I'll just touch on this again. There's some parts that talk about unintentional acts versus intentional acts. I like focusing on that a little too prior to getting into the cussing, because it helps me understand sort of where the USTA's brain was when they were drafting these regulations The unintentional whoops versus the intentional act. Obviously the cussing's gonna be more on the intentional side.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this is just all good stuff for us to understand, and each time you research a rule you want to sort of get this other stuff just to make sure you're really understanding the whole world of the rule you're researching. So I like that. I like looking in the hindrance stuff. I like looking into what is the code a little more just to see if I can help give myself sort of a background, coming into this very new right, coming into this where I've only known this book exists for a week, even though I've been playing tennis literally my whole life. Maybe you feel the same way, right? It's like, have any of you ever looked in the USTA regulations. Maybe some of you have. Do you even know there's a book out there called Friend at Court? Again, i didn't, okay. So I'm staying away now from the code, i'm going straight to the USTA regulations, part of the Friend at Court book. Obviously, these are the ones that apply to us, the USTA tournaments we play and obviously the league matches that we play, okay. So I'm gonna throw out some things here And then at the end I'm hoping to sort of bring it all home, because I'm gonna throw out just some parts at you And then it's gonna answer some questions, but then it's sort of just like giving you parts of the recipe and you're not truly understanding what it is, and at the end, hopefully, we'll just put it all together, right, and it'll make sense, it'll make the thing we want to make.
Speaker 1:So under the USTA regulations, there's a section for referee responsibilities after the draw is made, right? So after the draw is made, the seedings, et cetera, there was this section called defaulting players, and so, again, thought this was interesting, right. So if we're trying to understand cussing, we're trying to understand the penalties of cussing. It's nice to read more information about the ref's responsibilities and when can't, they default people. So that's why I specifically cut and paste this particular part of the USDA regulations. So it says default players.
Speaker 1:The referee may default a player. Okay, that says may, okay. That's another interesting thing in the law. I always tell people what I'm trying to explain to them a particular code or rule. Does the rule say must? Does the rule say may okay, this one says may. Sounds like it's a choice for the ref. If it says may, you don't have to right. The referee may default a player for cause, which includes, but is not limited to tardiness comma, and here's the one that applies to us misconduct on court or off court. Ooh, off court, also interesting. So that's good to know. The ref has the responsibility, or may have the responsibility, to default to us when we do certain things on or off the court. All right, good, good, good.
Speaker 1:So, continuing with the USDA regulations, there's a section called conducting the tournament and there's tables there. It's got a little confusing to me too, i think, the point of the tables. We're trying to sort of give the reader a summary and sort of you know how tables are. Sometimes they'll explain it to you in paragraph form, but then give you a table, so it's not necessarily in conflict with the paragraph parts, but to me it got a little confusing, but anyway. So let's go to table 10 under default.
Speaker 1:Okay, a little more about the defaults. It says a default occurs when an official defaults a player under the point penalty system. Okay, good, i mentioned that at the beginning, right, the point penalty system. But now this is sort of the first instance when I was looking into it where it's referencing that. So now I understand the referee's job about how they may default us for certain misconduct we do, but the default occurs when an official defaults someone under the point penalty system. So to understand cussing, i have to understand the point penalty system. It sounds like I have to know what is it right? I mean, obviously, point penalty system, right, so we all know, point taken away, game set, match. Is that how it goes? I don't know. Like, let's get into it, right? Okay, so that's that.
Speaker 1:Now there's a section called unsportsmanlikeconduct. All right, this is now sounding like the section that I want to see and read and understand when I think about someone cussing someone out on the court. Or I said cussing someone out, how about just cussing out loud, okay. And so I'm gonna try to bring up some examples at the end and maybe you know if you're interested in emailing me or responding to YouTube or whatever, or Instagram, and giving me some examples yourself where this has happened. But I still can't figure out all the answers based on this stuff. But let's try.
Speaker 1:Unsportsmanlikeconduct by player or person associated with player. Okay, that's sentence number one And I wanna read it again. Okay, under the unsportsmanlikeconduct section in the USDA regulations, there's a sentence in paragraph 11, it's numbered 11, that says unsportsmanlikeconductbyplayer or person associated with player. That's pretty interesting, right? So you can have an unsportsmanlikeconduct of you or an unsportsmanlikeconduct of someone associated with me, my coach, my significant other, my kid, my friend, right? So that's pretty interesting. And it says a player who enters a sanctioned tournament or match consents to being penalized under the point penalty system. Okay, there's that point penalty system. Again, that includes conduct by a person associated with the player.
Speaker 1:All right, i never quite got the answer to this question, but obviously that makes us think about what if our buddy on the side of the court is cussing at the top of their lungs? can I be penalized for that under the point penalty system? It says persons who are unsportsmanlike may be asked by any member of the tournament committee or any official representative of the tournament to desist and slash or to leave the tournament site and they must comply. This. Obviously this last sentence I read obviously applies to that other person associated with the player, right? That friend, that coach? Again, i still don't know, i still don't understand the penalty to it. If my coach stands up and is literally cursing out the other player, they can be asked to leave. But what effect does that have on me? So I don't know the answer yet. I don't think it's ever answered. To just give you the end result, i don't see it. But it is interesting to sort of see that play out. And I guess it sort of makes common sense that that person would be asked to leave. They must comply per the rules. But it shouldn't go on me, right? I probably shouldn't receive a point penalty because some jerk, even the jerk that I know outside the court, is cussing out my opponent or just cussing constantly. I guess that sort of makes sense. Okay, so now let's focus on us. Okay, that was sort of the person, as the rules state, associated with the player. Again, we still don't have an answer to the question, but that's okay, let's move on. Let's talk about us.
Speaker 1:Paragraph 18 in the USDA regulation says a player shall not engage in a sportsman-like conduct. Okay, paragraph 11 already sort of told us that A player can't do it. A person associated with the player can't do it. Now paragraph 18 focuses specifically on the player. The player shall not engage in a sportsman-like conduct. To go on further with the rule, a player shall not, at any time in parentheses, on or off court, close parentheses engage in a verbal abuse, swear it in official, a spectator or an opponent in a voice that can be heard by any person. Okay, i gotta break this down. And if you listen to the first video I did on rules, i touched on this briefly about breaking down the definition, or breaking down a rule or a penal code and looking at the elements of that rule And remember how I said if there's three parts to that rule that you need to violate, if you've only violated two parts of that rule, you didn't violate the rule, and so it's important to break down and dissect each definition.
Speaker 1:All right, so I'm gonna read this full sentence again. Hopefully, when I edit this stuff, i'll be able to put it on the screen, but for the Spotify people. It says a player shall not. Okay. Remember that's important, that's an important stop already. A player shall not means you can't Okay. It doesn't mean you may or may may not. It says you can not. A player shall not At any time. Then it says on or off court, so you can't do the stuff they're gonna tell you about next. On or off court, you can't do it. A player shall not, at any time, on or off court, engage in verbal abuse.
Speaker 1:Okay, verbal abuse, and they don't give us a real definition for it, which I don't like. Swear at an official, a spectator or an opponent in a voice that can be heard by any person. Okay, before I get into that last part of that, can be heard by any person. I wanna address this verbal abuse. Swear at official, swear at a spectator part of the definition. Because, like I said, without, i guess, case law to explain definitions and rules, the rules are left up to interpretation. That's why there is rules, penal codes, but also that's why lawyers look at the cases where the judges interpreted those rules or codes right. So now we understand why case law is important in the law, because when you just look at this definition, you don't know still what swearing at an official is. You have a common sense idea of what it is right I can probably name five cuss words right now that I think we'll probably all agree on is swearing at an official.
Speaker 1:But we still don't know if saying jerk okay Cause I'm trying to keep this PG right on my podcast Is jerk, verbal abuse. If I call the referee a jerk, is that swearing at the official? If I say, what if I just make fun of them? If I say you, i don't even know a good make fun thing right now, that's PG. But let's just totally. If I say you don't know how to cook, like I don't know, my mind's always on food right Is that verbal abuse? Is that swear? it's probably not swearing, okay Cause I don't think anyone would interpret that as swearing. But what if there is a ref that thinks that's swearing? See, this is why the interpretation of the definition is so important. But again, we're gonna be missing it because there is no court of law for the USDA regulations. I guess all we can really do is sort of look at what pro tournaments have done, but that's ITF stuff. Okay, i'm going maybe too long with this one sentence, but you know, it's the way my brain works, right? I hope it's helpful To start the sentence over and then to talk about the end of that sentence.
Speaker 1:A player shall not, at any time, on or off court okay, off court as well Engage in verbal abuse, swearing at an official or at a spectator, all right, totally makes sense to me. That part Can't just cuss out loud, can't cuss at your opponent, you can't say the F word at your official, you can't say the F word at a spectator, right, those are easy. But again, like I said, it still doesn't answer the question of what is a cuss word? what is verbal abuse? Now we're going to the end of the sentence, which I think is even also a little more confusing. It says you can't do these things, which is engaging in verbal abuse, swearing at the official or spectator or an opponent, right, you can't engage in these things in an opponent, in a voice that can be heard by any person. Okay, it's a little confusing, but also I think if we give an example, it sort of makes perfect sense And now I sound like an idiot that it's confusing, but it makes perfect sense. But that's what happens when you do a podcast without a script. You just sometimes sound like an idiot and I apologize, but the end of the sentence says you can't do these things to an opponent in a voice that can be heard by any person.
Speaker 1:So this is why I think sometimes we see in tournaments which I guess the USTA or pro tournaments, and the USTA obviously agrees that if someone is cussing way back there in their court but a ref hears it, the ref might tell the line judge, or the line judge hears it. The line judge might tell the ref and assess some sort of penalty. And it's like why The pro's like what are you doing? Like I'm just talking, right, but the line judge heard it. So I haven't matched this up to the ITF rules, but if it's USTA and you have someone watching your match outside the fence and you're back there mumbling in the corner, cussing right, saying stuff that I think, let's say, everyone would agree, is a swear word If it can be heard by any person, even that person outside the gate, okay, that would apply to this rule.
Speaker 1:We still don't know what the penalty is. This is just telling us what unsportsmanlike conduct is. So remember, like I said, you have to think that way too. What's the problem? What's the penalty. So here we're trying to understand what is in sportsmanlike conduct. Well, you can't swear it in officially, you can't swear it a spectator, you can't commit verbal abuse and you can't swear curse in a voice that can be heard by any person, even not your opponent. Okay, and that's applies to the person or the example I just gave with the person outside the fence.
Speaker 1:And now that I read this sentence over again in my head, i'm even getting more confused. And if you're watching this, you're like I'm coming to you for the answers and you're making me more confused. I am, i apologize, but that's what happens when you read these rules that aren't defined with case law, with answers themselves. That's the problem. But look at the sentences or an opponent in a voice that can be heard by any person. So to this, here's the confusing part to me.
Speaker 1:Now, does this last sentence only apply if I'm cussing at my opponent but someone else hears it? Do you understand what I'm saying? Because it says you can't, you player, shall not, can't engage in these things, just swearing this verbal abuse or against an opponent in a voice that can be heard by any person. And that whole thing is the end of the sentence, without commas. So I can't swear against my opponent makes sense, but I can't even do it in a voice that can be heard by any person. So how about? I'm just back there and not swearing at my opponent, i'm swearing at myself, you, son of a F and whatever, and someone hears it. Does that fall in this rule or the end of this rule? I'm not swearing an official, not swearing at a spectator. I'm not swearing against my opponent. It is a voice that can be heard by any person. We're pretending the person's outside the fence listening to us and watching her match, but is that unsportsmanlike conduct? when I'm swearing against myself, i guess it's verbal abuse. I still don't understand that fully.
Speaker 1:So let's go on a little more, which we'll answer this a little better, and then we'll talk about the point penalty system and hopefully bring all this home, all right. So sometimes we're just left with more questions or, as we're learning this, it's good to ask more questions and to think of more examples, and you don't necessarily have to come to the right answer yet, but hopefully at the end you will. So next under, i think, still paragraph 18, under B, subheading B, it says visible or audible profanity or obscenity. Says use if using profanity. Use profanity or insulting, abusive or obscene language in any way that may be heard by any person, or use obscene, insulting or abusive gestures? All right, so this is helping us to define things a little better. And again, obviously I'm trying to read you the stuff I found in order And so you're sort of going through the same process I did when I was looking it up. I think it's more helpful that way to sort of break down the research and the process instead of just giving you the end, because I guess I can get on here in 30 seconds and go here's the answer. But if you're listening and you're interested, it's better to go through it slowly this way.
Speaker 1:But this sentence I just read helps answer some of the questions I just went over a few minutes ago. Right, and it says visible That's the one we were talking about earlier, with hand gestures, audible obviously, coming out of my mouth, me talking screaming. Visible or audible. Profanity or obscenity? Okay, use profanity or insulting, abusive, insulting. There you go.
Speaker 1:Remember I said does jerk apply for verbal abuse? That I think can be considered insulting. So the use of profanity or insulting or abusive or obscene language in any way that may be heard by any person, including abusive gestures. Okay, this definition is good because I think it really gives us a good world of understanding of what is this? what's the answer? Can you cuss? Can you cuss out loud? Can you cuss in the corner? What if someone hears it? Can you make hand gestures? That sounds like all of this stuff is unsportsmanlike conduct. Okay, so at least now I think we're understanding All of this is unsportsmanlike conduct. We still don't know if a very specific example might fall under insulting. Is jerk insulting? Maybe to one person, it's not maybe to another person. It is. That's where it gets a little dicey, okay, so I think you just have to not say things like that, and then, if you do, the ref gets to answer that question on the court. All right. So that's a good couple paragraphs about unsportsmanlike conduct. That's good.
Speaker 1:Let's go into the point penalty system a little and understand what that is. And this one's pretty good. It says the purpose of the system. What's the purpose of this point penalty system? The purpose of the system are to deter unsportsmanlike conduct by a player and persons associated with those players. It gives us some other stuff, but that's the point of it, right? A lot of these things. I call them punishments. You'll find, if you are a lawyer you'll routinely read that these things are never punishments, they're just to simply help deter. It always cracks me up a little, i guess, being a defense lawyer, when they say things like that, because it's obviously a punishment. But you will find that here too It says these things, though again, it says it right here. I did cut and paste this The objective of the point penalty system is not to punish but to secure compliance.
Speaker 1:Anyways, that's me Just bring it up, stuff that I have to deal with sometimes. It is to deter unsportsmanlike conduct. Of course it is to secure compliance, but it says it's not to punish, but obviously they must punish. So I never understood why they write things like that. Okay, now this gets a little confusing.
Speaker 1:Next, because under the point penalty system paragraphs they talk about this thing called flagrant violations. Because I haven't even told you yet what the point the point penalty offenses are Right. I haven't told you what happens when you do these unsportsmanlike things. But before I get there there was a paragraph about flagrant violations And I was very interested to read that flagrant unsportsmanlike acts by a player or person associated with a player may result in an immediate default. What did I do after I read this paragraph? I instantly control F flagrant, flagrant, flagrant Lee, flagrantly unsportsmanlike everything I can think of. And there was no other instance of this word coming up.
Speaker 1:I hate that There has to be a definition in the rules. The USDA has to add a definition for flagrant, because if there is a paragraph in the rules that allows a referee to default you for one single act because the referee considers it flagrant, i think that's an issue. It is an issue because one person might consider something flagrant while another person might not, and I don't think that's fair. I just like things to be fair. Fair means applied to everyone the same, and if we don't understand what the word flagrant is, it can't be applied to everyone the same. So that's where I find sometimes you need a definitions portion, and if I'm missing it, actually if someone knows it, i would really love to hear it. So I don't mind being wrong, i just couldn't find it myself.
Speaker 1:Okay, little recap point penalty system. Here's the point of the point penalty system, or the purpose That's a better way to say it The purpose of the point penalty system. There is such things as flagrant violations which, if you do engage in a flagrantly unsportsmanlike act or flagrant violation, you can be immediately defaulted, before we even get into the point penalty system. I guess it's still part of the point penalty system, but it's just interesting to read that. All right, let's go into the table, table 14 of the point penalty system. In that table it discusses things called code violations, it discusses things called misconduct, and then it tells us the penalties for these things.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now we're really getting the answer, finally, to the question of can you or can't you cuss. Because if there is no punishment to the rule, then let's be real, you can do it. If the rule says you can't cuss but there's no punishment for cussing, what's going to stop a person from cussing? That's a better way of saying it. I don't mean to say you can do it. What I mean to say is if there is no punishment, what's stopping a person from doing it? You can't stop it. You can't say that's not nice. Tradition says you can't do that. So you have to know what applies under the point penalty system.
Speaker 1:Misconduct is one of those things that apply under the point penalty system. Code violations are like, for an example of a code violation, not resuming play within 30 seconds. Okay, we don't have a timer out there, but you know, if you're playing a match you feel like they're taking too long, you might call a ref out. You might say ref. There's a rule I'm sure you're aware of that says that they can't take longer than 30 seconds between points. Time them, they're taking like a minute. Right, that's a code violation. There's punishments for code violations. I didn't research it too much, but I'm just trying to give you an example of that. So now let's look at the penalties for misconduct. It says penalty violations shall be penalized as follows The first defense point.
Speaker 1:The second offense, game. The third offense default. For some reason I always thought the third offense was the set, but I guess it's not. It's point game match. And now, thinking back on it, there's that famous Mackin row and I forget who he was playing I don't know if it was US Open or on grass where he just went nuts and then the match was defaulted And I don't remember if he might have misunderstood the rule. To tell you the truth, also because I remember the video. I got to find it, but I remember the video where he thought he sort of had another chance to be allowed obnoxious jerk and cuss And the referee on the sitting in the chai chair just defaulted him. So game match. I got to find that in reference a little better here. Dang it, i should have researched that before I did this. But anyways, the point. Penalty violations are as follows First offense point. Second offense game. Third offense default.
Speaker 1:Remember, the only other hiccup here is that flagrant violation which you can be defaulted automatically. I don't know what that is yet and it never gets answered here. But now we understand if I'm engaging in misconduct. We now understand what misconduct is. When we talked about the working definitions right Under the visible and audible profanity and obscenity, we know that you can't do this stuff on the court or on the court. We know you can't do it to an official, to your opponent. You can't even do it to a person who's listening outside the fence. So we now understand all these things are considered misconduct. Abuse.
Speaker 1:Cussing is a form of all this stuff. The audible cussing, the verbal, the gestures right, the obscene gestures. That's all part of this. You can't do any of it. The rules say And the penalty is point violation, game violation, or am I saying that right? Yeah, point, game default. And if you do something bad enough that's considered flagrant, you can get a default even within the first violation. So I hope that helped you. I tried to keep this one a little shorter. It still ended up being 43 minutes. I apologize for that, but I hope that helped you understand that you cannot cuss on the court. But what is cussing Uh-huh? Anyways, all right, well, have a great time and let me do a little song for you and thanks. See you next time.
