Rules Rule: All Great Change is Preceded By Chaos

* Deepak Chopra, American Author

This month’s Rules Rule! article is dedicated to some upcoming changes to both the rules and the USA Racquetball Rules Committee. I’m excited to share these bits of news and to offer some scenarios to help players understand changes taking effect on September 1, 2026!

New Members For the Rules Committee!

Recently, Jerry Lis, Vice President of the USAR Board of Directors, approved the addition of three new members to the USAR Rules Committee. I am pleased to announce the following additions to the Rules Committee:

• Montserrat “Montse” Torres from Illinois
• Darold Key from Arizona
• Samuel Schulze from Florida

I know that Montse, Darold, and Sam are excited to join the committee, and I know they will bring diverse and unique perspectives. I cannot thank them enough for their willingness to serve. Warm thanks also go to the current committee members—Michelle Andersen, Todd Boss, Jake Bredenbeck, Otto Dietrich, Cheryl Gudinas, Larry Haemmerle, Charlie Pratt, Lynn Stephens, and Gary Wargo—for their continued hard work and dedication. The Rules Committee is the one of the very best USAR committees (in my humble opinion), and I am honored to have the opportunity to work with this group of amazing volunteers. 

New Dead-Ball Serve Rules Take Effect September 1st!

Hopefully by now you have read about some of the rule changes that are taking effect on September 1, 2026. If not, HERE is a summary.

Recently, I received a couple of emails asking excellent questions and seeking clarifications about the rules modifications.

I just read over the revisions that are coming with the new rules in September 2026. Would you be able to provide a scenario that could help explain the changes to "dead ball serves,” specifically the "safety hold up"?

Let’s start with the current Rule 3.8. Under that rule, “dead-ball serves do not cancel any previous fault serve.” The rule identifies the three types of “dead ball” serves: (a) court hinders, (b) broken balls, and (c) out-of-court serves (that first hit the floor before leaving the court). If any of these three things happen on a second serve, the next serve is another second serve.

Starting September 1st, Rule 3.8 will include a fourth type of dead-ball serve:  a safety hold-up. For context, the rule will be amended to add the following language:

(d)       Safety Hold-Up: Any served ball that cannot be returned due to a Safety Hold Up or hitting the server in a non-Penalty situation. See Rules 3.14(a)6 and Rule 3.14(a)(2).

Rule 3.14(a)(6) defines a safety hold-up as happening when any "player about to execute a return, who believes that striking the opponent with the ball or racquet is likely." The new rule change that goes into effect on September 1st states that if a safety hold-up occurs on a second serve, the next serve will be another second serve. As a result, servers will no longer be unjustly rewarded by getting a first serve as a result of their own hinders.

So what could this look like?

Suppose that Player A has just served and is moving towards center court while the ball is in flight. The serve nicks the side wall and careens towards center court. Player B has a straight shot into the front wall (hence, no penalty hinder) but holds up because she is afraid of hitting Player A on the backswing. In that situation, the referee could call a replay hinder because the referee is concerned about player safety. Under the old rules, Player A would get a first serve after the replay. Under the new rules, Player A does not benefit from hindering her opponent and must make a second serve after the replay. 

If a second serve hits a court hinder, or the return hits a court hinder, like a light, does that allow server to go back to first serve?

In short, the answer is "no," a court hinder on a second serve would not result in the server being given a resulting first serve. 

Right now, Rule 3.8 deals with so-called "dead ball serves," and outlines three scenarios which do NOT negate a previous fault serve. The new rule changes add replay hinders to the list. However, the new rule does not change the fact that if a server hits a second serve that results in a court hinder, play is stopped and the next serve is still a second serve. 

The Definition of When a Rally Begins Changes on September 1st!

I believe an overlooked change is the preamble to Rule 3.13

Presently, the preamble states:

All play that occurs after the successful return of serve to the front wall is called the rally. Play thereafter shall be conducted according to the following rules:

Starting September 1st, the preamble will read:

All play that occurs after a legal serve and subject to all provisions defined in 3.11 is called the rally. Play thereafter shall be conducted according to the following rules:

Under the old version of Rule 3.13, a “rally” did not begin until after the player receiving serve returned the serve. As a result, none of the provisions of Rule 3.13(a)-(j) applied to the player when he or she is returning the serve.

For example, Rule 3.13(c) says that a player “may touch or strike the ball only once.” But, under the old rules a player could touch the ball as many times as he or she liked while returning the serve.

In another example, Rule 3.13(j) says that “during a rally, if a ball in play hits the front wall and then touches a player, it results in a loss of rally for the player that was touched.” The old version of the rules allowed the player returning the serve to touch the ball without penalty.

This problem is being fixed. Starting September 1st, all the provisions of Rule 3.13—including the one-touch rule and the “touches a player” rule—apply when a player returns a serve.

 (I understand that virtually everyone already played as if Rule 3.13 applied to the serve return, but this rule change provides clarity and avoids unnecessary arguments).

We Need Certified Referees!

In September 2025, I wrote about the need for certified referees. Please consider taking the test to become a USAR Certified Referee. The test is completely free, and the link can be found HERE.

National Rules Commissioner Joshua Jones welcomes questions from members and will respond timely along with occasionally featuring a few in USAR’s Serving Up the News. Write to Josh at rulescommissioner@usaracquetball.com, and you may see your questions in a future issue of this newsletter!