USATT Hardbat Committee Rules Update...

[Boneman]

Just a quick note.... I've not perused the actual rules changes yet... however... Gambler Peacekeeper has now been added as an approved rubber by the USATT Hardbat Committee!

:thumbsup:

[Jay Turberville]

It looks like Scott Gordon has now updated the Hardbat.com pages. The changes I saw were:

1) Gambler Peacekeeper OX is now a legal rubber.
2) Any ATP rubber is now legal. So the ATP Leland "prototype" rubbers should now be legal also.

3) The pre-assembled rackets rules have changed. The list of approved
pre-assembled hardbats has been removed. Pre-assembled rackets are OK for smaller local hardbat events at the tournament director's discretion, but not for championship and four star events. But even at local events, these
pre-assembled rackets are not allowed in the regular non-hardbat events.

I'm not sure if this is a change or not, but I noticed that tournament directors have the option of specifying 38mm or 40mm balls for hardbat events.

All of these changes seem sensible to me.

http://www.hardbat.com/hardbat.html

[Jay Turberville]

This is what Scott Gordon recently posted as an overview of the recent USATT hardbat rules changes. This is more complete than what I posted.

BTW, I understand that this is a UK forum and that these rule changes have no direct effect on UK play. I'm just posting on the assumption that folks here are interested in changes and approaches to hardbat being taken in other areas. I hope I am correct and that this is welcomed information.

The USATT Hardbat Advisory Committee met during the U.S. Open, and fomulated several rules changes (most of them minor). The recommended changes were approved by the USATT board a couple of weeks ago. Here is a summary of the changes to the list of legal rubber surfaces:


Gambler Peacekeeper is now a legal surface.
MagicPips will become illegal as of March 2010.

The rules for pre-assembled recreational hardbats have been completely rewritten. Here is a summary of those changes:


The list of approved pre-assembled rackets has been removed.

Pre-assembled recreational hardbat paddles are, under limited conditions, usable in local hardbat events at the discretion of the tournament organizer
Pre-assembled recreational hardbat paddles cannot be used in championship hardbat events or hardbat events that are part of 4-star tournaments.
Pre-assembled recreational hardbats are never considered legal hardbats in regular (sponge) events.

There are a few more minor rules changes:


38mm balls are legal at the discretion of the tournament organizer.
it is no longer legal to switch paddles between games.

Other changes to the rules are minor wording adjustments. As always, the rules and list of legal surfaces can be found at www.hardbat.com (http://www.hardbat.com/).

[Boneman]

Good stuff Jay. Interesting that... about the pre-fab bats. I gotta say... some of them are pretty damn awful... BTW.... are not the specialized bats used in the Hardbat Classic... "pre-fab" as well. ;-)

[Jay Turberville]

Good stuff Jay. Interesting that... about the pre-fab bats. I gotta say... some of them are pretty damn awful... BTW.... are not the specialized bats used in the Hardbat Classic... "pre-fab" as well. ;-)

I would assume that the HBC bats would fall into that category - being the most expensive of that type. About the only reason I'd think you'd want to use one would be to prepare for the HBC though. But even then, the new rule wouldn't allow you to use them in regular "sponge" events.

[Boneman]

Interesting. I presume that there will be another HBC then. I C you're already swinking the Instinct 5 with Peacekeeper on it. I just cobbled together one myself. Not had a chance to use it but it "feels" promising.

Gotta say though.... it's really only going to be a backup to the Resiman / Intinct 5 bat. That thing ROCKS. But hey... you never know!