My understanding is that when the rules say nothing comes between the ball and the net, basically that is the "current position of the ball at any time", not the entire plane between the ball and the net, in which case only backhand serves are legal, and forehand serves where the body is not rotated (for eg tomahawk serves). 

Is my understanding correct?

Rotating the body itself is not a problem.  The only issue would be if you're hiding the ball with your body at the start of the service.   The ball must be visible throughout the service.

The ball is clearly visible at all times, but not the bat (until slightly before the contact point), and my back is still facing the opponent after the ball has been tossed (I rotate a lot to serve). 

Therefore serve is legal.  

Thanks, good to know that!

Just some food for thought for everyone :D

Haha it works both ways, we can't see a lot of lefty serves too unless we move to the middle. Actually what I think is, you can still see the contact but just at the very last second, if you're at the middle you have a bit more time to see the bat movement as it's a function of the rotation. 
 

2.6.4
From the start of service until it is struck, the ball shall be above the level of the playing surface and behind the server's end line, and it shall not be hidden from the receiver by the server or his or her doubles partner or by anything they wear or carry

In other words, it's not your rotation that is illegal, its anything coming between the ball (after toss) and the receiver's vision. 

But many servers who like to serve illegally while evading the call from the ref will use their shoulder or chin to block vision on point of contact.

Yeah, it definitely works both ways. It's not ideal, but I generally have my toss further from my body so that nothing is in the way at all. Might lose some advantage, but at my level, I'm not pushing for that tiny advantage yet 

Rotating into the serve is a must if you want to generate good spin though.

Yes that is the reason I rotate, not to hide the serve but to generate max spin. The spin is at least halved if I don't do that....

Good point on this icontek. Very common for players to unknowingly "almost" serve illegally with either excuse, ignorance or because of the level they play at . At the top it's to gain extra advantage in their jobs to make £/$ obviously. Next level (not to be confused with nextlevel) down can be to gain ranking points etc or against friends at the local club who play for fun to beat them.. Anyway possible. 

When you start playing with say blue coat (uk) umpires many of the "I think it's legal so it's legal" servers get called and fairly so, then they stress and have no way of of serving correctly.

One umpire from this forum actually.. in the UK who umpires British league/grandprix events (when they happened) is both what I would say enforcer and fair. Which is perfect. You know where you are and also what is required. This is the way to be obviously I believe..

That's all.  

You can do a hula dance while the ball is in the air if you want, but is the previous conditions are satisfied the serve is legal.

Edit added.  Umpires are not seated in an optimal position to correctly judge but that's the person you need to satisfy.  So if that person starts calling your serves illegal you have to be able to adjust without melting down (sometimes even if their interpretation of the rules is a bit outside of the usual)..  People may remember when Ding Ning went to pieces in a crucial match.

Within the side lines? Are you sure?

Embarrassing enough now I'm not sure but I'm too lazy to look it up. 

Im fairly sure it's legal to serve outside the sidelines as long as it doesn't go beyond the baseline... 

Lots of times unethical opponents will just yank your chain to throw you off track.  

My favorite one is where a guy told me before I served that I should throw the ball at least 6 inches. He did not say  *I* was not , but he just said it was the rule. It is very easy to get bent out of shape assuming that he said you are not throwing the ball six inches, which he never did.

Complaining about ball not being in front of the body always works to annoy an unstable opponent because it is so hard tell or enforce even with a very experienced referee and there are always arguments. If you are unethical you can always start this complaint when your are way behind in a the deciding game.  (Kind of similar to not checking your racket BEFORE the match but acting like they are upset that you did not show them the racket after the match is well into progress like 2nd or third game..............I know of many cases where a player complained to umpires when his demands for a rematch (because he did not know the other player had long pips) were laughed at by the winning opponent)

 

I heard this one story, where this player kept bouncing the ball on the floor endlessly before every serve. The umpire refused to do anything since it seems there is nothing in the rules against it. So the opponent started bouncing the ball twice as many times before each serve and you guessed it, the guy who was doing it first completely stopped it but was visibly angry because it had become a part of his serving sequence & was very hard to adjust. LOL

One of my other favorites is when your opponent, who had been serving legally all along, will suddenly serve the most illegally possible serve when it is deuce. If you complain you look like a crybaby.

Probably 20% of players serve off the finger and not from the palm as required. 20% will serve without coming to a complete stop before starting the serve. Another 20% will probably serve more than 10 degrees off  from the vertical with some as much as 60 degrees off LOL .  Probably 10% serve with toss less than 6 inches but a 10% have no idea how small a height 6 inches really is and will complain. 

My other favorites are cleaning the glasses or tie shoelaces every 4 points. 

blahness wrote: I personally find that ridiculous because if that were the case, 99% of all pros (even Boll and Samsonov) are serving illegally because they all rotate their body during the serve.

Check for a match on YouTube between Patrick Baum and I think Aruna Quadri.  The umpire kept faulting every Baum serve. Baum discusses this with umpire but the umpire refuses to relent. Baum  is almost in tears. You can even hear Baum ask the umpire " What do you want me to do ?

Cut my hands off ? " .  Umpire continues to fault each of Baum's serve & Baum gives up and gives up the match   

 

  

   

   

I think I remember the Baum/Aruna match you are talking about. Very interesting and indeed strange match. UAE world teams 2010.. was quite unusual match.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kbIf4RBB9Uo" rel="nofollow - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kbIf4RBB9Uo

Baum is faulted on his high toss forehand serve everytime agreed... BUT from only 1 side... He comments to the umpire I believe about cutting off his head... 😊 When he served that side. Ended up getting a yellow then yellow red. Even the German coach JR got involved at one stage. 

If it's this match... Baum wins it and Infact does extremely well to hold his composure and keep his (no pun intended)... Head... 😊 

 

You are obviously correct about this match. But I am sure of watching a match where the player eventually gives up and loses. It may be or may not be Baum with same umpire or same umpire in another match with another player. I am pretty sure of the player losing in frustration. Mentally I have these two matches mixed up. 

When you mentioned it I actually thought Baum straight off as well. There's been 2 or 3 times I believe. The other one that springs to mind is Bastein Steger. But this Baun/Aruna has to be one of the most strangest as one side fine... One side not... You would think faults both sides?.

Cheers