Officiating Volleyball and Instructing Line Judges

Question:

I meant to tell you how appreciative I am of your site! It is super helpful.

I have a question. I am a new Ref. This is my 2nd year. I had a game the other night where my line judge called a foot fault but it was after the rally that I saw her coming over to tell me. I truly believe there was a fault there because her foot was very close and possible on the line upon contact with the ball. But I didn't catch or call it in time. Since the line judge saw it, should I have called it at that time? The rally point went to the serving team and the girl served again. I just didn't know if I should have blown the whistle (after I had already given the point and called the other fault) or just let it go. It could happen again and I want to know how to handle this or any other call that could potentially happen after another call was made.

Answer:

Instruct your line judges to tell you right away that there is a foot fault. If they are using flags, they should wave the flag and get your attention as soon as it happens.

You can call a foot fault at the end of the rally. It just won't look very good if you wait that long.

If there is another serve after the foot fault then it's too late to go back and change anything.