What Is The Screen Line In Racquetball? (Easy Explanation)

One of the things you need to know about racquetball is that there are different boxes and lines that play a role in the overall rules of the sports. Each of the lines on the racquetball court serves a definite purpose. For example, when serving, you are not allowed to extend a foot beyond the service line. With that said, what is the screen line in racquetball?

The screen line is the line next to the doubles box, which is the box that is closest to the sidewalls of the racquetball court. The purpose of the screen line is to outline or identify the drive serve screen. When a person is serving a drive serve, the racquet cannot enter the limits of the screen line.

If you look at a racquetball court, it might be a bit confusing to see plenty of different lines on the court. However, you don’t need to worry because learning what these lines are for is quite easy. Of course, knowing what the screen line in racquetball is can be quite easy as well because the screen line has one of the most basic purposes in the sport.

What Is the Screen Line In Racquetball?

Like many other sports, racquetball is full of different rules that you need to understand so that you will be able to properly play the game. This is similar to any other racket sport out there because of how racquetball has a court that is unique in the sense that you need to be able to learn how to properly use a racquetball court to fully understand how the sport is played.

When you look at a racquetball court, it can be pretty easy to get confused because the court is full of different lines and boxes that are different from the lines and boxes of other racket sports such as tennis or even squash. But the thing you need to understand is that it really isn’t that difficult to learn what these boxes and lines are for.

One of the boxes and lines that are important on a racquetball court is the screen line. While the screen line doesn’t have the biggest role in the sport, it still is very important as it can make or break an entire game, especially if you don’t know what it is for. So, what is the screen line in racquetball?

Try to look at the racquetball court. There will be a huge box that is just between the service line and the short line. In this box, you will see smaller boxes that are closer to the sidewalls of the racquetball court.

The boxes that are the closest to the side walls are the doubles box. There will be another box that is just beside the doubles box. The line that is located on the outer portion of this second box is what we call the screen line. This line should be 3 feet from the sidewalls of the racquetball court and 18 inches away from the outer line of the doubles box.

Now, the screen line serves only one purpose in the sport of racquetball. Such purpose is to identify a drive serve screen. In short, its purpose is to form a boundary that cannot be breached by a player’s racquet while serving a drive serve. If the player’s racquet breaches the screen line and is inside the box, what happens is that the player has committed a screen serve.

Basically, the screen line is found on both sides of the racquetball court and is three feet away from the side walls. Its only purpose is to tell whether or not a player serving a drive serve has committed a screen serve, which is a fault in racquetball.

Related: What Is The Dashed Line In Racquetball? The Court Explained

What Is a Screen Serve?

While discussing what the screen line in racquetball is, we brushed the concept of what a screen serve is. So, to fully understand the purpose of the screen line, it is important for us to know what a screen serve is.

In racquetball, there are certain rules that the player needs to follow when serving a drive serve. Of course, the player also needs to avoid doing certain things as well, or else he would be guilty of what we call a screen serve.

Basically, a screen serve is a fault, which means that you performed a wrong serve in the case of a one-serve game, such as when you are playing in the Open and Pro levels, the server should still be given one more chance to serve the ball after a fault. 

Going back to what a screen line is, this is a line that is located three feet away from the side walls of the racquetball court. It is located inside the service zone. So, if you are serving a drive serve and any part of your racquet or even your body enters this line while you are serving, then that is tantamount to a screen serve.

This is a pretty common infraction that some players carelessly commit. And even the Open and Pro-level players can still commit this infraction from time to time, especially if they use a walking service motion where a certain part of their body or the racquet crosses the screen line. It is important that no part of your body or the racquet breaks the line or even the plane above the line as you are performing a walking service motion.

Of course, there is also another instance of a screen serve. That is when the ball passes within a certain distance of the server’s body. Such a distance is not usually defined, but it is agreed that it should be the length of the racquet, which is 22 inches. When that happens, then the serve has committed a screen serve although this isn’t as common as the first type of screen serves stated above.