When I watch videos of pro players I always see one or two coaches sitting on their chairs. In international youth tournaments I sometimes see even three coaches discussion their tactics. Is there any limit of how many coaches are allowed to support a player? Can someone link the rules of coaching?
Hm, I've been looking around and realized it does not specifically state anywhere in any of the rules about the maximum # of coaches a player can have on their side. (This further proves my point that the rulebook is quite lacking imo). But as an umpire, I will tell you that the maximum number of coaches a player can have on their side (either seated, or during intervals, coaching them), is 2.
While there is no number specified in the rulebook, it is implied that the number of coaches allowed is restricted by the number of designated coach allocated as the rulebook did state that coaches are not allowed to be standing and must be seated during play. I guess if the tournament director decided to put 4 chairs each at the end of the court, then it means up to 4 coaches are allowed but I doubt that would happen. At the Canada Open tourneys that I've gone to and volunteered in, there is usually only one chair allocated and I don't recalled seeing more than 2 chairs allocated.
i forgot which tournament but it was one where gillian clark was commentating on specifically about how LYB stepped onto the edge of the court to convey a message and it wasn't allowed because there's more than 2.
i've asked a higher official this, and they thought about it and said '2, but the referee has final say in it'. at a local sub-regional/province/(or 'district') level match i was part of the organizing team, they had provision for only 1 coach, max (but it could be because it was a low level event with barely enough funding to even accomodate enough chairs?).
