The pre-match hitting warm-up is the exchange before scoring starts, when players can meet the ball and settle into the shared court. It is distinct from physical preparation. The etiquette here concerns cooperation with the other players, not an exercise programme or a promise to prevent injury.
A courtesy rally has other people in it
FIP Rule 2 specifies a three-minute courtesy rally. A casual club booking may use its own arrangement; confirm what time you have instead of assuming every match includes the same informal routine.
In a club warm-up, ask what the player opposite would like to hit. “A few volleys?” or “Shall I send you some lobs?” gives the exchange a shared purpose. Send a ball that makes the requested shot possible and leave time for the other player’s turn. These are editorial examples of courtesy, not a compulsory shot sequence. Trying to win every warm-up exchange can leave someone else still waiting to begin.
If you are also meeting a new partner, use a brief pause to ask about side preferences and calls. The warm-up can start that conversation; it cannot establish a complete account of how either of you will play.
Arriving before certainty
“A few volleys?” the player opposite asks. It is the pre-match warm-up, a courtesy rally before scoring begins. In this imagined club match, a newcomer has been treating each ball as an audition.
He wants to show that he belongs with these players. A reply that goes wrong feels too revealing. A good one seems to require another good one immediately, so the impression will hold. He has scarcely noticed what anyone else needs from the exchange.
Arriving with other people
He says yes to the volleys. The ordinary request gives the next few balls a purpose beyond his own introduction. He starts paying attention to the person he is sending them to.
The Fool offers a beginning before certainty. A player can enter without having established the complete version of themselves they hoped to present. Curiosity makes room for the game and its other people to contribute something.
That openness still asks for care. A warm-up is shared time; calling every careless ball an experiment leaves someone else doing the work. The Fool’s invitation can hold willingness and attention together.
The newcomer sends another ball across. His first impression is still forming, and he is less occupied with supervising it. The next question he hears concerns who will serve.
The match has not begun. He has.