In pickleball, we are friendly bunch, so a lot of times you will see pickle ballers apologising and saying sorry to each other.
But the unwritten truth is that these are hollow apologies ! Actually its really a case of “I’m sorry, but not really”!
It all revolves around badly played shots that win points.
Let’s start with an example that’s not exactly an apology. Your opponents hit a great shot, even though you dive to reach it it passes you and has you beat. As you turn your head to watch it land, it is out by millimetres, you instantly tell them “wow nearly a great shot, bad luck” – what you mean is “HAH!! GOOD!! – side out.”
Pickleball shot apologies often involve the intervention of the net, a favourite being the serve. At crucial points like game point, your opponents stand well back knowing you are going to serve deep, you take the serve, it clips the top of the net, just clears the kitchen line bounces a couple of cm, whilst your opponent hopelessly tries to make up the ground before the inevitable double bounce you already have a palm out and shout “sorry”, Inside you are just thinking Yeeeeesss!!”|
Then their is dink battle net clip. Your involved in a dink battle with your opponent, obviously trying to keep it low over the net, you hit it a little too low and the ball clips the the net, it seems to sit on the very top of the net for an eternity whilst everyone watches to see what side of the net it will decide to fall. Eventually (if you blow on it hard enough) the ball dribbles over to the other side, falling so slowly that even if your opponent can get to it (which they wont) it doesn’t bounce high enough for them to hit it back. When this happen, their is no verbal sorry, instead its the raised palm of sorry, but its not fully committed, you give the sorry gesture but also want your opponent to think that actually you are really good and that you played that shot intentionally!
Next is the miss-hit winner. Your opponents have been attempting to lob you, you keep smashing the ball back, yet they keep retrieving your smash, in desperation you put every ounce of energy into the next smash, but in doing so, mis-time the shot, it hits the edge of your paddle, shoots off at an impossible angle which catches your opponents off guard, they can only stand and watch as the ball bounces in and spins aways from them. You shout a loud “sorry” across the net but under your breath you say to yourself “Thank FXXX for that”.
Last is the what I call the pickleball classic hollow apology ……..it is made after a body-shot smash. This is where you play the Ball at high speed directly at your opponent’s body. They can’t move their paddle in time and thus take a ball strike directly to the body, losing the point and suffering the excruciating pickle ball sting for good measure. We have all trained ourselves out of the natural reaction to shout “Yeeeaahh!!” and punch the air when this happens. Instead as the opponent doubles up in pain we instantly shout over “Sorry, sorry, sorry …are you OK? ..sorry sorry” But, you, your opponent and everyone watching all know that the shot you played and the end result is exactly what you were going for !!
