The Body Bag: A Shot Aimed Directly at Your Opponent's Body. Pickleball Has Named This.

The body bag, also called the body shot, is a pickleball shot aimed directly at the opponent's body — typically at the torso or hip, where it is difficult to get the paddle in position to return effectively. It is a legitimate tactical choice. It is considered an advanced aggressive play. It is called the body bag.

We want to sit with the name for a moment.

"Pickleball, a sport played on a court the size of a large living room with a plastic ball and a solid paddle, has named one of its shots after a body bag."

The body bag is a term that, in most contexts, refers to something used to transport a deceased person. Pickleball has borrowed this term to describe a shot aimed at a living person's midsection during a recreational game. The shot is not dangerous. The ball is plastic and perforated. The paddle is solid but not heavy. No one is being harmed.

And yet: body bag.

We understand that sports develop aggressive vocabulary. We understand that competitive language borrows from combat, from warfare, from contexts that lend drama to what is, at its core, a game. What we note is the specificity of "body bag" — a term that skips past the combat metaphor and lands directly at the morgue. We are filing this under "things we did not expect to write today."