Pickleball Has a Shot Called the Falafel. It Is Not a Compliment.

The falafel is a pickleball shot that dies in the air — a ball hit without sufficient power or spin that falls short of its intended target, landing weakly and giving the opponent an easy put-away. It is named, apparently, after the Middle Eastern food, on the basis that a falafel, when not prepared correctly, can be dry, dense, and lacking in the energy one hopes for.

We want to address the falafel on two levels.

First, the shot itself. The falafel is the pickleball equivalent of a mis-hit — a ball that simply does not do what you intended. In tennis, this is called an error. In golf, it is called a mishit. In pickleball, it has been given a name that evokes a specific food preparation failure. The sport has, in other words, developed enough of a culture around its mistakes that the mistakes have their own vocabulary.

"Pickleball has built a technical vocabulary that assumes familiarity with international cuisine. This is either charming or alarming. We have not decided."

Second, the name. We are not opposed to food-based terminology in sports. We understand the impulse toward playfulness. What we note is the specificity: not just "a weak shot," not just "a dead ball," but a falafel — a word that requires the listener to know both what a falafel is and what a poorly made falafel feels like in order to fully appreciate the metaphor. Pickleball has built a technical vocabulary that assumes familiarity with international cuisine. This is either charming or alarming. We have not decided.