Does Pickleball Need Enforcers? Player Pegs Opponent After Falling To The Ground
There's a pretty simple way to make sure you don't get pegged while you're on the ground during the middle of a pickleball point--and that is to stay on your feet.
Don't fall = don't get bodybagged. Typically I'd charge by the hour for my coaching advice, but I'm willing to let that lesson out there for free.
Now that's not to say you should just eat that shot without any sort of repercussions. By all accounts, Andrei Daescu seems like a perfectly honorable player. He immediately apologized for hitting the shot and claimed he had to take the shot, not that he wanted to. With that being said, Zane Navratil and Lina Padegimaite should have made it their mission the rest of the match to bodybag the shit out of him every chance they got. Any attackable ball for the rest of the match should have been labeled for his neck.
Pickleball doesn't need enforcers. There's nothing wrong with that shot whatsoever. You play to win the game, and hitting your downed opponent with the ball sure as heck seems like a good strategy for that. However, pickleball would be better with enforcers. It would be more entertaining if some of these matches turned into bloodbaths with both sides looking to just smoke the other with the ball. The one thing pickleball desperately does not need is anymore apologizing. No more saying sorry after getting a lucky roll off the net. No more saying sorry for bodybagging your opponent. No more saying sorry for lobbing your opponent into the sun. No more saying sorry in general.