The Attack of the Body Baggers

#1024: Coach Leia Miller talks about whether there is an etiquette or sportsmanship issue about aiming the ball at an opponent's body, since "body bagging" has become a legitimate strategy. In earlier pickleball days, hitting someone with the ball might have necessitated a heartfelt apology. Leia talks about how the sport has become more aggressive so you need to be prepared to defend against players who aim for your body — or heaven forbid, your face!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Pickleball Obsession. This is the first podcast created just for recreational picklers with quick useful advice for amateur players from a variety of certified pickleball coaches. Whether you're a social player out there just to have fun or a competitive one trying to sharpen your skills and win more, the more you know, the better you'll play. I hope this show will get you up to the kitchen faster, dink with a purpose, and help you win paddle battles. I'm your host, Tracy Hotner. You might know me as the pet wellness expert on NPR Sirius and my own pet podcast network, but here I'm no expert, just another admittedly obsessed player picking the brains of top coaches for advice we can all use. This show is brought to you in partnership with the IPTPA, the International Pickleball Teachers Professional Association, and the Association of Pickleball Players, the APP Tournaments. Sign up at pickleballobsession.net for the weekly episodes of the podcast, along with bonus content. Embrace the obsession. Leah Miller, I am so glad to have you here as my defender against people who use the pickleball as ammo in a weapon called a pickleball paddle. And we've talked on the show, Greg and I and others about bangers, which you and I could also talk about because that's a long conversation. But I've discovered this subset of bangers that I call drillers. And they are trying to drill the ball through you as if it were, I don't know, a bullet. Now I didn't know this phrase of body bagging, but I read about it in the, you know, kind of somebody's newsletter, whether or not you should apologize or not for body bagging. I'm like, wait a minute. You mean people are are in fact purposely trying to hit people as hard as they can, drill it at them? This is I always, when it happens, I'm like, wow, that was rude. But is this legit?

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Talk about body bagging and drilling. I know. So it's so funny that you use the word ammo because that's one of the biggest words I use when I teach people is you don't want to give them ammo to fire back at you. So kind of tying it into the drilling is if you give someone a dead dink, if you give that someone right to their forehand or their sweet spot, their fire spot, you did it to yourself. You gave them that shot to do it. And here's the thing there's a difference between drilling somebody, body bagging someone, tattooing somebody, right? Yes, you have got to keep your paddle up. Your paddle is your shield. You gave them the ammo to fire at you. Now you need to protect yourself. So there's two things into that, right? Is don't give them a shot to do it. And if you do, you got to protect yourself.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I like that. That's a really good point. And what I found um like a year ago, before I got my paddle, was now pretty much always up, but also expects what will come back. I was getting I was getting hit in the chest a lot. I'm like, well, yeah, this is harsh. But I knew it was my fault that I didn't have the paddle here as my protection, usually they say even as a backhand, right? Yeah, in terms of a protector. But I'm talking about something different, which is just hitting it at you, but hitting it as hard as they can, yeah. So injure you now.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Am I misreading that? So here's the thing. I kind of have a couple opinions about that, right? There's some people that play dirty and they they want to show their power, they want to show how hard they can hit the ball. Yes, pickleball is the game of patience and finesse. I would rather someone say, Holy crap, that was a great drop shot you just hit, or you hit it to my chicken wing, you know, or you hit me on my hip. You don't need to smoke it at me. Like that's not the point of it. You're not playing the game of pickleball. It's about of making your opponent make the mistake, and you it's place overpower. That's my biggest thing. So I feel, yeah, place over uh placement overpower, right? And you know what? Sorry, not sorry. I know that's a whole other thing, too, is I do that sometimes too. I have enough control. I'm like, I'm not trying to drill it at your face, but sometimes in the heat of the moment, your adrenaline gets pumped up and you're pumped up and you're like maybe seven, eight, nine shots into the point, and all of a sudden that just comes over. You're like, oh, I have that juicy meatball and I want to put it away. So it's again, like kind of like we were talking about the lot, maybe a 50-50. I don't think that you need to wind up and hit the ball 95 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Thank you. And I can see if it's in the middle of a point and everybody's fired up and it's I mean, adrenaline's flowing, and you know, come what may, let let, you know, snowflakes or fire come out of the sky. But I'm talking about people whose intention, uh, I don't like that. It isn't just men. There's a couple of women who do it too. And I'm like, wow, I think you need a psychiatrist to work on your anger management because you have a lot of hostility, and I don't want to be your punching bag.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

But by being a wimp, no, no, but here's the thing the way that we were taught and the way that we play the game is the finesse, the using your legs, using the height of the ball. And you are gonna get those people that they want to muscle the ball because it makes them feel better and they think that the power is gonna throw you off and then maybe get in your head. So maybe it's a mental thing for them too, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:27

To intimidate you. So you're playing against a driller and he wants to body bag you, which is a phrase I had only just recently read about. And I thought, oh yeah, so a driller is body bagging. Yeah. They are aiming as hard as they can to hurt you, not necessarily even to win the point. So if they can't intimidate you and they can't physically injure you because your paddle is going to block it, I presume that that's the best defense against drilling, is it?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Or or there's two that I actually have another idea about that too. Majority of the time, where's that ball gonna go if they're hitting that hard at you? Out. So it's watching their footwork, watching their paddle head, literally just getting out of the way, or something if you can, obviously, depending where you are on the court, too. That's a whole other different scenario, also, right? But majority of the time, if they're hitting it that hard, Tracy, the ball's going out and you can just be like, haha, nice shot. Yeah. And so what you become is a professional ducker.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

I always say to people on either side of the court, good duck. Yeah, right. Like, really, you know, they're like really good at swirling and or ducking down. It's like, bye-bye, ball.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

I know you you know those um things like like uh at um car dealerships, like those big wavy things. It's like you gotta get out of the way of that thing, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Exactly. The car dealership wavy blow-up character is what you need to be. So that's that's uh another way to deal with the driller. Although it's coming hard and fast, and if it is anywhere at your face, the most thing you want to do is just say, uh, I don't know, meet you in the back alley. Yeah, no kidding. Like, are you mad at me? Did I do something? Did I do something for you to piss you off? Right, exactly. That's what it feels like. It's like, can we just be friends? Can we just enjoy a game? You know, outsmart me, outdink me, outweight me, make me uncomfortable, put me in an awkward position, make me feel like a fool for whatever shot I hit incorrectly and now you've taken advantage of, but don't try to cause me physical anguish. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

You're like, I like this is my moneymaker. Please don't ruin that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Well, you know, I I they used to say it used to be said in radio, I have a face for radio, so now that everything's like on YouTube, it's like, well, never mind that idea. Uh stop it. Well, I mean, the point is it's not really your moneymaker because Yeah. But on the other hand, it hurts. Physically, it does. It does.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah. And um, and anyone can hit you hard accidentally. They're trying to hit the ball hard, probably harder than they should. And it hits you, they're always gonna say sorry. This article in some newsletter said you never should have to say sorry for hitting a body bagger. Really? Do you agree with that? I mean, it's not the harm in saying sorry if you really even aren't, because we did a show on sorry, not sorry. Sorry. Yeah. Really glad. But that was about balls dribbling over the top of the net. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

But then harming someone. Yeah, I mean, I feel like being in sports my whole life, I was taught sportsmanship is huge. You know, like even there's been there's been times where I mishit the ball and I'll smoke it really hard. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. Are you okay? And I don't, I just I don't get the anger behind some of these players sometimes where they need to literally wind up, hit the ball so hard that you're like falling back. Like I've been fall, I like I've been pushed to my my bottom sometimes because I'm like, holy crap, you just smoke that ball at me. Like, why?

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Well, I'm glad to know that somebody at your high level sees somebody winding up and knows that their intention is to use the paddle as a firearm and the pickleball as the ammo, and you are the target. So to those they're doing it, it's not fun. You should all go together to like the shooting range, if you will. Those people should take up kickboxing, take up boxing or something. I don't know. Absolutely, totally, yes, or or punch a pillow, or you know, go to some group therapy for anger management, or work out your whatever these issues are because it uh somehow the pickleball court it doesn't feel right. Although there can be guys and maybe some women who want to play like that. I've watched some people at courts play like that. They're high-level players. I would say half of their balls would have gone out. Half of them. All every player on the court, but the other people want to hit a hard ball hard. Yeah, they don't even care about the score or the point.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

They just want to hit a hard ball hard. The aggression. I know. It's like, why are you so mad? What happened? Did you have a bad coffee this morning? Like, did you not like have a good breakfast? Like, are you in a fight with a friend?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Like you have a bad childhood. Seriously. Yeah, okay, guys. So those of you that are drillers, stick with each other. Don't take off innocent civilians. Life is like Don't hurt us. Don't hurt us. We're just nice, fun ticklers. We are, we're just good people. Please be kind. Thank you, Leah Miller. Great to spend time with you. You're welcome. You too.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Hey, stay warm.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I'm proud of our partnership with the APP, the Association of Pickleball Players, which provides world-class pickleball competitions for professionals and recreational players. I'm also grateful for our partnership with the IPTPA, which is the world leader in developing standards and certifying coaches across the world. If you subscribe on Apple or Spotify, please also sign up at pickleballobsession.net to get the weekly email with the podcast and bonus content. Embrace the Obsession.