The “kick” heard round the world

Pickleball, universally known for its nice people and good sportsmanship, got a black eye this past week, literally and figuratively.

In a highly competitive championship match that has since gone viral online, a player named Peter Shonk, delivered a winning shot to secure his team’s victory. Caught up in the excitement of the win, you can hear him let out a victorious shout followed by an unintentionally aggressive paddle tap to his opponent (in pink shorts) causing that opponent to drop his paddle. Shonk, immediately regretful about knocking his opponent’s paddle out of his hand, bends down to pick it up when the opponent decides to kick Shonk in the head, presumably assuming that Shonk’s actions were deliberate. Shonk immediately collapses on the ground while Shonk’s partner takes off towards the attacker. You can see the video, what led up to the incident and a good analysis of what happened here in the video posted above (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw-kJpEeViw)

Here are a few take-aways I have from the incident:

1) When a player is injured, especially as seriously as Shonk was, you should check on the injured player first. If you watch the video, not one person comes to his aid for a solid 14-15 seconds. The referee, all spectators and even the players on the court were more concerned about the bully than the victim.

2) If the opponent is esclating a frustrating situation to kicking someone in the head as his go-to response to handle this conflict, he clearly needs anger management, a therapist or conflict resolution classes, stat. Even if Shonk was intentional with what he did (he was not), the punishment doesn’t fit the “crime”.

3) Shonk is allowed to be happy about his win and express that demonstratively. His opponent is allowed to be frustrated, even angry, about his loss as long as the anger is aimed in the right direction, at the people on his side of the net. The issue isn’t one of testosterone but of control.

In the end, Shonk took the high ground and decided not to press charges even though the injury caused him about 3 hours of unconsciousness, some memory loss and a sore face/neck. I hope, for the sake of the game, that this type of incident doesn’t happen again. Thankfully, there are good people like Peter Shonk that can model good sportsmanship even when its not extended to him.