Why is it called the kitchen?

Seven feet on either side of the net sits the most argued-over real estate in American sport: the non-volley zone, known everywhere as “the kitchen.”

The honest answer is that nobody documented it. The most repeated explanation borrows from shuffleboard, where a scoring area behind the farthest line is called the kitchen — a place you don't want to be. Early players carried the term over, and it stuck because it felt right: the kitchen is hot, and you can't linger.

What matters more than the etymology is the design brilliance. Take away the smash at the net and you change the sport's center of gravity from power to patience. The kitchen is why a fourteen-year-old and a seventy-year-old can play a real match.

So the next time someone shouts “kitchen!” across the court, remember: you're hearing a piece of folklore doing its job — keeping the game soft-handed, social and slightly absurd.