08/17/2025
🏓Pickleball Injury Prevention🏓
If you haven’t checked out my 5 part video series – check out my videos. Here is a written compilation of the same, if not very similar, information! Enjoy!
Pickleball has become one of the most popular sports today. Why? It is easy to learn, relatively easy on the joints, and extremely FUN! But an increase in injuries can been detected especially for those either new to the sport or new to sports in general! And it does combine a lot of repetitive motions, and if your body is either not used to the motions OR you are having so much fun that you are overplaying, you can see some aches and pains crop up. That being said, it is still easier on the body than traditional tennis.
🧐What kind of injuries do you see with Pickleball?
Muscle strains including the calf, hamstrings and quadriceps are typical. Also, Achilles ruptures (the tendon attaching the calf to the heel bone) are prevalent. Also, ankle sprains, rotator cuff injuries (including tendinitis, strains, and tears), as well as falls. The sport is no joke!
💧 Step 1: Hydration
Everyone is aware we need to get a lot of water, especially when we lose fluids with sweating. But you often don’t realize how much fluid you lose when is cooler and/or dryer outside because sweat is evaporating faster. You also cant forget to replenish electrolytes, especially if you are a salty sweater (ie: you leave a salt rim on your clothes when they dry). Muscle and tendon injury risk increases with dehydration because your muscles are more tense, and the more tense your muscles, the higher risk of injury. Also, caffeine and alcohol dehydrate you because they tell your body to lose fluid. So for every drink of alcohol and/or caffeine, you absolutely must replenish with water and/or electrolyte infused drink.
🍲 Step 2: Balanced diet
It is crucial to get the right amount of vitamins and minerals in your body to help reduce the risk of bone injury. Think calcium and vitamin D, which is the helper to get calcium taken up into your bones. Also, protein helps build muscle, complex carbohydrates help fuel your body with sport, and a balanced diet helps with healing and recouperation of body tissues between play. Another thing to note is that getting into playing pickleball is probably a bad time to drastically cut calories and try to lose weight. Cleanses, intermittent fasting, and skipping meals are no good – these fads can lead to a multitude of issues, not just injury risk.
👩🎓 Step 3: Learn the basics
Learn how to play properly! Swinging the paddle is more than just using your arm. Proper positioning of the body, combined with body mechanics to swing through the ball and twist from the trunk’s core muscles helps significantly with form and longevity. Adequate knee bend during play helps reduce low back strain, as well as absorb shock. And appropriate ankle flexibility helps you get down into positions closer to the ground – so don’t forget to have someone help you with your form! And be careful moving backward especially starting out or at older ages – falling is common with the sport but can be more impactful to bones of those with osteopenia and osteoporosis.
🏓Step 4: Equipment
Outside of using the obvious – a proper paddle and pickle ball – there are other forms of equipment to remember. Eye protection to avoid a ball to the eye. Braces can be helpful for knee pain, chronic ankle sprains, wrist instability, and elbow pain. Proper court shoes are an absolute must – very soft and unstable shoes like Hokas are probably going to set you up for a twist or a fall. You can also think of compression sleeves for commonly injured or ailing muscle groups like a calf muscle issue or elbow pain. And don’t forget to layer your clothing to avoid overheating and overcooling.
🗓️ Step 5: Appropriate Intensity and Frequency
This can depend on the athlete and appropriate training consistency – if you play a lot and have been consistent, it’s probably ok to continue to play at a higher level and for longer periods of time. And it is prudent to be aware of your body’s signals – stop when you start to feel fatigue in your muscles/joints. And if you have been busy and have not played in a while, don’t pick up the same frequency/intensity you had before your hiatus. Take adequate rest breaks when you play, and if you want to be objective you can use heartrate, count matches, and time yourself. And if you play a lot, you need an off day from play and/or exercise. Pick a day of the week to rest from activity!
💪🏻 Step 6: Strengthen your body
It is great on your off pickle-ball days to use strengthening to your advantage. Use weight machines, free weights, or bar bells. But the rotator cuff is best to focus your attention on, as well as the forearm.
🤸♀️Step 7: Warm up before play
The purpose of warming up before play is to increase muscle and tendon flexibility, increase blood flow to the limbs, increase body temperature, and increase free, coordinated movement. This can consist of 5 minutes brisk walk or light jog. You are looking to just start to “Break a sweat” – think like you are warming up your body like and oven. And it is crucial to remember and make time to do this prior to a match.
🧘♀️Step 8: Stretching (Static and Dynamic)
The purpose of stretching is to allow enough movement in joints for athletic performance. You are trying to decrease muscle stiffness or increase muscle flexibility. Which in theory should reduce injury risk because stiff muscles lead to injury. However, there is very little research to show a distinct cause and effect with flexibility and injury prevention (but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t help).
The two types of stretching: static and dynamic stretch. Static is done by moving until stretch is felt, stopping without moving past the stretch sensation, typically held 30 seconds, three times. Dynamic is done with movement to where a brief stretch is felt without holding the stretch, repeating 10 or more times. Think leg and arm swings/kicks.
The immediate effects of static stretching are a change in range of motion and flexibility. Now that you can feel. But you also get jelly legs, or stretch induced strength loss. So static stretching is best done post play to avoid hurting your performance. But it is my recommendation to do a little bit of static stretching in high risk muscle groups for you – if you have hamstring issues, stretch 1 x 30 seconds before you play.
The immediate effects of dynamic stretching are to produce performance enhancement for power and agility, feature progressive, continuous movement, and there is no stretch induced strength loss. So this a great exercise to perform pre play because you don’t get jelly legs but you get improved performance and motion.
In conclusion:
Day of:
Warm Up for 5 minutes of jogging or brisk walking and “break a sweat”.
Dynamic Stretch After warm up, Around 5 minutes of stretching
Static Stretch, BEFORE: Only for “at risk” muscles, AFTER: All muscles 3 times for 30 seconds each
Outside of pickleball:
Strengthen on “off” pickleball days
Don’t want to fatigue your muscles before or after play = injury
Hydrate regularly. If you keep oil in your car, then you should also lubricate your body!!
Caffeine does not count – ex: coffee, tea, energy drinks
Proper equipment
Proper play/form/biomechanics
Eat your fruits and vegetables and take your vitamins
If you play pickleball or exercise daily, you need 1 day off a week.
Hope this helps!!!! Now get out there and play!!
Heal today, transform tomorrow. Unlock your potential to heal, learn and grow.
Dr Barb Wally Online Physical Therapy.
If you haven’t checked out my 5 part video series – check out my videos under the Video Blog Tab. Here is a written compilation of the same, if not very similar, information! Enjoy! Pic…
