Pickleball Safety

Among sports, pickleball isn't particularly dangerous, and it's probably one of the safer racket sports. Even so, injuries can occur. Here are a few things you can do to reduce the risk of injury.

Balls on the court

It's not worth turning an ankle or having someone fall. If a ball strays onto the court where you are playing, stop the rally until the court is clear.

Stretching/warm ups

Giving yourself a few minutes before you play to warm up your muscles and tendons is a good idea, especially if you are coming in completely cold. Doing a few simple stretches can also help reduce the risk of straining muscles or developing tendon issues.

As far as warm ups, just easing into the movements that you will be doing when you play is a good way to begin warming up. I generally start out with some dinking at the net to warm up my arms, core muscles, and knees. As my blood begins to flow and I begin to feel looser, I will back up and hit some approach shots, moving through the transition zone to the net and alternating with my partner. When I get to the net, my partner will move back to the baseline and repeat. After a couple of rounds of approach shots, hitting a few shots from baseline to baseline will further warm up your arms and core because it takes more force to send the ball the full length of the court. If you are executing these shots properly, it will involve moving to receive the ball, setting up before your stroke, and shifting your weight from your back leg through your stroke to your front leg. These deep strokes are full body rotations.

Hitting a few overhead strokes will also help get your shoulders rotating as well. You don't have to kill the ball. You are just trying to get your full range of motion before you get into game mode.

I see fewer people go about things in this order, but now that your muscles are warm, it's a great time to go through a stretching routine. I'm not a medical professional, so I won't dispense specific stretching exercises here (consult with your doctor), but once again, stretching will help reduce stress on your muscles and tendons and doing some light stretching after you have warmed up a little will make the stretching more effective.

Shoes

The most important thing when selecting proper shoes for pickleball is that they are designed for lateral movement. You need court shoes and NOT running shoes. Running shoes are designed for forward movement. They lack the support you will need for quick sideways movement and you will roll your ankles. There are many quality shoe manufacturers. You may need to try out a few different kinds of shoes before you find ones you like, but court shoes are a must.

You also want decent tread. If your tread wears down and you start slipping and sliding on the court, it's time to retire those shoes.

Let me say this one more time in case you missed it. Don't play pickleball in running shoes. Get yourself some court shoes with good lateral support. There is a lot of lateral movement in pickleball. You need court shoes. Getting a good pair of shoes is a better investment than getting a fancy paddle. If you do not have a stable foundation for hitting, it doesn't matter what paddle you are holding.

Eye protection

Pickleballs are not as heavy as tennis balls or racquetball balls. They are also larger than both of those balls. Even so, eye injuries can and do occur. Most of the time, these injuries occur when a ball deflects off the rim of a paddle. I was hit in the eye a few years ago when an opponent hit a drive at my chest. I put my paddle up to block, but the ball hit the top of my paddle and ricocheted off right into my right eye. The result was an abrasion on my cornea and bruising on the back of my eye. My vision was affected.

The nice thing about pickleballs is that they don't weigh a lot and they are relatively big. Safety glasses for just about any other racket sport will be more than adequate. Some players have even used eye protection from a hardware store with the lenses popped out so they don't fog when they get hot and sweaty. The ball is too big to get through the frames and it is light enough that the frames aren't broken when they get hit with a ball. Sunglasses can also be used and they can help reduce glare from the sun at the same time.

Eyes are important. Protect them.

Here is a link to a pair of full framed racquetball glasses I have used. I have popped the lenses out on my pair so they don't fog up or get smugy. The frames are sturdy enough to keep a pickleball away from my eye.

Lob retrieval

If you spend much time on the Facebook forums for pickleball, you will hear people talk about tendonitis, torn knee tendons, plantar fasciitis, scrapes, bruises, and other injuries from which people can recover. But poor form related to chasing lobs is one of the most dangerous things in the sport and it is one of the only instances where I have seen at least one death (cardiac conditions are the other pickleball court fatalities I have seen).

The most dangerous thing you can do when your opponents send a lob over your head is back-peddling. If you fall backward and hit the back of your head on asphalt, you could get a concussion, you could fracture your skull, or you could die. Don't back-peddle. You would be better off just watching the ball and applauding your opponents. Pickleball is just a game.

There are ways you can safely retrieve lobs; turn and run to retrieve the ball. Here is a great video explaining the mechanics.

Drilling on this movement will help engrain the proper reaction. In any case, don't go about lob retrieval in a way that risks falling backward. Turn your body and run to get yourself behind the ball.

Safety isn't a very fun topic, but it's important, and we probably don't talk about it enough.

Thanks for stopping by,

No Fun David