3 Common Mistakes Pickleballers Make that Leads to Weeks and Months away from the Courts(and how to avoid them)

If you’re an avid pickleballer, the last thing you want to hear from your doctor is that you need to take time off from the courts because of an injury. You definitely don’t want to just put a band-aid on it in the form of advil or the next “miracle arthritis erasing brace” that somehow never seems to fix the problem. The last thing you want is to be told that you need to take 6 weeks(or more) off from pickleball just to get foot pain from plantar fasciitis, knee pain, hip pain from bursitis, or low back pain to calm down. Apart from staying healthy for many, pickleball with others is their “adult time” away from the pressures of work and home and losing this because of an injury is not on their list of things to do. In addition, the 6 weeks that the doctor wants you to take off(if they’re not telling you to stop playing altogether) will usually be added on to once you get playing again because while rest may have doused the flame of the injury, it has not dealt with the reason you were injured and got hurt in the first place. So, once you hit the courts again, the painful swelling in the knee, the agonizing first step out of the bed, or not being able to sleep on a hip flares again leading to more time off, more stress, weight gain, and loss of something you love doing. In this article, we’ll cover 3 of the most common mistakes I see pickleballers make and how you can avoid them.

Mistake #1: Jumping straight into Pickleball instead of Training for it:  Even with doubles pickleball, players have a lot of side to side motion and rotation along with quick stops and if you haven’t prepared the muscles in the gym, you are leaving yourself open to -itises like in the tendon, bursa, or plantar fascia. This is mostly because our strength training hasn’t prepared our body to do these movements. A well balanced strength plan has both slow controlled movements and quicker movements that mimic our moves on the court. For many, taking up pickleball is the first time in years that they’ve done these types of movements and when we don’t prepare, time off from injury is often the result. 

Mistake #2: No Preventative maintenance: These days, there are many tools available over the internet that let you address muscle tension and pain, joint stiffness, and even back issues from the comfort of your home. Sometimes we don’t know there’s a problem lurking until we get the injury. But, using something like a foam roller to “scan” your muscles when you roll with it will often find areas that you never knew were a problem while movements like squatting, lunging, and reaching overhead will let you know if you have an imbalance. If you squat and you are putting more weight on one side than the other or note stiffness on one side, you are dealing with an imbalance and often these imbalances are the seeds of future injuries that sprout on the court. 

Mistake #3: Replace RICE with MEAT, meaning when you are dealing with an ache or tightness, instead of Resting, Icing, Compression, and Elevation, replace it with MEAT or Mobility(gentle motion through your available range of motion), Exercise(usually aerobic like on a bike to use the movement to pump excess swelling out of the injury), Analgesics like Tylenol instead of Anti-inflammatories like Ibupurofen, and Treatment(maybe that’s self treatment like a massage gun or working with a qualified physio. Often replacing RICE for MEAT gets you back faster and with fewer complications

Confused about where to start? Book a call from the comfort of your home or office and  on your schedule with one of our Pain Specialists. You can schedule your call here.  Need help now? Come by and talk with one of our Doctors of Physical Therapy at no charge. We offer FREE consultations, which give you the opportunity to come in and meet us and see for yourself how we can help you.

Here are just a few of the things you will learn in one of our free consultation:

• What is the underlying cause of your pain? (hopefully nothing too serious!)

• Roughly, how long will it take to fix the problem?

• What to do to help – which doesn’t include painkillers, resting or surgery etc.

• What other, natural, drug free methods are there to speed up recovery alongside treatment?

Our consultations are great for anyone that may be “unsure” if physio is right for them, and they give you the opportunity to ask questions and see for yourself if we can help you.

If you’d like one of our limited free consultation sessions, please click here to schedule your free consultation or CALL us on 850-765-2779 to make a no-obligation enquiry.

Dr. Brandon is the owner and a Physio at Body Mechanix Physiotherapy and Fitness. Four of his favorite people call him daddy while he's been married to his other favorite person for 20 years. He enjoys teaching martial arts and is a Mestrando in Capoeira while in the mornings, he can be found working out with the guys in F3 around town.  He's the author of 4 pain relief guides for sciatica, low back, shoulder, and knees and the lead contributor to the Active Tallahassee Blog.