Pickleball Pandemonium: 5 Common Injuries and How to Keep Your Pickleball Game Strong!

If you’re a pick­le­ball enthu­si­ast, you know that this quirky and fast-paced sport is tak­ing the world by storm. With a mix of ten­nis, bad­minton, and ping pong, pick­le­ball pro­vides an excit­ing and com­pet­i­tive expe­ri­ence for play­ers of all ages and skill lev­els. Despite the laugh­ter and friend­ly com­pe­ti­tion, there’s one thing that can put a damper on your pick­le­ball fun: injuries. Yes, the pick­le­ball court can be a bat­tle­field of sprained ankles, strained mus­cles, and more. In fact, our Orthopaedic team has seen an increase in injuries caused by this fast-grow­ing activity. 

Stay in the game by under­stand­ing the top five com­mon pick­le­ball injuries and tips on how to keep your pick­le­ball game strong. 

“Oh, My Ankle!” – Sprained Ankles

The lat­er­al move­ments and quick direc­tion changes in pick­le­ball can put stress on your ankles, mak­ing sprained ankles a com­mon occur­rence on the court. This can occur by land­ing awk­ward­ly, step­ping on a ball, or twist­ing your ankle dur­ing a fast-paced game. 

Treat­ment for Sprained Ankles

R.I.C.E, which stands for Rest, Ice, Com­pres­sion and Ele­va­tion, is the key to man­ag­ing a sprained ankle. Start by tak­ing a break from the court and allow­ing your ankle to rest, fol­lowed by apply­ing ice to reduce swelling, wrap­ping it with a com­pres­sion ban­dage and ele­vat­ing the foot. Over-the-counter med­ica­tions can also be help­ful to man­age pain and inflam­ma­tion. It is also impor­tant to start gen­tle range of motion exer­cis­es ear­ly in the process and bear weight as you tol­er­ate. If you are unable to bear weight, it is a good idea to be seen by one of our providers and get an X‑ray to ensure that a more seri­ous injury, such as a frac­ture, has not occurred. And remem­ber, always wear sup­port­ive and well-fit­ted shoes to pro­vide sta­bil­i­ty to your ankles dur­ing pick­le­ball games.

“Ouch, My Shoul­der!” – Rota­tor Cuff Strains

The over­head swings and repet­i­tive shoul­der move­ments in pick­le­ball can stress the rota­tor cuff, lead­ing to pain and dis­com­fort. Overuse, poor tech­nique and lack of warm-up can increase the risk of this injury.

Treat­ment for Rota­tor Cuff Strains

If you expe­ri­ence shoul­der pain, it’s impor­tant to rest and avoid repet­i­tive over­head activ­i­ty. Ice, gen­tle motion and strength­en­ing exer­cis­es can help reduce dis­com­fort. Phys­i­cal ther­a­py may also be rec­om­mend­ed for more severe or lin­ger­ing cas­es. A prop­er warm up, includ­ing light car­dio­vas­cu­lar and range of motion exer­cis­es, in addi­tion to prop­er tech­nique, can reduce the risk of rota­tor cuff injury. If the pain lingers for sev­er­al weeks or you are hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ty lift­ing your arm away from your body, come in for evaluation. 

“Yikes, My Knee!” – Patel­lar Tendinitis

The repet­i­tive jump­ing and squat­ting motions in pick­le­ball can strain the patel­lar ten­don, caus­ing patel­lar ten­dini­tis, com­mon­ly known as ​“jumper’s knee.” This can result in pain and swelling around the knee, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to move around the court.

Treat­ment for Patel­lar Tendinitis

Rest is cru­cial to allow the inflamed ten­don to heal. Apply­ing ice, gen­tle stretch­ing and strength­en­ing exer­cis­es can also help relieve the pain. Wear­ing knee sleeves or using patel­lar straps can pro­vide addi­tion­al sup­port and reduce strain on the ten­don. Return to play slow­ly, grad­u­al­ly increas­ing the fre­quen­cy, inten­si­ty and dura­tion of each ses­sion over sev­er­al weeks. Per­haps the most impor­tant part of man­ag­ing patel­lar ten­dini­tis is an appro­pri­ate warm up before the game starts. 

“Ouch, My Back!” – Low­er Back Strains

The repet­i­tive twist­ing, bend­ing and reach­ing motions in pick­le­ball can stress the mus­cles and lig­a­ments of the low­er back, lead­ing to low­er back pain. Poor pos­ture, lack of core sta­bil­i­ty and sud­den move­ments can increase the risk of back injuries on the court.

Treat­ment for Low­er Back Strains

Rest, ice and over-the-counter pain med­ica­tion can help alle­vi­ate acute back pain. Gen­tle stretch­ing, strength­en­ing exer­cis­es and prac­tic­ing good pos­ture can also pro­mote heal­ing and pre­vent future injuries. It’s impor­tant to engage your core mus­cles and main­tain a neu­tral spine posi­tion dur­ing pick­le­ball games to reduce the risk of injury. It is imper­a­tive to con­tin­ue gen­tle motion through the spine dur­ing treat­ment even if this caus­es some mild dis­com­fort. Referred pain into the legs, numb­ness or tin­gling are all rea­sons to seek med­ical attention. 

Just like any phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, pick­le­ball comes with the risk of injuries. Sprained ankles, rota­tor cuff strains, patel­lar ten­dini­tis and low­er back strains are some of the com­mon pick­le­ball injuries that play­ers may encounter.

By fol­low­ing some sim­ple tips and tak­ing pre­cau­tions, you can keep your pick­le­ball game strong and min­i­mize the risk of injuries. Remem­ber to wear sup­port­ive shoes, warm up and cool down prop­er­ly, prac­tice good tech­nique and lis­ten to your body. 

If you over­do it in your next pick­le­ball match, our orthopaedic team will help get you off the side­lines and back in the game safe­ly. Sched­ule a same-day appoint­ment with a Duly Ortho Now provider today.