Essential Exercises for Pickleball Athletes: Build Strength, Balance, and Stability

There are some key exercises we recommend for all the Pickleball athletes out there. However, you must screen them before you train them so you can best help them. The first exercise we recommend for the Pickleball athlete is a "Lift" exercise. Pickleball should be trained from the ground up - so the "Lift" is a great place to start. You can modify the exercise according to the athlete's abilities by being half kneeling on the ground or using a wedge or padding to limit ROM. A second exercise we recommend for the Pickleball athlete is a single-leg deadlift. This can be done with many modifications but will certainly work on balance and stability in the lower extremities. A third exercise we recommend for the Pickleball athlete is "Assisted Lunges". However, we do want to see any asymmetries from the "Lift" exercise or the single leg deadlift be resolved before moving on to this one. Finally, a great exercise to do after the Pickleball athlete can demonstrate no asymmetries in our previous 3 exercises is a squat with reactive neuromuscular training (RNT). This will often allow the athlete to work a deeper movement pattern while maintaining an upright posture. For the Pickleball athlete, Indian clubs can be a great opportunity to really challenge the body's overall balance, stability and even cardiovascular system.

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