By Ken Lass
Well, that didn’t take long. I just started playing pickleball, and already I have my first injury. I’m not sure whether to be embarrassed, or to wear it as a badge of honor.
Ken Lass, Tribune columnist
As you may know, pickleball has been growing like wildfire in popularity in recent decades, particularly among old people. I’ll let you define that demographic any way you like. Seems all of my friends are playing it, so I decided to give it a try, and immediately became addicted. However, the trick to enjoying pickleball is to survive it. I learned this the hard way. It was about my fourth time playing at the Trussville Civic Center when, apparently under the illusion I was playing for the gold medal in the Summer Olympics, I made a diving lunge at a ball and felt a pop in my left calf muscle. I knew immediately what it was. I remembered it from my softball days, after hitting a pitch and making that first, sudden, lunging stride toward first base.
The next day I limped into my doctor’s examining room and she flashed a broad smile and told me pickleball is keeping doctors busy. She’s not wrong. One study shows that pickleball-related injuries have increased 200 percent in the last twenty years. Sprained ankles, pulled hamstrings, tennis elbow (now renamed pickleball elbow of course), hip, heel and arch injuries, doctors are seeing them all. Especially on relics like me. 85 percent of reported pickleball injuries happen to people over the age of sixty.
One article I read informed me that calf injuries such as mine can be avoided by adding certain stretching exercises to my warm-up routine. Oh, wait. I’m supposed to have a warm-up routine? Well, that could explain a lot. The only part of my body that gets warmed up before playing is my mouth, as I yak with my friends before taking the court. Sometimes we hit a few volleys and serves before beginning a game, but usually one of us will quickly say “well, we’re not going to get any better”, and off we go to start playing.
And about actually playing, one must learn the proper positioning and strategy on the court. For example, when your opponent hits a shot that requires you to move sharply to reach it, the proper form is to lift your paddle and your free hand into the air in front of you, make a clapping gesture, and utter the words “good shot”. Then slowly walk to retrieve the ball and begin the next point. This strategy will not help you win the game, but it will help you avoid limping into your doctor’s examining room the next day.
I’m told it is also helpful to learn the proper way to fall. Because, chances are, sooner or later, you will fall. It often happens when your opponent loops a ball high over your head, and you, still believing you are twenty-five years old, start backpedaling to set yourself up for that incredible overhead smash you used to make on the tennis court fifty years ago. Only now your feet get tangled up, you lose your balance, and start flailing around like one of those inflatable tube dancers, as you crash to the floor. The key, according to experts, is to try to fall on your side, not your back. This way, your head is less likely to hit the floor, and your arms and wrists are less susceptible to injury because you didn’t have to use them to break your fall. This will be helpful when you use your arms and hands to read a book and operate the TV remote control from your sofa, as you recover from the sore hip you got from falling on your side.
If you are new to the game, it will not be unusual to experience pain and tightness in your paddle arm. This is due to the pressure exerted on your deltoid and shoulder muscles from the repetitive motion of throwing your paddle into the bleachers after losing yet another game. The arm soreness will heal with simple rest. The damage to the bleachers will have to be settled up with your local Park & Rec department.
Good shoes are important. A pair of reinforced court shoes are recommended. These will hold up to the punishment from kicking your ball across the court after yet again blowing that easy shot. Make sure the shoes are not laced up too snugly, so as not to irritate your blisters.
Shortly after you begin playing you will want to buy a roomy pickleball bag. You’ll need this to store your paddle, balls, wrist band, wallet, watch, keys, muscle pain cream, health insurance card, and phone numbers of next of kin.
Okay, perhaps I exaggerate a bit. Really, I can see why the sport is growing so fast. Pickleball is truly great fun and fellowship and a good way to get some exercise. I can’t wait for my leg to heal so I can get back out on the court. This time I’m going to take it easy. It’s just a game. At least, that’s what my friends kept telling me as they carried me out of the gym.
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