Pickleball Injuries Are Rising — It’s Time to Address This Head On

Lately, I’ve been hearing it everywhere. Quiet conversations on the sidelines. Messages from players who “just tweaked something.” Friends suddenly sidelined for weeks — or months.

Knees. Achilles. Shoulders. Backs and Hips. Not freak accidents. Not collisions. Just bodies breaking down. And what’s alarming isn’t just the number of injuries — it’s the pace at which they’re happening.

This isn’t a coincidence anymore. It’s a trend. And it’s time we talk about it honestly.

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The Game Isn’t the Problem

Pickleball itself isn’t inherently dangerous. In fact, it’s one of the most accessible sports. Low impact. Social. Addictive in the best way. The problem isn’t the game. The problem is what we’re asking our bodies to do — and how unprepared many of them are to keep up.

More play.
More tournaments.
More grinding matches.
Long days. Long breaks. Long weekends.

Mentally exhausting.
Physically demanding.

And often layered on top of:

• Poor recovery

• Inadequate strength work

• Chronic inflammation

• And fuelling (what you eat) that doesn’t support the workload

The Mind Says Yes — The Body Says Something Else

This is where most players get caught.

Mentally, you feel sharp.
You know the shots.
You read the game well.
You believe you can get to that ball.

But the body doesn’t always agree.

Quick starts. Sudden stops. Lunges. Twists. Repeated stress over hours — sometimes days in a row.

The mind says, “I’ve done this a thousand times.”
The body says, “Not like this. Not anymore.”

That disconnect is where injuries live.

Excessive Play Without Proper Support Has a Cost

More isn’t always better — especially without the right foundation.

Too many players are:

• playing multiple days in a row

• entering grinding tournaments with long waits between matches

• asking their bodies to repeatedly ramp up and shut down

• doing little to no work off the court to support it

Add in poor fuelling, inconsistent eating, excess sugar, and processed foods — and now you’ve created a body that:

• doesn’t recover well

• doesn’t heal efficiently

• fatigues faster

• becomes far more injury-prone

This isn’t about toughness. It’s about biology.

Fuelling Matters More Than Most People Realize

We don’t talk enough about metabolism in pickleball.

What you eat — and when — directly affects:

• how your cells produce energy

• how your muscles respond under stress

• how quickly you recover

• how resilient your joints and connective tissue are

A body burdened by poor fuelling simply cannot keep pace with repeated high demands.

You can stretch more.
You can ice things.
You can push through.

But if the foundation is broken, the structure eventually fails.

As We Age, the Margin for Error Shrinks

This is the uncomfortable truth.

As we get older:

• Muscle mass declines

• Recovery slows

• Connective tissue stiffens

• Inflammation becomes more costly

That doesn’t mean we should stop playing. It means we need to prepare better. Playing the same way we did years ago — without adjusting how we fuel, train, and recover — is a losing strategy. And ignoring that reality doesn’t make it go away.

It’s Time for a Reset

This is why I believe it’s time for a reset.

Not a break from pickleball.
Not playing less out of fear.
But a reset in how we approach the game — and our bodies.

A better understanding that:

• Excessive play without support has consequences

• Fuelling is not optional

• Recovery is not weakness

• And preparation matters more now than ever

Because if we keep pushing at this torrid pace without giving the body what it needs, the truth is simple:

Our pickleball days will be numbered. And that’s not something any of us want.

What Comes Next

I’ll be sharing more about this in the weeks ahead — not to scare people, but to help them stay on the court longer, healthier, and stronger.

The goal isn’t just to play pickleball. It’s to keep playing it well — for years to come.

The game isn’t the problem.

How we prepare for it is.