Pickleball has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, particularly among older adults. It offers cardiovascular exercise, improves balance, encourages social interaction, and gives people a reason to stay active well into retirement.
As participation has grown, so has interest in understanding how and why injuries happen. Most players have heard stories about someone falling, straining a calf, or hurting a shoulder, but until recently there has been surprisingly little research focused specifically on pickleball players.
A recently published study, “Injury Epidemiology and Risk Factors in Older Pickleball Players,” published in the peer-reviewed journal Geriatrics, looked specifically at injuries among older pickleball players and asked a simple question: Who gets hurt, what kinds of injuries occur, and are there common patterns? The answers are encouraging because they suggest many injuries are not random bad luck. Several common risk factors emerged that players can actually do something about.
How the Researchers Studied Pickleball Injuries
One reason this study is worth paying attention to is that it looked beyond emergency room visits.
The researchers surveyed 247 pickleball players age 50 and older about injuries they experienced during the previous year. They also followed players during the 2018 U.S. Open Pickleball Championships, documenting new injuries that occurred during tournament play. Along with injury information, they collected data on playing habits, previous injuries, fitness, and other characteristics to see whether certain factors were associated with a greater chance of getting hurt.
Like any research project, the study has limitations. Players were asked to remember injuries that occurred during the previous 12 months, which means some details may have been forgotten. The participants also represented tournament players rather than every type of player across the country. Even so, this is one of the more detailed studies examining injury patterns in older pickleball players, and it offers valuable information for anyone who spends time on the court.
What the Study Found
Roughly one out of every three players reported at least one injury during the previous year.
Most injuries involved the lower body. Calf muscles, knees, ankles, hamstrings, and feet appeared far more often than shoulders or elbows. Soft tissue injuries, such as muscle strains and tendon problems, were much more common than fractures.
The researchers also found several characteristics that were associated with a higher likelihood of injury.
Men reported injuries more often than women. Players with lower body mass index were injured more frequently than those with higher body mass index. Players who spent more hours on the court each week also reported more injuries.
Perhaps the least surprising finding was that the more exposure players had to pickleball, the greater the opportunity for injuries to occur. More hours on the court simply mean more starts, stops, lunges, pivots, and changes of direction.
What the Study Does Not Say
One mistake would be to read these findings and conclude that pickleball is dangerous.
That is not what the researchers found.
In fact, relatively few new injuries occurred during tournament play itself. More importantly, this study identified associations, not direct causes. It cannot say that playing more hours automatically causes injuries or that being male makes someone more likely to get hurt. It simply found that these characteristics appeared more often among injured players.
That distinction is important because good research often identifies patterns before it explains exactly why they exist.
The Bigger Picture
One finding stood out because it matches what many coaches, trainers, and physical therapists have observed for years.
Many injuries are not caused by one dramatic moment.
Instead, they often happen after fatigue begins to affect movement. Footwork slows down. Balance becomes a little less stable. Players arrive a fraction of a second late to the ball. Small changes that seem insignificant can gradually increase stress on muscles and tendons.
That helps explain why so many injuries occur in the lower body. Pickleball constantly asks players to accelerate, decelerate, squat, lunge, recover, and change direction. Those movements are repeated hundreds of times during a long session.
What Players Can Learn From This
The encouraging part of this study is that many of the factors surrounding injuries can be improved.
Gradually increasing playing time allows the body to adapt instead of suddenly asking it to handle twice as much work. A player who normally plays for 90 minutes should not be surprised if three straight hours produces soreness or fatigue that the body has not yet prepared for.
Strength training also deserves attention. Stronger legs, hips, and core muscles help the body control movement during lunges, recover more efficiently after wide balls, and tolerate the repeated demands of the sport.
Balance and mobility matter as well. Being able to stop under control, change direction smoothly, and maintain stability while striking the ball may reduce the awkward movements that often precede injuries.
Recovery plays a role, too. Adequate sleep, proper hydration, sensible nutrition, and allowing enough recovery between long playing sessions all help the body adapt to increasing workloads.
None of these habits guarantee an injury-free season. They simply improve the body’s ability to handle what pickleball asks it to do.
The Mistake
Many players spend almost all of their improvement time practicing shots.
There is nothing wrong with working on serves, drops, dinks, and volleys. Those skills absolutely matter.
At the same time, the body is the equipment that performs every one of those shots. If movement quality begins to decline because of fatigue, poor strength, or inadequate recovery, even good technique becomes harder to repeat consistently.
Improving the body away from the court is often one of the simplest ways to play better on it.
Final Thoughts
Research studies rarely provide every answer, and this one is no exception.
What this study does provide is reassurance that many pickleball injuries are not simply unavoidable consequences of getting older. The patterns identified by the researchers suggest that preparation, recovery, and gradually building the body’s capacity all deserve as much attention as practicing individual shots.
That may be the biggest takeaway of all.
The goal is not to become afraid of injuries. The goal is to understand that many of the habits that improve performance also happen to be the same habits that help keep players healthy enough to enjoy the game for years to come.
