YOUR HEALTH: Pickleball puts players in a pickle for injuries

BALTIMORE, Md. (Ivanhoe Newswire) - If tennis and racquetball married, their firstborn would be pickleball. Pickleball play has grown so much recently, that the hardest part of the game now is finding an empty court, and it’s not just for grandparents. Pickleball increased 158 percent in the US, according to what’s called, ‘Picklehead Statistics.’ But for those 40 million players, the odds of being injured also skyrocket.

Bob Friend, a player at the Annapolis Pickleball Club, has spent months healing from a severe knee injury.

“It’s a short paddle. It’s not a string game, and it’s with a plastic ball as opposed to a core rubber ball,” Friend said.

Pickleball is social, which is an appealing part of the game. There’s lots of laughter, but competitive spirits lead to getting hurt.

“I’ve had two injuries playing pickleball. The last one that I had, which was my patella tendon tear in my left knee, was playing in a tournament,” Friend explained.

Anyone can play pickleball, but 90 percent of injuries occur in those over 50.

“One of the common misconceptions about pickleball is that it’s less injury provoking than other sports. In most of the injuries that we see occur in the lower extremity, so in the knees and the ankles. They’re usually from a sudden lunging, jumping, twisting type of maneuver,” said Dr. John-Paul Rue, a Fellowship-trained Board-Certified Orthopedic Sports Medicine Surgeon at Mercy Medical Center.

Friend’s patella injury to his knee was intense.

“He did, sort of, a sudden lunge, and what happened was, his quadriceps, his thigh muscles, contracted suddenly and actually ripped the tendon from off of the bone, just below the kneecap,” Dr. Rue explained.

“The first four to six weeks, you’re pretty immobile. Then, you start to gain confidence, and the brace starts to come off because you sleep with a brace for the first five weeks,” Friend said.

So, how can you keep pickleball fun but safe from strains, sprains, and dislocations? Dr. Rue says warm-up, know your limitations and stretch before and after playing.

Dr. Rue says it will take Friend two to three years to get back to his, ‘full, explosive, competitive level.’ He reminds players that fractures are common, especially for low bone density in later years. So, he advises you to perhaps play a little slower than you think you need to, and you’ll play a lot longer!

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