IF YOU FALL – playing Pickleball

 Falls can occur due to being jostled, being tripped, slipping on a slick surface, being off balance, inner ear problems, unguarded movements and a whole host of other reasons.  Whatever the cause, falls can create devastating injuries and are not to be taken lightly, even if they seem minor.

Another problem in racquet sports is when the player is backing up to hit an overhead shot.  As they reach backward, the centre of gravity shifts behind their bodies and then disaster occurs!  They will fall hard to the floor and often with a twisting motion as they desperately try to regain balance.  This is a wonderful way to spend the rest of the season and part of the next one with torn ankle ligaments, or a torn meniscus or ligament in the knee.  Having said that, it’s a great way to meet girls who will lavish attention on you as you hobble around looking helpless while milking the injury for all it’s worth!

Many Pickleball players perspire a lot when they play.  Now that you are disgusted, this can create a real problem!  The perspiration when combined with a polished wood floor creates the perfect slickness to make the player slip and slide.  Worse yet, when the player goes down, it’s often right onto the pool of perspiration – YUCK!

It’s pretty easy in Pickleball, (due to the small size of the court and the fact you have a partner who is an animal and going for every shot), to occasionally get jostled.  This may knock you down if you are a bit off balance at the time.  It also may end a wonderful doubles team from winning the World Championships – let the other team get into this situation – not you!

In my experience, most of the players I’ve seen at Pickleball are not perfectly healthy 25 year olds, they just think they are!  As we age, we have to admit that changes occur in our physiology which can be troublesome.  One of the biggest topics in the past few years in physical medicine is the study of the balance mechanism of the body.  The body uses inner ear information as well as muscle, tendon, ligament and disc information to coordinate movement.  As we age, it has been shown that there is a gradual diminishment of these feedback and feedforward pathways which cause errors in how we choose muscles to keep us balanced.  One simple test for this is to stand on one leg with your eyes open for 30 seconds.  If you can’t do that easily, you have a higher probability of falling in normal activities, more so in a sport like Pickleball.

Falls can create lots of different types of injuries:

• head injury (including concussion, fractures, dental injury, visual problems etc.)
• spinal injury (including fractures of vertebrae and ribs, disc bulges, torn ligaments, joint injury, muscle strains etc.)
• shoulder injury (fractured clavicles, muscle, tendon, ligament capsular and bursal tears etc.)
• wrist and hand injury (fractured bones, ligament tears and sprains, etc.)
• hip injury (joint injury, muscle strain, bursitis etc.)
• knee injury (ligament tears, meniscal injuries, sprain/strain, fractured patellas, etc.)
• ankle injury (ligament tears, bone fractures, tendonitis, plantar fascitis, etc.)

 OK – now I’m scaring myself!!  The problem is, after 25 years as a chiropractor, I’ve seen all of these injuries affecting patients.  Some of them can be healed easily but some create problems that last a long, long time.

 So, the question is – “How can I avoid these injuries?”.  The answer is easy – watch TV!!  Seriously, your chances of these injuries is pretty small if you pay attention to some simple advice:

 - clean the court to wipe up perspiration

• wear shoes with good grip
• make a deal with your partner that winning the point is not as important as avoiding a wrist or ankle fracture
• take some lessons with a pro to learn how to move economically on the court while maintaining balance
• don’t backpedal for overhead shots (my cousin is at home right now recovering from an ankle fracture from doing exactly this)
• do balance exercises to try to keep your brain in contact with your body so it chooses the correct muscles
• get a qualified health practitioner to check you out before you take Pickleball up, and at least yearly to make sure you are healthy to play
• stay fit
• learn to fall without injury, (do a roll, protect your head, don’t be a star and try to stop a fall so everyone cheers – fall but fall well)
• teach good habits to the others that you play with

If you do have a fall, don’t do what everyone else does – jump up like nothing happened and limp when you are out of sight!  Outside my chiropractic office in downtown Vancouver I’ve seen probably a dozen people fall over the years and do just this – they jump up and pretend they are not hurt.  This is because they are embarrassed that they fell.  DON”T BE EMBARRASSED!  Let others help you.  Sit for a minute and do a survey of how you really are.  If you need to go see a medical doctor or a chiropractor, get in there and get help early – it’s easier for us to fix something up earlier than later.  AND, if we tell you to do something or not do something, please listen to us, we know what we are talking about!  (The most common good advice following a sport injury is R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation)).

Finally, have a lot of fun!  I know it sounds like the impossible dream after you think of all the problems that can occur from falling, but the risk of falling is low, and the rewards of playing are great.  Pickleball is a heck of a lot of fun, you will meet wonderful people and get some great exercise while having a good time.  Just be aware and decrease the risks.

 Dr. David Mallory
Chiropractor and Pickleball player!