The moment you arrive at the courts, you’re recruited for a game. Since there’s absolutely zero fun in waiting around, you’re all too excited to head right out and plays.
The people you’re playing with are all too happy to warm you up, so you dink the ball back and forth a couple of times. Your soon-to-be opponents are kind enough to hit the ball right to you so that you don’t get tired before the game begins, meaning that you don’t have to move around much as you warm up.
After a minute or two of dinking, the game begins. Your feet are a bit slow and sluggish, and your shot placement is definitely not as solid as it should be. A couple of those morning joint aches that you often get still haven’t worked their way out yet, either.
While you don’t get completely walloped, your side still ends up losing the game with a score of 6-11. It’s mildly frustrating, because quite a few of the shots that you missed are ones that you would usually get.
You laugh as you shout out “First one’s always a warmup game!”
Everyone else laughs along, nodding in agreement. They know that feeling all too well themselves.
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So, what exactly causes us to experience these less-than-stellar ‘warmup games,’ and what can be done about it?
To tell the truth, when I go to the pickleball courts, I rarely see players do any kind of warmup when they first arrive. If players do complete a warmup, it’s often in the form of a few stretches. While stretches are good to do, they also don’t hit everything that a player’s body needs in order to hit the courts running.
Our bodies are actually incredibly efficient in the way that they operate. When we’re not being particularly active, we enter into a ‘rest and digest’ period. This means that most of our blood flow and energy is being dedicated to processes such as digesting our food.
When we switch to doing something physically active such as pickleball, our body actually has to redirect more of its blood flow to working muscle. While our bodies are pretty quick about the process, it doesn’t happen on a dime. This is where a big part of the ‘first game funk’ comes into play.
Now, back to the topic on stretching. I believe that stretching is wonderful, especially for those areas of the body that tend to be achy or stiff at times. It’s a great thing, and worth doing before a game of pickleball. However, most people select static stretches to do before a game, meaning that the stretch involves mostly staying in one spot. Nothing about static stretching is going to trigger your body to recognize that it needs to begin increasing how much blood it is supplying to working muscle.
In order to achieve this, pickleball players should be incorporating some type of light cardio into their warmup. This could involve activities such as power walking or a light jog, but I believe that it’s more effective to just make some tweaks to the standard dinking warmup.
In order to be the most effective, dinking warmups really should incorporate quite a bit of movement. Interestingly, I find that a lot of 4.0 players do structure their warmups this way, which is great! However, the tendency to do this decreases with lower levels of play, and it’s something that I never really see happen on the 3.0 or 2.5 courts at all.
Ultimately, there are a lot of different ways to achieve this. For standard dinks, it’s a great idea to warmup by dinking the ball away from your opponent, in the same manner that you would in a real game. You’ll have to use more of your fast response times, and incorporate side to side leg movements, which will be much more effective for increasing your heart rate and telling your body that it’s time to wake up.
Forward and back drop shot practice is also a commonly used and effective warmup strategy. If you aren’t familiar with it, you’ll take turns with the person across from you. With both of you starting at the kitchen line, they’ll feed you hits. Try to return these hits into the kitchen, as you gradually maneuver yourself to the baseline and then back to the kitchen line. Then, reciprocate the gesture and feed the person across from you shots while you stay at the kitchen line.
Side-to-side footwork drills are also a favorite warmup activity of mine, because they’re very effective at increasing your heart rate quickly, and get you in the right frame of mind for how to move at the kitchen line.
Ultimately, there are loads of drills out there that will prove effective for getting you out of the ‘first game funk.’ As long as you’re doing a lot of moving at a mild to moderate intensity, it’s hard to go wrong. Test out different ones, and choose your favorites! If you periodically mix things up to find different challenges, you’ll also find your quality of play improving at a faster rate.
This sounds like a lot to take into consideration, but an effective warmup shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes of your time. As a general rule of thumb, I’d advise a couple of stretching exercises (the hips, low back, and shoulder in particular are great areas for pickleball players to loosen up, but specific needs may vary), followed by 1-2 drill type activities prior to playing your first game (depending on the intensity and time needed to complete each activity).
It’s a little more of a time investment compared to dashing from your car into the first available game, but your play will benefit from a dedicated warmup. Additionally, making sure that your body is properly prepared to play will minimize your likelihood of experiencing an injury out on the courts!
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As the owner of Serendipity Physical Therapy and Wellness, I’m an avid pickleball addict in Naples, Florida, with a goal of keeping pickleball players moving at their best and injury free. I work with players for anything ranging from reducing various pains, weakness, or tightness, to helping with injury prevention, proper conditioning, and good technique.
If you’re new, you can check out more of my advice and content here: https://www.serendipityptw.com/blog.
If there is anything I can help you with or you have questions, please give me a call at (239) 232-8155, or send me an email at Contact@SerendipityPTW.com. I would love to see how I can help get you moving at your best!
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