Player Analysis - Neck Tightness

Recently I had a pickleball player reach out to me from another state, asking if they could have me do some video review of their game to discern why they were having issues with neck tightness during and after their pickleball games.  With their permission, I would like to share my biggest finding, as it may apply to some of you as well! In doing a video analysis, I asked if they could send me clips including all of their most commonly used shots, so they sent over video of their forehand and backhand drives, serve, midcourt resets, a variety of dinks, and overheads.

There were a number of different observations I pointed out and gave suggestions on, but the most critical one that influenced their neck involved how they responded to hard shots, and the way that they performed their overheads.

When their opponent hit a return to them with moderate to high power or pace, they would almost instinctively hike their shoulder up (think of the movement that occurs when you try to bring your shoulder up to your ear).  This is a pretty common thing that I see many players do in games, especially when they aren’t particularly comfortable defending more aggressive shots.  Most people, including this player, aren’t really aware that they’re doing it.  Unfortunately, this little movement does have a negative impact on a player’s overall shot placement and control, and can have a major impact on injuries!  In the case of the player who sent me their footage, the same thing also occurred when they would hit an overhead shot.

But what does hiking the shoulder have to do with tightness in the neck?  Everything, actually.  Many of the muscles that move and control our shoulder actually connect to the spine at the level of the neck.  A few different muscles are at play when we hike up the shoulder, but the most commonly known one is the upper trapezius muscle.  If you’ve ever noticed knots or tender spots around the back of your neck area, there’s a good chance your upper trapezius, or one of the other muscles that participates in shoulder elevation is a part of that.

When we block a shot in pickleball or go to do an overhead, the majority of the work should be coming from the shoulder itself.  So when we tense and untense the muscles of the neck repeatedly, game after game, during movements that they shouldn’t be a major player in, we place more repetitive strain on the neck than there should be.  In this player’s case, they solely noticed tightness and never got to the point of having a genuine injury, but this can also happen.

Ultimately, we hopped on a video conference, and I provided this player with some different demonstrations of bad technique vs. good, gave them a couple of exercises to work on to help recruit and strengthen the proper muscles, and provided a couple of drills to help them retrain the movement habit that they’d developed (as well as a couple of other habits).  For this particular person, they were highly motivated and showed a great understanding of what they needed to work on, so I advised them to just reach out to me after a few weeks to let me know how they were doing.

A couple of weeks later, they reported back to say that they had remained diligent with the recommendations, and had noticed that their neck tightness had improved significantly, and that they had noticed that their game improved as well!  Though the neck issue was our biggest priority, it always makes me happy to hear that players notice improvement in their play.

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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 send me an email at Contact@SerendipityPTW.com. I would love to see how I can help get you moving at your best!