Balance Training for Basketball Players
Basketball is jump, land, cut, repeat, often on one foot and often onto someone else's. That makes ankle sprains one of the game's most common inju...
Balance Training for Tennis and Pickleball
In this article
The short answer
Tennis and pickleball are games of short, sudden movements: lunges, split steps, quick stops and backpedals to the baseline or kitchen line. Every one of them asks you to control your weight over a moving base. Balance training sharpens that control, and for pickleball players it addresses the biggest source of injury: falls.
Why court sports demand balance
Watch a rally and most shots are hit off one leg or from an off-center stance. You lunge wide, reach, recover and reset in under a second. Good balance lets you hit from a stable base and get back into position; poor balance means reaching, stumbling or over-correcting.
The pickleball problem: falls
Pickleball has grown fast, especially among older adults, and so have its injuries. An analysis of US emergency-room data from 2013 to 2022 found the average injured player was 64, and falls caused about two-thirds of all injuries (10-year emergency-room analysis). A separate study of pickleball fractures found 92% were caused by falls, most often upper-body fractures in women aged 65 and older (Ghattas et al.).
That makes balance a big part of playing safely.
What the research says about balance training
There aren't yet trials of balance training in tennis or pickleball players specifically. But the broader evidence is strong:
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In older adults, balance-focused exercise programs reduce the rate of falls by about 24% (Cochrane review, 2019).
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In athletes, balance training reduces ankle sprains, one of the most common court injuries (de Vasconcelos et al., 2018).
A SlackBoard routine for court players
Two or three times a week, 10 minutes, on non-match days or after play. Newer and older players should start on the SlackBoard Plus in two-line mode with something sturdy nearby; competitive players can work on a single line.
|
Exercise |
How |
Reps |
|---|---|---|
|
Ready stance |
Feet across the line, knees bent, weight on the balls of your feet |
3 × 30 seconds |
|
Shadow swings |
Hold the ready stance and mime forehands and backhands |
2 × 10 each side |
|
Split-step landing |
Small hop off the floor onto the board, then stabilize |
2 × 6 |
|
Lateral weight shifts |
Shift weight side to side as if moving along the baseline |
2 × 10 |
|
Single-leg reach |
Stand on one leg and reach the other foot forward, as in a lunge |
2 × 6 each leg |
Skip the split-step landing if you're new to the board or have a history of falls, and keep a counter within reach for everything else.
Next read: Balance Training and Fall Prevention, and Balance Exercises for Older Adults You Can Do at Home.
FAQ
Q: Does balance training help pickleball players?
A: It targets the biggest injury risk in pickleball: most injuries come from falls, and balance training reduces falls in older adults. There are no pickleball-specific trials yet.
Q: What causes most pickleball injuries?
A: Falls. In US emergency-room data, falls caused about two-thirds of pickleball injuries and 92% of pickleball fractures.
Q: How can tennis players improve balance?
A: Train single-leg stability and controlled weight shifts on an unstable surface, two or three times a week, alongside your strength work.
Q: Is a SlackBoard good for older pickleball players?
A: Yes, with the right setup: two-line mode, a counter in reach and a doctor's okay if you've fallen before.
Sources
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Pickleball-related injuries in US emergency departments, 2013–2022 (NEISS analysis). PubMed
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Ghattas YS, et al. Pickleball-related fractures in US emergency departments, 2002–2022. PMC
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Sherrington C, et al. Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019; CD012424. Abstract
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de Vasconcelos GS, et al. Effects of proprioceptive training on the incidence of ankle sprain in athletes. Clin Rehabil 2018;32(12):1581–1590. PEDro record
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