One technique to stay protected on the court? Cross-training to strengthen your muscles with low-impact training like Pilates. This is why Shannon Willits, master Pilates teacher for Pilates club and functional Pilates for the golf and racket specialist created Pilates classes specifically for pickleball players.
The training is predicated on the functional movement patterns you employ when playing pickleball. “Squats, lunges with lunges and turns, and rotations to alter direction – it’s essential to develop these functional skills with an emphasis on mobility, stability and strength, not just for performance but in addition to cut back the chance of injury,” says Willits.
Why Pilates is sweet for pickleball
While traditional strength training may be helpful in improving performance on the pickleball court, Willits says she prefers to practice pilates.
“Traditional strength training generally strengthens muscles from begin to attachment and focuses on the contraction or shortening phase of the muscle,” says Willits. But pickleball requires us to have the opportunity to make use of force on the court in all directions, each to contract and to stretch the muscles.
“The Pilates method strengthens all the body through the core,” explains Willits. “The control and alignment elements reflexively engage a core that stabilizes the hips, spine and shoulders, making it protected for all while meeting the strength requirements of pickleball.”
Willits adds that Pilates helps improve mind-body connection, which in turn improves proprioception (also often called body and limb awareness in space). The higher your proprioception, the more agile and coordinated you may be, and the less likely you’re to fall when performing lunges or quick moves on the court.
The flexibility you’ll be able to gain from Pilates also can help prevent falls on the court, as you may be higher in a position to move your body through its full range of motion in a fluid and supple manner while maintaining your balance. In particular, Willits recommends doing a Functional Flexibility Warm-up before you begin playing – they provide a free warm-up at pilates-pickleball.com.
Try these Pilates exercises for pickleball
Willits is an enormous fan of using Pilates exercise equipment comparable to trampoline and an EXO chair, in her Pilates for ball exercises. These pieces of kit add an additional challenge to your balance and core activation.
However, for those who haven’t got access to those training tools, you can too do some Pilates exercises on the bottom. Here are some functional Pilates exercises and strengthening exercises we recommend for pickleball:
Shears
This is top-of-the-line Pilates exercises for pickleball players since it mimics the positioning of the legs together on the court while strengthening the core and hips.
- Lie in your back together with your knees bent, feet flat on the ground, and core engaged.
- Use your stomach to lift your right leg so your hip and knee are bent at 90 degrees and your shin is parallel to the ground.
- Slowly lower your right leg back down just by tapping the ground while lifting your left leg in the identical way so your legs move alternately.
- Maintain a 90-degree bend in your knees as your legs rise and fall. Don’t drive your foot fully into the bottom on each repetition – just tap it.
- As you develop more core strength, step by step extend your legs increasingly more in order that your feet hit down farther away out of your body.
- Do 10 to 12 repetitions per leg.
Empty holds
This exercise increases core and pelvic strength. Stability within the hips and torso can show you how to stay balanced on the court, especially when lunging to the side or making quick, cutting moves.
- Lie in your back together with your arms prolonged straight above your head.
- Engage your core and lift your head, upper body, and lower body in order that your body folds upward together with your legs and arms at a few 45-degree angle to the ground.
- Hold this position, respiration slowly for 20 to 30 seconds, then release.
Sumo squats
The sumo squat pose helps you develop an athletic pickleball stance while strengthening your legs and core.
- Stand together with your feet barely wider than shoulder-width apart, your toes pointing about 45 degrees outward, and your hips turned outward.
- Inhale as you push your hips back as for those who were reaching your butt back to take a seat on a chair. Keep your core engaged, chest up, and back straight.
- Exhale as you push through your heels to return to the starting position.
- Do 12 to fifteen slow repetitions.
Lateral lunges
- Stand straight with good posture and feet hip-width apart.
- Take an enormous step to the fitting together with your right foot.
- Lean on that leg, bending so that you simply are in a side kick. If you have got access to a Bosu Ball, you’ll be able to lift that leg onto the Bosu Ball to extend the problem.
- If you have got light dumbbells, you can too lift your right arm up and out to the side as you lunge to strengthen your core and arms.
- Do 12 repetitions, then switch sides.
