If you have been playing pickleball recently, you’re not alone. Everyone, from teens to seniors, is picking up a paddle and meeting to play. If you’re ready to jump on the pickleball bandwagon, here are some great pickleball tips for beginners on how to improve your game from Teddy Savage, national fitness director at Planet Fitness that will help you beat your friends at your next pickleball session.
How to Improve
To improve at pickleball, you will want to strengthen muscles in the lower body, upper body, and core. Agility and rotation are also essential in pickleball. Working out at the gym can help cover all of these bases.
Quick Tips for Beginners
Strength training is crucial to any exercise routine, especially for those looking to boost their athletic performance. It improves posture, helps correct muscle imbalances, increases joint stability, enhances coordination, and, most importantly, prevents injury.
Exercises to Improve Skills
Try these exercises to enhance your pickleball skills.
- Front to Lateral Raises – Raise light dumbbells or hand weights forward until shoulder height, then rotate palms to face pockets and raise weights laterally until shoulder height.
- Front Lunge to Torso Rotation – Start with feet hip width apart and knees slightly flexed, take a dumbbell in both hands, draw left knee up, stride forward, sink down into lunge, rotate upper torso, return to starting position, repeat with opposite leg.
- Bodyweight Squat to Overhead Extension – Sink your hips down and back, swing your arms back, explode up, engage your calves, and return to starting position.
- Low to High Woodchoppers – Start in a lunge position facing to the left with the dumbbell in front of the shin. Drive through the left foot while rotating the dumbbell upward to the right side. Repeat on the right side.
- Plyometric Skaters – Bound out to the left side using your core and lower body muscles to stabilize and change direction, absorbing the impact with your muscles.
Pickleball is a great sport for beginners since it’s easy to start. Now, you know how to improve.
