Physical therapy is a specialty that focuses on optimizing movement. 

The first thing when a client comes to see us is we will do a physical therapy evaluation and a huge part of it is we will perform movement analysis to see what specific exercises the client is complaining of pain or difficult to do. 

We will try to identify which part of the movement has deficits and also identify the underlying cause of the specific deficit.

Is it from weakness of a certain muscle? 

From tightness of another muscle or other related anatomic structures like ligaments, a tendon, or the joint.

After identifying the cause or the involved anatomic structure we then develop a very specific plan of care and exercise program or treatment programs to address those issues. The end goal is to optimize movement to help you return to the activities you used to be able to do.

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Why would back pain stop you from playing pickleball? If you play pickleball yourself or know someone who does, watch this video to learn more.

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As we all know that pickleball is becoming the fastest growing sport of the entire united states. We also see that many people in Austin are starting to play pickleball and at CORE we are seeing clients coming in having injuries, especially back pain from playing pickleball with their friends. And so we are putting this video together to explain the common mechanism of why back pain could develop from playing pickleball. 

My name is Andy Tseng, I'm a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and Occupational Therapist. I also teach Pilates and Gyrotonic at CORE Therapy and Pilates. We're seeing a lot of clients with different injuries throughout their body but they're mostly back pain from playing pickleball. 

A very common scene we see from clients with pickleball injuries especially back pain was related to how they move their spine and pelvis, especially in rotation. 

If you see the following video clip of me using a stick to demonstrate the swinging and hitting the ball involved in a pickleball game, you will notice that the pelvis is always required to rotate properly throughout the whole game, whichever way or pattern or strategy you are using in order to hit the ball.

But for some reason if the pelvis and the spine does not rotate as they should be that could either be from a spine problem, hip problem, muscle tightness to your lower back spine area, pelvis or even to your legs they can all be reasons why your pelvis and your spine are not rotating properly and that would hinder your performance in playing pickleball and worse getting injured. 

Additionally, it also requires the proper amount of muscle strength, endurance, and even power in order to provide the agility, especially during applicable gain, and for some reason, if we are dealing with muscle weakness or muscle imbalance our body can develop unwanted compensation patterns then that can also lead to injuries in the long run.

Sometimes some people may even have alignment issues or muscle imbalances that they are born with or developed because of their lifestyle, habits, the way they move, their posture and if not addressed these alignment issues and muscle imbalances can cause issues in the long run.

With this being said there are multiple factors that can contribute to injuries, especially back pain for anyone playing pickleball. It could either be a muscle strain issue, flexibility issue, or underlying muscle imbalance alignment issues going on.

Multiple factors can be involved but then usually there is a common scene because the movement pattern that's required in playing pickleball is very similar. But in order to identify certain issues that you may have that may affect how you play pickleball, I would definitely suggest that you see a physical therapist for a thorough movement analysis and evaluation so that we can dig deeper into the movement pattern and even identify if there are any deficits in the way you move. 

I would also suggest that you join our Facebook group specifically created for pickable players in the Austin area where we often share tips and content related to anything about pickleball. 

Again my name is Andy Tseng, Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist as well as a Pilates and Gyrotonic instructor at CORE Therapy and Pilates.

If you find this video beneficial to you leave us a comment and let us know what you learned from this video and even let us know what other content or topics that you would like us to cover and things you would like to learn more about.

So this concludes the video and I hope you guys have a great day. We will see you next time.