How Learning Pickleball Can Make You a Better Athlete (Featuring @PickleballJourney)

Did you know that playing pickleball can make you a better athlete? And if you don't know what pickleball is, it's America's fastest growing sport right now, and it's kind of this interesting cross between badminton and tennis and ping pong. And so many people are flooding into this game, it is crazy. Chances are if you've heard of pickleball, you've probably heard about it from somebody who's a little bit older, maybe 55 and older, as most of the demographic that plays pickleball falls into that 55 and older category. However, the tables are turning as more and more young people are coming to play this game and learning the techniques and getting really freaking good at it. I I mean, I am telling you guys, if you want to binge YouTube videos, start to watch some pickleball tournaments. It is insane. Speaking of young players that are amazing at this game, I linked up with my friends Justin and Elisha over at Pickleball Journey to get a beginner lesson and learn all about this sport. And you guys know me, I love learning new sports. But aside from just learning new sports, I believe that pickleball in specific can be an amazing tool to help you become a better athlete in general in whatever your main sport is. But before I dive into the specifics of how pickleball can specifically impact your other sports and make you a better athlete, I want to talk a little bit about just being a multi-sport athlete in general and how just that general umbrella can make a huge difference in itself. So for one, multi-sport athletes tend to have less overuse injuries, and that's just because they're mixing up the muscle groups and the tendons and the ligaments needed in their different sports for the most part. I mean, there's obviously exceptions if you're like a baseball pitcher and a tennis player and crossing, you know, and utilizing that right shoulder quite a bit. If you're a righty. But for the most part, you're going to be utilizing different muscle groups and different things are going to need to be recruited. Therefore, you're spreading out the use in your body and you're not necessarily overusing any certain segment of the body. Secondly, multi-sport athletes tend to get less burnout in their sport because they're spreading their joy across multiple sports. They're not just isolated to one singular sport and learning that and being dedicated to that. They're able to have fun and kind of expand their capabilities and learn new things, which can prevent burnout. And thirdly, multi-sport athletes accumulate something called cross-sport skills, where you can aggregate skills from one sport and be able to utilize those for your next sport. So it can level up your athletic performance in both the sports, or, you know, if you're playing more than two, all the sports across the board, because you're taking those skills and applying them across the board to these other sports. So it just makes you a better overall athlete in general. Now, I'm not saying every athlete needs to be a multi-sport athlete, and there are certain sports that just demand you to be just focused on that to get to a certain level in your career, if that is the trajectory you want to go. But in terms of athletic longevity and keeping your body healthy, I do believe that being a multi-sport athlete can be really, really healthy for the majority of the population. So you might be asking me at this point, okay Victoria, well why is pickleball any more important than any other sport if you're just talking about the benefits of being a multi-sport athlete? Like, why can't it be like swimming and soccer and, you know, whatever other combination? Well, I think pickleball actually has a unique couple of qualities that make it qualified to really be one of the better sports to incorporate on top of your primary sport for a variety of reasons, and I will you why as I jump into my pickleball lesson. What's up everyone, Victoria S. Dorsano here, and today I'm here with Justin and Elijah. We're in a different setting than my normal setting. We are learning pickleball, or I am, from these two pros. So let's go ahead and dive in and learn some cool stuff. So the first reason why I think learning pickleball can make you a better athlete overall is that pickleball is, generally speaking, a low-impact sport. With the court only spanning 44 by 20 feet, it is much smaller than a tennis court, so there's way less room to move around, which makes it a lot easier on joints like your knees your hips, and your ankles. So therefore, if you have a primary sport that's pretty demanding on those joints, like basketball or soccer or volleyball or something that requires a lot of impact, then pickleball can really be complementary to that in the sense that you don't need to put that much stress on the joints. Therefore, it's not going to overtax your joints on top of your primary sport activity. The second reason why I think pickleball in particular can really help you become a better athlete is because it's easy to learn. So you can jump into gameplay pretty dang fast. As you can see in this lesson, I'm getting the hang of it. I'm not playing an actual game yet, but this is my first time ever playing, so, you know, I'm getting the hang of it. I'm understanding the sport a little bit, and I'd say, you know, after this first or second lesson, I'd be ready to jump into a casual gameplay. Whereas other sports can really require a lot of understanding of rules and regulations, and there's just a lot more tactical information that goes into it, pickleball to start with is, you know, pretty generically easy to jump into. Now, of course, with you know, Justin and Elijah here in this video who are teaching me. If you watch them play, they have some advanced techniques and some really cool stuff that they go over in their YouTube channel. Definitely check them out. It's Pickleball Journey. I will link it down in the description as well as the top of the video. But they have some amazing techniques and different ways to hold the racket and to add spin and all these cool things. So it does get more dynamic, but I'm just talking about just being able to jump in and play like I have been in this video. So it's fairly easy, and I definitely recommend recommended to get started if you are an athlete that's learning to venture out into other sports. The third point I want to make here is that pickleball is also a very low-cost sport. It's not like you have to go and get all this hockey equipment or football equipment or, you know, a specialized ball of sorts. Like, the balls are $2. The rackets can range quite a bit, but, you know, on a nicer end, $75 to $100 rackets. So it's really not that expensive to jump in and, and play, which makes it, you know, a very low barrier to entry. So that's a great thing if you want to add in the sport you don't have to spend a ton of money to get there. Another reason why I think pickleball is a great sport to help improve your athletic capabilities in your primary sport is because it helps improve your eye-hand coordination. You know, obviously there's a racket, there's a ball you have to track, you have to be agile on the court, and it just helps you improve your spotting on the court and where your body is in space and time, right? Um, the other cool thing is that you know, the ball moves differently than your traditional tennis ball or the gravity of a basketball through air. Because it has these little holes in it, it moves at a different pace, and it's kind of softer the way it moves through air. So it really challenges your brain to move differently, to think differently, and kind of turns on these different centers in your brain that really recruit this hand-eye coordination motor skill. And then lastly, another great thing about pickleball, which can only improve your primary sport, is that it helps improve your cardiovascular health without taxing your body too much. Like the court is pretty small, so you're not moving around all that much, but you are still getting your heart rate elevated, you are still getting blood flow to the body. So this can be a really great active recovery sport for a lot of athletes who are doing intense sports like, you know, football or soccer that require a lot of running. This is a great way to do some active recovery with still some cardio, but not an insane amount of cardio. So I really like that it's something that's adaptable in that way too. And just to recap, you guys, I had so much fun learning this sport. Um, Elisha and Justin were so great. I highly recommend recommend checking out their channel. Again, that's Pickleball Journey. They have so many cool videos on there. They have the full lesson that they gave me on that channel too. So if you want to learn more as a beginner, that's up on there. Definitely go check them out. They are just phenomenal coaches, and I think you'll really like their content if you are trying to learn pickleball or learn how to become a better athlete and learn a different sport. I think this is a great sport to jump into, and I'm excited to do some more lessons and to learn a little bit more about it because it was so much fun, and I loved that it was something I could do and be able to play, you know, volleyball the next day and not feel too tired or like I overtaxed my body or anything like that. Um, so I highly recommend it. Definitely go check them out. And as always, if you can like this video and subscribe to my channel, I would greatly appreciate it. And thanks so much for watching. Until next time, bye!