Core Exercises to Improve Your Pickleball Game

This video reviews exercises for your core. It’s the center of your body and it helps with stability. It’s also very important in preventing injury, especially back pain. These exercises should be done daily or every second day.

You can start in a tabletop position with an exercise called a Bird Dog. You’re going to start right arm, left leg. Reach you’re right arm out in front of you, left leg behind. You want to bring the elbow to touch the knee under your torso. And then you’re going to go back out. You’re going to do each side, 10 times. It’s recommended to do these three times.  

The next exercise is also in the tabletop position. You’re going to lift your knees off the ground so they’re hovering. You can stay here and hold it for 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 10 seconds to start. If you want a little more challenge you can tap your shoulders.  

Another exercise is called the side plank. To set this one up, your elbow is going to be bent on the ground, you’re going to keep your bottom knee down, hip forward, arm up, and you’re going to reach through. You’re going to do that 10 times. If you want a bit more of a challenge, you can lift your bottom leg up as you reach through 

Going back into the tabletop position while lifting your knees, you’re going to move your right arm and your left leg forward. You’ll want to go 10 one way, then you can go backward. You can add a weight on top of your back for more of a challenge. 

Next, you’re going to do a leopard crawl. Leopard crawl is almost the same thing as Bear Crawl or tabletop position. However, here you’re going to move to the side. 

For the last exercise, you’ll lay on your back with your feet in the air, toes flat. You’re going to keep your core, your back pressed against the ground, feet flat. Reach up and touch your toes 20 times. Working your abdominals, you want to move from your core, not your neck. And then take a break and do it again.