Pickleball Injuries and Pain

Pickleball Elbow Part 3: The Finishing Touch

July 06, 2026

For our 3rd, and final installment to the Pickleball Elbow series, we’re taking a look at the gear we play with, our form & technique, and how both might be making our game-play more damaging rather than rewarding.

Before we get into those goods, let's run a quick recap on what we've added to the arsenal for handling pickleball elbow with confidence and care. In Part 1 we covered the biological understanding of the injury, along with the specific areas that tie it tightly to the sport of pickleball itself.

In Part 2, we built our line of defense, and organized our means of taking action: a new daily recovery routine comprised of arm/wrist exercises, a 3-step topical application protocol to go with it, and a pain-assessment tool you can use to determine if playing is the right choice for your case, or if a visit to your medical practitioner is the better play.

For these newly acquired strategies to be remotely useful, we have to circle back to the specifics that tie pickleball elbow to the game of pickleball itself. In the 3rd, and final installment of the series, we're covering how our equipment might be negatively impacting our bodies, and how our form & technique quietly make their own negative contributions as well. It's the last piece to the pickleball elbow puzzle, and without it, everything we covered prior to this becomes no different than a cracked bucket trying to hold water.

The Gear Vault: Paddle Technology & Vibration Physics

When a hard plastic pickleball strikes a rigid composite paddle face, a massive amount of kinetic energy is created and, well, it has to go somewhere. If your paddle cannot absorb that harsh vibration, your forearm muscles and tendons are the next, unlucky recipients in line. Let's take a look at how this translates to the paddles we play with:

• Paddle Weight (The Lightweight Paradox): Counterintuitive as it sounds, dropping down to a featherweight paddle (under 7.8 ounces) can actually make elbow pain worse. A lighter paddle has less mass to fight the incoming ball, meaning it deflects more on impact and absorbs less shock—transferring all that raw vibration directly up your arm. Furthermore, you have to swing harder to generate depth. Consider moving to a mid-weight paddle (7.9 to 8.3 ounces). The extra mass acts as a natural shield, absorbing the ball's kinetic energy so your tendons don't have to.
• Core Physics: Modern thermoformed carbon paddles are excellent for power, but their rigid construction transmits significantly more shock to the joint. Look for paddles featuring a medium-soft, thicker polymer core (think 16mm over 14mm) designed specifically to dampen impact energy before it hits your hand.

Grip Geometry: Banishing the Death Grip

A large percentage of chronic elbow issues trace straight back to a simple, easily fixable mistake: your paddle grip circumference.

If your paddle's handle circumference is even a fraction of an inch too small for your hand, your fingers are forced to over-close. This creates an instinctive, white-knuckle "death grip", just to keep the paddle face stable on off-center hits. This type of continuous squeezing will keep your forearm muscles red-lined throughout an entire two-hour session, completely overloading the extensor tendons.

The Quick Fixes

• Build It Up: Increase your grip size by adding a thick, dampening overgrip or a specialized replacement grip. A slightly larger handle fills the palm naturally, allowing you to maintain complete paddle control while significantly reducing your daily grip pressure.
• The Pressure Check: Consciously audit your hand tension between every single rally. Your grip should be firm enough to control the paddle on impact, but loose enough that your forearm isn't continuously firing while you walk back to the baseline.

The Kinetic Chain: Form Over Friction

The soft game at the kitchen line requires immense control, but relying entirely on your wrist to generate flick power or backhand depth is an absolute death sentence for your lateral epicondyle.

When you snap your wrist or over-rotate your forearm to hit a backhand dink, you're forcing a tiny, inflamed tendon to bear 100% of the mechanical load. To protect the joint, you have to activate the entire kinetic chain.

• Hit Out Front: Always strike the ball well in front of your body rather than letting it get behind you, which forces the wrist into a strained, hyperextended position.
• Generate Power via the Core: Keep your wrist stable and relatively quiet during dinks and volleys. Let your shoulder, core, and hips drive the movement. Your arm should act as a stable extension of your body, not an isolated whip.
• Invest in a Coach: If your symptoms keep returning despite changing your gear, book a single session with a trusted coach/peer, to record and analyze your stroke mechanics. It is a smart, no-shame investment that will save your joints and instantly elevate your performance.

The Universal Baseline: A Last Minute Reminder!

This one goes without saying....or actually, might not even be said enough, but folks, stay hydrated out there! Words can't even come close to accurately describe how much your body appreciates you every time you take back a round of H2O. Before you roll your eyes at that, here's some science stuff to go with it:

Tendons are naturally dense, avascular structures that receive very low blood flow compared to muscles. When you are dehydrated, those tendons lose elasticity and become brittle, making them drastically more susceptible to microscopic tearing under stress. Microscopic tearing....it's as if this directly relates to everything we just covered...So, just keep in mind, drinking water consistently throughout the day keeps those fibers pliable, resilient, and ready to bounce back.

Securing Longevity

Pickleball elbow is a genuine rite of passage on the courts, but it doesn't have to be an automatic time-out from your time spent playing. By sticking to your newly learned recovery protocol, deploying the topical secret weapon as we discussed, and adapting to an adjusted style of play including gear adjustments and clean stroke mechanics, you're essentially a walking, talking worst nightmare to the collective lack of push-back pickleball elbow is used to seeing from us.

I think that about covers it. Protect your joints, audit your skill-sets, and preserve your court longevity so you can stay at the kitchen line year after year. And while everything we've covered here does hold great value to your body and overall day-to-day comfort, don't ever forget the reason we all started playing in the first place: because it's fun. And awesome.

← Back to Part 2

— Andy Dobric  |  July 06, 2026