The high impact, fast-paced nature of the sport invites repetitive, explosive, unpredictable and sometimes poorly-controlled movements. Many players find that their body copes well with the cumulative impact of these movements, but others inevitably find themselves with pain or injury. Whilst rehabilitation is beyond the scope of this article, for a player looking to improve their game, there is always room to refine your movement, to move with greater efficiency and control.

What Pilates can do for you as a padel player

What Pilates can do is help cultivate greater awareness in our bodies of good movement: movement done with an understanding of proper alignment and appropriate range of movement. Transferring this to the padel context requires conscious application on your part. Nevertheless, here we can start to break down and focus on improving the movements that form the building blocks of padel.

Exercises

Note: The intention of this section is to explain why certain exercises can be beneficial for your playing. It is not intended and should not be taken as instructions for performing these exercises.

1. The lower body (and more): Hips, knees, ankles

Special focus:

• Neutral spine

• Leg alignment

You may have noticed just how much the spine has to move to facilitate your playing, but ideally we want to be able to return to our neutral spine. The neutral spine is where the spine is aligned in such a way as to allow forces to be transmitted centrally through it, allowing us to better preserve the integrity of its structures in the long run.

Maintaining good leg alignment whenever we can is also crucial for joint health. Ideally, we want the hip, knee and ankle joints to be aligned.

We can use these Pilates exercise variations to build awareness of how we can move our lower body without compromising the neutral spine. Although this isn’t what we typically associate with ‘training the core’, it is very much about core strength (trunk stability)!

1.1 Just ‘up and down’

Pilates Squat

A great exercise to build awareness of the neutral spine and leg alignment, as we encourage hip, knee and ankle mobility.

A more challenging variation: Rising onto the balls of the feet as you return to standing. You might find yourself working harder here to keep your spine neutral and your legs aligned.

1.2 Adding hip rotation, abduction & adduction

Oyster/Shell

Here we lie on the mat on one side with a neutral spine, working within the hip joint to encourage as much range as possible without compromising the spine.

Variations: There are many variations to this exercise, including working with a resistance band, as pictured here.

2. The spine

Now that we know what neutral feels like, we want to be able to move in and out of it with relative ease and control. In padel, the spine is constantly moving in different planes. Whether or not we realise, this requires a good amount of strength and mobility. A deficit in either or both becomes apparent as we begin to move the spine in the following exercises (which is why you are asked to undergo a movement assessment by your instructor). Fortunately, this is something we can improve with intentional practice.

2.1 Rotation

Bow & Arrow

It is often challenging to perform pure rotation. The trunk is very limited in how much it can rotate, which is why we often recruit other movements to help us go further, such as turning our pelvis towards the direction of movement. This feels only natural, but over time we can get better and better at compensating, such that we end up with even less range than before. Reduction in mobility in general also becomes more salient as we age.

The same applies for the padel player, who relies greatly on the spine’s ability to rotate. Bow & Arrow is ideal for encouraging pure rotation. At the same time, it informs the player of where their arms should be in relation to their body as they rotate, in order to protect the vulnerable shoulder joint (more on that below).

2.2 Rotation plus…

Roll Down & Side Reach Flow

Then we go beyond pure rotation in anticipation of all the other fantastic movements produced by the player’s spine in a game of padel.

For example, this is an improvised flow which takes the player through a Roll Down and Side Reach, with a focus on encouraging mobility (moving relatively freely) but still being able to fully support and control the spine against gravity, as well as to transition through a neutral spine in the middle of the flow.

Variations: There are plenty of ways to combine different movements into a flow, which feels incredible and is also fun to do.

2.3 Extension

Cobra/Cobra Prep

How does your spine move to help you produce an overhead shot?

At times the padel player’s spine has to bend backwards, by a little or a lot depending on their style, going into an extended position. If you struggle with spinal extension, strengthening those spinal extensors with controlled movements in the Pilates environment could be helpful.

A great way to start is actually lying prone on the mat, working against gravity as you pull your spine into a balanced extension. Eventually, you can progress to standing extensions.

Variations: There are various ways to add on to the basic spinal extension. As a padel player you might like the addition of arm movements as you maintain the extension.

3. The shoulder girdle

The shoulder is a hugely mobile joint and therefore prone to instability and injury. The focus of Pilates here is to balance shoulder mobility and stability. Special attention can also be paid to finding the range of movement suitable for your body. This can be understood, for example, in terms of where your arms are in relation to your torso at any given time, whether or not the spine is in neutral.

3.1 Moving with a neutral spine

Corkscrew Arms

Here the emphasis is on maintaining a neutral spine as you move, finding the range suitable for your shoulder joints and mobilising the joints in a stabilised, controlled way.

Variation: This can be done with a resistance band.

3.2 Moving when spine is not neutral

Bow & Arrow, again, and many more…

Adding arm movements as we move the spine in different directions, with a view to encouraging good control of the shoulder joint.

How (well) do you move?

Whether you’re looking to supplement your padel training or improve your posture and movement more generally, Pilates can be a great tool for you.

Use the contact page or this chat link to get a quote for your introductory session. This includes a movement and postural assessment.