Saint Louis University TIP Lab Kicks Off Project to Reduce Pickleball Injuries, Study Health Benefits
ST. LOUIS — Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the United States and offers a fun and social way to increase physical activity levels. With the explosion in participation has come a significant increase in pickleball-related injuries seen in U.S. emergency rooms. Still, this data does not offer an accurate picture of what types of injuries are most prevalent.
“Without accurate information on injuries, it will be difficult to develop strategies to prevent these injuries and allow people to access the benefits of increased activity in the safest way possible,” said Olu Owoeye, Ph.D., director of the Translational Sports Injury Prevention (TIP) Lab at Saint Louis University.
Olu Owoeye, Ph.D., director of the Translational Sports Injury Prevention Lab at Saint Louis University. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
The SLU TIP Lab is introducing SPIN, an acronym for Surveillance in Pickleball Players to reduce Injury burden, a multi-faceted, multi-year research project to address injury concerns with pickleball and study the health benefits that can be gained through pickleball participation.
SLU TIP Lab researchers aim to describe the most common pickleball-related injuries and devise data-driven prevention strategies through multiple phases of the SPIN Project. The initial phase is a participation and injury survey for pickleball players to complete online. This survey will provide the SPIN team with accurate information about how often participants play and the type and frequency of injuries that they are experiencing.
“We are recruiting 3,000 participants for this phase of the study from across all skill and age levels, age 18 and older, to give us the most accurate picture of pickleball injuries available to date,” said Owoeye, assistant professor of physical therapy at SLU.
Once this data has been analyzed, SLU TIP Lab researchers and expert partners will design prevention strategies to test for effectiveness and ease of adaptation. Additionally, the SPIN Project team will begin studies to determine what types of health benefits pickleball players can expect to gain from their pickleball play.
Owoeye explains, “We know that increased physical activity has many benefits, including lowering blood pressure, helping with maintaining a healthy weight and improving muscle strength, but because the increase in pickleball participation is so recent, we can’t accurately state how effective pickleball participation is at providing these and more benefits.”
The SPIN Project team partnered with PEAK Sport and Spine Physical Therapy, Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating (DUPR), and the St. Louis Shock Professional Pickleball Club to help recruit participants for the injury survey. The SLU TIP Lab continues to seek additional partners to support this phase and additional phases of the SPIN project and the Umbrella Pickleball Project that incorporates trials to test the effectiveness of pickleball-specific injury prevention strategies and establish the health benefits of pickleball as a recreational sport.
“The recent burst in pickleball participation in the United States has provided a unique opportunity to study injuries and health benefits of a new activity almost from its inception,” Owoeye said. “The SPIN Project is positioned to provide a wealth of information to pickleball players, clubs, and equipment manufacturers on how to manage the risks and reap the benefits of pickleball most effectively going forward.”
Click here to participate in this research study. For more information, call Olu Owoeye at 314-977-8505 or email tip.lab@health.slu.edu.
Latest Newslink
- SLU History Professor Receives Fulbright Specialist Award to Create Digital Tool Focusing on Gaelic IrelandThomas Finan, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Saint Louis University, has received a Fulbright Specialist Award. He will work with colleagues at the University of Galway to create a joint database of archaeological and historical research focusing on Gaelic Ireland.
- Don't Let that Cookie Crumble: SSE Teams Build, Test Gingerbread HousesTeams of students, faculty and staff in Saint Louis University's School of Science and Engineering recently put their engineering skills to work for a December Innovation Challenge. The teams built gingerbread houses designed to stand up during a weight-loading competition.
- Dr. Edward J. Feser Named 34th President of Saint Louis UniversityFeser, a Roman Catholic, Jesuit-educated leader in higher education, will assume the SLU presidency on July 1, 2025. Feser currently serves as the provost and executive vice president of Oregon State University (OSU), a land-grant institution with more than 38,000 students, a $1.8 billion budget and $480 million annually in externally funded research.
- SLU's Newest Alums Cheered at Commencement CeremonySaturday morning, hundreds of students walked across the stage at Chaifetz Arena and joined the Billiken alumni family. Saint Louis University celebrated its Midyear Commencement on Saturday, Dec. 14, In front of a packed crowd of family members, friends, and loved ones. Those in attendance and watching at home saw the newest graduates of SLU celebrated.
- Amy E. Wright Receives Honorable Mention for MLA's Katherine Singer Kovacs PrizeSaint Louis University's Amy E. Wright, Ph.D., received an honorable mention from the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) for the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for an outstanding book published in English or Spanish in the field of Latin American and Spanish literature and cultures. Wright, a professor of Hispanic Studies at SLU, received the honor for her book Serial Mexico: Storytelling across Media, from Nationhood to Now, published in 2023 by Vanderbilt University Press.
- SLU Professor and Author Jonathan Sawday Wins MLA's Prestigious James Russell Lowell PrizeSaint Louis University's Jonathan Sawday, Ph.D., has received the James Russell Lowell Prize for the most outstanding book published in 2023.
