PIckleball is growing so fast that it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact number of participants. The Association of Pickleball Professionals’ pickleball participation report (sorry – I couldn’t resist) says there were 36 million people worldwide in 2023. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 339 million people who played badminton according to a 2019 Nielsen survey. Worldwide, that’s second only to soccer in participation.
Both are racket sports that are relatively inexpensive, appealing to people of all ages, and fun. For beginners, fitness levels and skills are not critical, but at higher levels, the games can be extremely competitive and challenging.
It turns out that pickleball, badminton, and racket sports in general have a lot more to offer than just social benefits and moderate exercise.
A word of warning to my fellow cyclists: Don’t read this unless you’re sitting up straight and have your favorite nerve tranquilizer handy. Never again will we be able to sit on our bikes, puff out our chests, and look down on those pickleball players with their baggy shorts, lame knees, and mostly silver hair that we occasionally vilify.
Those of you who play pickleball, tennis, badminton, or racquet sports in general, grab your “I told you so” caps and t-shirts, stand on a sturdy and stable chair, and shout to the world that your sport offers you more health benefits physically and mentally than cycling ever will.
This column is about the cognitive benefits of racquet sports. We all know that almost any exercise is good for our bodies, so let’s get the painful part out of the way first.
A United Kingdom Daily Mail Article about a recent study by the National Cancer Institute (British) found that “Anyone between the ages of 59 and 82 who regularly plays a (racket) sport such as tennis for at least 2.5 hours per week can reduce their overall risk of death by 16 percent.”
The figures for other sports are: running 15 percent, walking 9 percent, golf 7 percent, aerobics 7 percent, swimming 5 Percent, and cycling 3 percent. Seriously? Walking and golf are twice as beneficial to our physical health as cycling – and racket sports are five times better?
What about cognitive health? Is there any compensation for cycling there?
Unfortunately, no. With the rapid growth of pickleball and the continued high level of participation in badminton worldwide, there is a growing body of research suggesting that racquet sports significantly improve mental performance in all age groups, including children and seniors.
Racket sports significantly improve mental performance in all age groups, including children and seniors
Sports and exercises are categorized as open and closed skills.
Closed skill sports require motor skills performed with minimal variation in a predictable and stable environment, such as the constant pedaling of a bicycle. There is not much strategic planning or spontaneous decision-making involved.
Open skill sports require motor skills that can adapt to constantly changing and unpredictable conditions, such as those found in racket sports, and require continuous interaction between our brain and muscles, which has a positive effect on cognitive and executive functions.
Several quick steps, forward, backward and sideways, require agility. Unwavering concentration on a ball or shuttlecock in unpredictable movements requires psychological stability, and successful contact between racket and ball requires high visualOEngine integration. This cognitive Features—perceptionAttention, visual and spatial processing, memory and others – all of these are constantly challenged and trained in racket sports.
Executive functions are higher-order cognitive processes that include inhibitory control, working memory, mental flexibility, planning, logical reasoning, and problem solving. All of them are critical to managing daily life and are mentioned in any discussion of the loss of mental abilities in old age.
These links between exercise and cognitive and executive functions are not new and have been well researched. What is new are recent studies that distinguish between the ability of open skill and closed skill sports to improve these mental functions. And Combining open skill sports, especially racket sports, with the best results.
Our cerebellum, a small part of our hindbrain, contains more than half of all the nerve cells in our brain and has a heavy workload. Its functions include, at a minimum, maintaining our balance, timing muscle actions, coordinating eye movements, and learning motor skills. In addition to these physical tasks, the cerebellum also contributes to speech and language processing and plays a role in mood swings and thinking.
The parietal lobe of our brain contains our somatic sensory cortex, the part of the brain that processes and integrates sensory information from different parts of the body, including sight and touch.
When we include our frontal lobes, the value of racquet sports in maintaining and training our cognitive and executive functions becomes crystal clear. Our frontal lobes influence voluntary movements and control higher-level executive functions; our ability to plan, organize, initiate, and control our responses to achieve a specific goal. These are skills that are used to the maximum when players strategize where to place their next volley or how much spin and speed is needed to win the point.
Racket sports, especially when played with vigor and passion in competition or for fun, provide a full-brain and full-body workout that cycling, jogging and swimming cannot match.
Ouch.
