<body><div>Jimmy Signorelli didn’t think much of the fall at first.The 76-year-old Evanston resident was in the middle of a pickleball game at the McGaw YMCA a few weeks ago. He reached for a low shot, but his momentum got away from him.“I fell flat on my face,” Signorelli said. “I thought, ‘OK, whatever.’ And I got up, and somebody said, ‘Oh man, you’re bleeding like crazy.'”Other players tried bandages and gauze, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop. A friend drove him to the emergency room, where he got five stitches.Signorelli came to pickleball from tennis, which he had played since high school until mobility got in the way. After one pickleball lesson, he said he was hooked.Signorelli is one of the roughly 24 million Americans who played the sport in 2025, according to a report from the Sports &amp; Fitness Industry Association, up from 4.2 million in 2020. He’s also among the growing number of injured players. One roundup of pickleball statistics included a 2026 study that estimated emergency room visits rose from 1,313 in 2014 to 24,461 in 2023. Most were among people ages 60 to 79.Some local players in their 60s and 70s who have taken up the sport said it looks gentle from the sidelines, but it can be hard on the body.Pickleball is played on a small court with a solid paddle and a plastic ball, almost always as doubles.“It’s a cross between table tennis and tennis,” Signorelli said. Ease of play is part of the appeal, and part of the problem, he added. “There’s a lot of strategy and a lot of skill that’s required. It’s easy to learn, but it’s hard to master.”At the pickleball courts at James Park, Dodge Avenue and Oakton Street, Steve Serikaku, 75, said he has played for seven years.Serikaku said the typical mix at the James Park courts is of older and younger folks. “When I say younger folks, I mean people in their 40s.”Mike Collinsworth, 59, has played pickleball for four years. He has not been seriously injured, but he has seen what a fall can do. In the spring, his girlfriend went back for a ball and fell.“[It was] just a two-foot fall,” Collinsworth said. “But, older people, going back for a ball, we all have to be aware of how healthy or not healthy we are.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=21A3mI_1Gndl1XB00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=21A3mI_1Gndl1XB00" width="1024" height="680" ><figcaption>Jim Winter (right) and Liliana Zecker take to the pickleball courts. As the popularity of the game has risen, so, too, have injuries. Credit: Benjamin Glick</figcaption></figure>Collinsworth said the most dangerous move is going back for a high ball in the back corner, when a player’s feet don’t keep up with their body.“We always point out it’s not worth going for the dive,” Collinsworth said.Adam Bennett, a primary care sports medicine doctor and medical director of the Evanston Sports Medicine Clinic at Northwestern Medical Group system, was a team doctor for the Chicago Bears for almost 20 years and for U.S. Soccer for about 12 years, and is now a team doctor for the Chicago Cubs. He also plays pickleball.The injury he sees most is muscle strain, often a calf strain from lunging and sprinting forward toward the net. In his clinic, patients range from 50 to 80.Playing too often makes arthritis worse, Bennett said, and he slows some players from five or six days a week to two or three. He also said players should train for pickleball movements, not just treadmill walking.“When you’re 25 and 30, you’re normally doing a lot of that, playing pickup basketball or flag football,” Bennett said. “But when you’re 60, you’re usually walking the golf course or walking the dog, but then you go play pickleball.”When a muscle is strained, Bennett said, many players rest and ice it, feel better and go straight back to the court, where they re-injure it within minutes.“The treatment for a muscle strain is rest, rest and more rest, so that the muscle gets recovered. And then you have to strengthen it, so it’s not the first muscle you injure when you go back to pickleball,” Bennett said.Serious head and facial injuries, like Signorelli’s, are outliers, Bennett said, and he still calls pickleball a pretty safe sport.“I really like it as an exercise, and it’s way more fun than getting on the treadmill,” Bennett said.For a minor injury, Bennett suggests a simple at-home test.“If you can hop on it 10 times, you’re probably safe to play,” Bennett said. “But if you hop and you cringe and it hurts, I’d probably seek care, or rest at least.” For an upper-body injury, he said, a pushup serves the same purpose.Signorelli is now fully recovered. In fact, he was back playing about a week and a half after his stitches.He’s learned some things. He wears protective eyewear and starts with balance exercises. He has stopped chasing every shot.“The next time somebody hits a shot like that, I’ll just say ‘nice shot’ and walk away,” Signorelli said.He still wants to win. He just measures that differently now.“Sometimes, you just have to play to stay alive,” Signorelli said.<h2>Support the RoundTable!</h2>Your commitment as a MONTHLY SUSTAINING DONOR helps us the most!Recurring contributions – at all levels – enable us to build a viable newsroom that will serve Evanston for the next 25 years! </div></body>

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Jimmy Signorelli didn’t think much of the fall at first. The 76-year-old Evanston resident was in the middle of a pickleball game at the McGaw YMCA a few weeks ago. He reached for a low shot, but his momentum got away from him. “I fell flat on my face,”...

Knowing your limits an important skill on Evanston pickleball courts

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Jimmy Signorelli didn’t think much of the fall at first. The 76-year-old Evanston resident was in the middle of a pickleball game at the McGaw YMCA a few w

Knowing your limits an important skill on Evanston pickleball courts

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