'The Golden Bachelor' Gerry Turner loves pickleball. A doctor shares tips to avoid injuries while playing.
- "The Golden Bachelor" contestants took part in a pickleball tournament; one woman fractured a bone.
- The women hoped to impress Gerry Turner, who plays pickleball three times a week to stay fit.
Many of the female contestants in "The Golden Bachelor" could barely contain their excitement when they heard that Gerry Turner was a pickleball fan.
A suspiciously high number of the women claimed that the sport was one of their interests after Turner said that he did it to keep fit.
"I get my exercise that way," Turner told GQ, saying that he played pickleball three mornings a week for three hours.
In the latest episode of the show, the 72-year-old hosted a pop-up pickleball tournament. The women were pitted against each other in teams of two. The victors received a trophy and the opportunity to take part in a photo shoot with Turner for a national pickleball magazine.
There was drama on the court when one of the contestants appeared to stumble and fall. "I think I broke my ankle," April Kirkwood exclaimed, dropping her paddle.
Injuries can happen
Turner — who'd said in an interview that he'd gotten two black eyes from pickleball in the past — stepped in. He let Kirkwood rest her head on his shoulder before a medic arrived.
Thankfully, April wasn't seriously hurt, and she was able to keep playing. The 65-year-old later confessed she'd faked it to spend a bit more one-on-one time with Turner. "Actually, I'm totally fine," she said.Though it wasn't shown on film, another contestant, Nancy Hulkower, suffered a genuine injury during the high-stakes competition. She sustained a stress fracture on her foot and appeared in a surgical boot before the famous rose ceremony."It hurts," the 60-year-old said. "I'm just hanging in."Hulkower's plight came as little surprise to George Eldayrie, a leading sports-medicine doctor based in Florida. He told Insider he's treated as many as three seniors a week who'd picked up injuries on the pickleball court."Most of them are over 50, " he said. "The population that is playing pickleball is much older, so they tend to have more injuries."
Wear the right type of shoes
Pickleball involves a lot of pivoting and back-and-forth movements on the court, Eldayrie said, which could cause falls that many seniors take longer to recover from.
"It's a good idea to invest in shoes that offer ankle support," the physician said. "You are less likely to roll your ankle if you are wearing a stable shoe that's a little bit bulkier and can take more impact."
Stretch
He said players should follow the lead of professional athletes and perform routine stretches.
"Stretching is important," he said. "Most people only focus on pre-participation stretching, but it's better for injury prevention if you do it afterward, too."
He advised people to "loosen up a bit, get in a little stretch, participate, and do a cool-down stretch at the end."
He recommended a hamstring stretch, a quad stretch, a groin stretch, and a "little side lunge." He also suggested shoulder circles and wrist stretching. "Bend your wrist all the way down and all the way up to feel that stretch in your arms," Eldayrie said.
Play doubles, not singles, and pace yourself
The doctor said seniors might consider playing doubles instead of singles for safety reasons. "Both can be demanding, but there's not a whole lot of running with doubles," he said.
He said that a team of two players is more likely to take time to chat between points and recalibrate. "Remember to give your body a break," he said.
It's also important to know your limits — even if you're trying to impress someone.
Don't carry on for the sake of appearance, Eldayrie said. "You shouldn't be playing if your pain is more than a two out of 10," he said. "Aches and soreness are relatively OK, but sharp stabbing pains are not."
He also recommended that everyone, but especially seniors, consult their doctor before taking up any sport.