I tore my ACL 10 years ago skiing and decided not to have surgery, but now I want to take up pickleball with my group of friends. Will it be safe for my knee?

Before starting pickleball, it is important to assess the level of activity you have been doing for the past 10 years. If you have been able to do activities like cutting and pivoting without your knee feeling like it's shifting or swelling, then you are likely a coper. However, if you have only been doing straight ahead activities such as running or cycling, then it is important to seek out an athletic trainer, physical therapist, or sports medicine physician to learn exercises that will help you avoid injury on the pickleball court. Additionally, it is important to start to load your tendons, especially in your Achilles, before playing pickleball.
 
Transcript: "I tore my ACL 10 years ago skiing, decided not to have surgery, but now I want to take up pickleball with my group of friends. Will it be safe for my knee? A couple of my colleagues have already answered this question. I just want to add my thoughts. First of all, congratulations on deciding that pickleball is a sport that you want to try. It's a great social activity. It's good for cardiovascular health. And because it's a weight bearing activity, it helps to maintain your bone health. So, kudos to you and your friends. First of all, what have you been doing in the last 10 years? If you have been already participating in cutting type of sports, and you've been able to do that successfully without your knee feeling like it's shifting, without your knee blowing up or swelling, then you are perhaps a coper. A coper means that you have that neuromuscular facilitation, you have the ability to be able to do activities like cutting and pivoting, without your knees shifting, and you probably have a pretty good core and good hamstrings and quad muscles. So that that is going to give you a lot of success for being able to be successful on the pickleball court. If however, for the past 10 years, all you've done is cycling, running, straight ahead of activities, then I encourage you to start to add in some of those other activities or motions that you'll be doing on the pickleball court. Perhaps seek out an athletic trainer, seek out a physical therapist or a sports medicine physician, and ask them some of the exercises that you can do to make sure that you avoid injury on the pickleball court. If you feel, under the supervision of these health care specialists, that you're starting to shift, then perhaps you may benefit from a ACL brace, and that will help your knee from shifting as you develop strength and balance. The other thing is, also if you haven't done much in the last 10 years, you now you need to start loading your tendons, your tendons especially in your Achilles, which is especially at risk for developing tendonitis, and also for a rupture. That's probably one of the most serious injuries that I've seen from pickleball patients of mine. So you want to start to develop the loading on that tendon. Don't jump into pickleball right away. Because as you lunge for a ball, that's when your Achilles tendon may pop. So seek care, seek assistance, seek guidance, and have a great time."