SRU professor, player develop new pickleball training regimen
Even after more than 12 years playing pickleball and competing in countless tournaments, Gino Cicconi is still learning about the sport. Now, at age 63, he said he learned he can’t play the same as he did when he was 51, despite his consistent practicing over all those years.
That’s where Michael Holmstrup comes in. Holmstrup is a professor of exercise science at Slippery Rock University and a pickleball player by proxy — his wife has gotten into the sport as of late. With a Ph.D in exercise science, Holmstrup began looking into how pickleball players moved their bodies in the game and how those actions cold result in injury if players make a misstep.
Holmstrup’s idea for the “FITTER Pickleball” project really took off when he met Cicconi, when the two could combine theory and player experience. Holmstrup said the resulting training and practice regimen is one of the first of its kind for pickleball, as far as what he could find.
“It is such a huge sport, and I looked around and I didn’t really see a lot of good resources for people to stay on the court,” Holmstrup said. “We wanted to focus on large movements that mimic what’s really happening in pickleball. We have a series of compound exercises we do and things that help with injury prevention.”
Cicconi is also no stranger to the world of academics. He worked as an administrator in SRU’s information and administrative technology services department for 35 years before retiring in 2018.
He said meeting Holmstrup presented a good opportunity for him to not only improve his own pickleball game, but help others improve theirs and prevent injury along the way. He said he sees many people around his age on the courts, but in recent years it seems people of every age have discovered the sport.
But Holmstrup’s training regimen still started with Cicconi and his experience playing the game. According to Cicconi, he and Holmstrup discussed the most common movements pickleball players make on the court and then Cicconi demonstrated them for Holmstrup.
“We were talking about movement on the court,” Cicconi said. “I needed to move better on the court because I’m 63. We started working on people 60-plus and not getting hurt.”
Pickleball players are particularly hard on their knees and their shoulders, according to Holmstrup.
Cicconi said there are 13 different shots, meaning there are 13 separate movements players go through when hitting the ball with their paddle. Holmstrup broke those movements down to look at the individual joints that moved during those shots and made workout and stretching recommendations based on the most common movements.
“When pickleball players come up to the net, (also known as) the kitchen, there’s a lot of side-by-side lateral movement happening. You gradually build up range of motion and intensity moving side to side,” Holmstrup said. “We did our best to choose movements that would mimic that.”
His regimen was aided by Cicconi, who could point out where on his body he felt stress as he made certain moves.
“Your knee, it goes forward and back, but it also goes left and right, that’s how it gets hurt,” Cicconi said. “I’m telling him which way our bodies move in each point so he knows what muscles need strengthening.”
Even though he has been no stranger to regular exercise and stretching, Cicconi said working with Holmstrup has led him to working smarter at pickleball, not harder.
“I always practice, but I never thought strengthening certain muscles that will help me go left to right or lean forward,” Cicconi said. “There are a lot of movements that only Mike is aware of and there’s so many muscles you rotate certain ways.”
Over the course of more than a year-and-a-half, Holmstrup and Cicconi authored “FITTER Pickleball,” a book based on their studies into pickleball and exercise science. The two also crafted a website, fitterpickleball.com, where information about the authors and their process can be found.
Holmstrup said that while the book leans into the science behind movement, he and Cicconi wanted to make sure it could be readable by any pickleball player. He said it was enjoyable to use terminology he knows as a professor in a way that is easily digestible to the average reader.
“We also meant for the book to be manageable for the everyday person who enjoys pickleball,” Holmstrup said. “That was the fun part, translating the science into speak everyone can read.”
He added that the book is not only for aging pickleball players.
“If you’re a 20-year-old college student, this would be just as effective as it would for the older individual,” Holmstrup said.
In the time since he started working with Holmstrup, Cicconi said his pickleball game has improved. He said he has consistently won tournaments over the past year and he is heading to a national tournament in San Diego, Calif., in November.
Cicconi credits the exercise regimen he picked up from working with Holmstrup as one of the reasons his game has improved recently, which has also led to a boost in confidence on the court that has bumped his playing up even more.
“I wanna bench press. I want to curl. We do a lot of band work, spreading your ankles apart and walking and using muscles you never used before,” Cicconi said. “Where I’m at right now, I know I can outmuscle my opponent.”
Holmstrup said publishing the book is not the end for his work in the field of pickleball. He said he and Cicconi plan to work with college students who want to learn how to exercise for certain sports or activity. The two are still putting their college-educating experience to work.
“We’re actually looking to offer some workshops for people who want to come in, learn about the program, get some resistance training skills,” Holmstrup said. “That’s one of our next steps.”
