Pickleball tournament season can be grueling. Players often face fatigue, poor performance, and injury risk. 

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But it doesn't have to be this way. 

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With the right strategy, you can maintain peak performance throughout the season. This guide will show you how to prepare, train, and recover effectively. You'll learn the necessary skills to achieve your performance potential while staying healthy.

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Step 1: Build Your Match Volume

Many players underestimate the demands of tournament play. This leads to inadequate preparation and subpar performance.

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You must be well prepared for the worst-case scenario regarding the maximum pickleball you may need to play over a multi-day tournament. For example, if you play singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in a large field, you could play up to 5 (five) x 30-minute matches daily.

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That’s almost 8 hours of matchplay. 

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And these aren’t just normal matches. These maximum-intensity matches will drain your physical and mental energy, and that’s not even considering the challenges of playing on the road, away from your home court.

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The first step to dominating the tournament season is increasing your match play volume.

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Calculate the difference between your weekly match play volume and the projected tournament volume. If you currently play 4 hours of competitive match play per week, the difference is 4 hours.

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Next, increase your weekly match play volume, in minutes, by 10-15% until you reach tournament volume.

Week 1: 276 min (+15%)

Week 2: 317 min (+15%)

Week 3: 365 min (+15%)

Week 4: 420 min (+15%)

Week 5: 460 min (+10%)

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Following these steps to build the matchplay volume required for grueling tournaments. 

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Step 2: Increase Intensity

Tournament match play will challenge you both physically and mentally, and if you aren’t prepared to sustain a high level of intensity, your play will deteriorate over time.

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In addition to accumulating more volume of match play, you should deliberately intensify your on-court and off-court training leading up to a tournament season.

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Here's how to push your limits and see real growth:

On-Court

• Challenge yourself against superior opponents to increase physical and mental training stress.
• Create scenarios where you are down several points at the end of a match and must overcome negative momentum to win.

Off-Court

Four to six weeks before the tournament season begins, incorporate lactic power training to enhance stamina for singles play and develop a mental edge. 

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The primary goal of lactic power training is to improve the body's ability to produce energy quickly in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) and increase tolerance to the accumulation of lactic acid, which can cause muscle fatigue and a burning sensation. This type of training is often incorporated into sports that require repeated bursts of high-intensity efforts, such as pickleball, soccer, basketball, or hockey.

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Key components of lactic power training:

1. High Intensity: Exercises are performed at near-maximal effort (80-95% of your maximum heart rate).
2. Short Duration: Work intervals last between 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
3. Recovery Periods: Rest between sets is often 2-4 times the length of the work interval to allow partial recovery.
4. Repeated Efforts: Typically, multiple sets of these high-intensity efforts are performed with the goal of increasing tolerance to lactate.

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I recommend removing lactic power training seven to ten days before your first tournament. In addition, consider performing the sessions off the court (e.g., biking, rowing, sprinting, etc.) to prevent injury. 

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Step 3: Optimize Your Weekly Training Schedule

Many players fail to structure their training week effectively. This results in fatigue, inconsistent performance, and increased injury risk. During a competitive season, your goals during the training weeks are to:

1. Recover from the previous event
2. Refine your skills & enhance your tactics without inducing excessive fatigue
3. Prime your brain and body for the upcoming event  

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Here's a winning weekly schedule:

• Monday: Focus on recovery with active and proper nutrition
• Tuesday: High intensity/moderate volume court session + strength training
• Wednesday: Low intensity/low volume court session
• Thursday: Implement stimulatory practice to prime your body for competition
• Friday-Sunday: Dominate tournament play with peak performance

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Download our FREE AIM7 training calendar for more details on the optimal weekly training schedule to help you win more matches.

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Step 4: Stimulate Don’t Annihilate!

The two mistakes I see players making before a tournament that leads to predictably poor performance are:

1. Overtraining the week before the tournament and failing to perform to their potential.
2. Mismanaging recovery and resting too much. In this case, they start slow and lose early in the tournament.

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Here's how to prevent these mistakes and prime yourself for success:

• Move your mid-week recovery day to Wednesday (T-2) for a Friday start date.
• On Thursday (T-1), implement a short, intense court session to stimulate your nervous system for the tournament's first day.

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This strategy ensures you prevent a sluggish start by priming your body for performance.

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Step 5: Master Long-Term Tournament Season Management

Many players burn out during extended tournament seasons because they fail to account for the compounding effects of consecutive tournaments.

This leads to declining performance and increased injury risk.

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Here's a strategy to maintain peak form during a long competitive season of back-to-back tournaments.

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Maintain your weekly training structure for the first 1-3 consecutive weekends. Give your body time to adapt to the rigors of a competitive season. After a month of tournament competition, lower your weekly training volume (on-court time & strength training volume) but maintain a high level of intensity on key training days.

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At this point of the season, fitness shouldn’t be an issue, and the goal should be to refine your skill, maximize recovery, and level up your play each weekend. Also, listen to your body! Just because you have a plan on paper doesn’t mean you need to follow it.

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Wrap Up

Performing at your best during tournament season requires a strategic approach to training and recovery. By building match volume, increasing intensity, optimizing your weekly schedule, and mastering long-term management, you'll set yourself up for success.

Remember, the key is balance. Push yourself in training, but don't overtrain. Recover actively, but don't become sluggish. And always listen to your body – it's your best guide throughout the season.

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