Padel Injuries in Dallas: A Chiropractor’s Guide
Padel is the fastest-growing racquet sport in the country, and Dallas-Fort Worth is building courts to match. If you’ve just picked up a paddle, or you’re already dealing with an ache that showed up after a few sessions, here’s what a sports chiropractor sees most often, and how to keep playing without it getting worse.
Why padel is suddenly everywhere in Dallas
DFW currently has roughly 21 padel courts spread across 7 clubs, and that number is about to nearly double. Padel Square is bringing 7 indoor courts to Farmers Branch, Ace Padel Dallas just won approval for 6 courts in Oak Lawn, Padel Haus is converting a 24,000-square-foot warehouse in the Design District into 6 more courts (targeting a December 2026 opening), and Studio Arenna has signed an 18,000-square-foot build-to-suit lease in North Richland Hills. Padel39, already open in Carrollton with 3 indoor courts, is adding 7 outdoor lighted courts this spring, bringing that single location to 10. Put it all together and DFW is on pace for somewhere around 40 courts, closing the gap with Austin (51 courts) and Houston (87).
That growth means a wave of new players picking up a sport that looks like a gentler, smaller version of tennis. It isn’t gentler. It just loads the body differently, and most new players have no idea what to watch for until something starts hurting.
Why padel injures people differently than tennis or pickleball
Padel is played inside an enclosed court with glass and mesh walls, which changes the entire physical demand of the game. Points last longer than tennis, the ball comes back off the walls at angles you have to react to instantly, and you’re constantly decelerating, twisting, and reaching, often with a solid, stringless paddle that transmits far more shock straight into your arm than a strung tennis racquet does. Across the published research on padel injuries, training sessions produce roughly 3 injuries per 1,000 hours played, and matches produce roughly 8 injuries per 1,000 matches, and somewhere between 60% and 95% of regular players report dealing with a padel-related injury at some point in their playing career.
1. Elbow pain (the single most common padel injury)
The elbow is hurt more often than any other joint in padel, somewhere between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3 reported injuries, depending on the study. “Padel elbow” is almost always lateral extensor tendinopathy (the same injury as tennis elbow) caused by repeated short, snapping volleys and the vibration a solid paddle sends straight through the forearm with nothing to absorb it.
Fix: this is a tendon-loading problem, not an inflammation problem. Resting it calms things down temporarily, then it comes right back the moment you’re back on court. We treat it by working up the whole chain, wrist, forearm, shoulder, and grip mechanics, and progressively loading the tendon instead of just icing it. See Soft-Tissue Therapy for how we approach tendon-based pain.
2. Knee pain (pivots, lunges, and the glass wall)
Knee injuries show up in roughly 8%–23% of padel injury cases. Padel’s low volleys force you into a deep lunge or squat position over and over, and the enclosed court means you’re constantly decelerating hard off the back and side walls instead of just letting a ball go past you. That deceleration, not the lunge itself, is usually what overloads the knee.
Fix: most padel-related knee pain actually traces back to a limited ankle or hip, which forces the knee to absorb load it was never built to handle alone. We run a full movement assessment to find where that restriction really is before building a plan. Full context on the joint itself: Knee Pain.
3. Shoulder pain (the bandeja and the smash)
Shoulder injuries account for roughly 8%–34% of padel injuries depending on the study, and the overhead smash and the bandeja, padel’s signature defensive overhead shot, are usually the culprit. Both ask the rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers to decelerate your arm at speed, shot after shot, and newer players especially tend to muscle through the motion with their arm instead of their legs and trunk.
Fix: most of the shoulder pain we see in padel players isn’t new. It’s an old scapular or postural issue that padel just finally exposed. See Shoulder Pain for how we work through it.
4. Lower back pain (the twist-and-reach)
Lower back pain shows up in roughly 9%–28% of padel injuries. Rotating through the trunk to track down wide balls, then bracing hard to redirect them back off the wall, loads the lumbar spine in a way most new players’ hips and core simply aren’t ready for yet.
Fix: as with most rotational court-sport back pain, the real driver is almost always upstream of the back itself, usually hip rotation or thoracic spine mobility. Full context: Lower Back Pain.
Who’s most at risk
One of the more consistent findings in the research: older players get hurt more, not less. Players in their late 50s and 60s report injury rates as high as 87%, compared to roughly 60% in players under 20, likely some combination of less resilient tissue, more years of accumulated wear elsewhere in the body, and simply logging more sessions once they get hooked. If that’s your profile (new to the sport, or playing multiple sessions a week right out of the gate), a baseline functional movement screen is a cheap way to find a restriction before it turns into an injury, not after.
How to play padel in Dallas without breaking down
Rule 1: Respect the wall. The instinct that makes padel fun (letting the ball come off the glass instead of chasing it down) is also what loads your knees and hips with sudden deceleration. Bend your knees before you brake; don’t just plant and stop.
Rule 2: Warm up your forearm, not just your shoulder. Most players warm up their serve motion and skip the wrist and forearm entirely, exactly the tissue taking the hit on every volley. A few minutes of wrist extension and flexion work before you play goes a long way toward keeping “padel elbow” off your calendar.
Rule 3: Let your legs hit the bandeja, not your arm. If your shoulder is sore after sessions, it’s very often a mechanics issue before it’s a strength issue, you’re using your arm to generate power that should be coming from your legs and trunk turning into the shot.
Rule 4: Address the actual driver. Same pattern we see in every racquet and court sport: rest, feel better, go back to the exact same mechanics, get hurt again a few weeks later. If your elbow pain is really a grip-and-shoulder problem, resting the elbow by itself doesn’t fix it.
When you should actually see a sports chiropractor
You should get assessed if:
- You have pain that shows up in the same shot or movement every session
- You’ve had to change how you hit a shot (or sit out a session) because of the same pain three weeks in a row
- Pain lingers more than 24 hours after you play
- You feel any sharp, catching, or locking sensation in a joint. That’s not a “play through it” symptom
Can chiropractic care actually help with padel injuries?
Yes, but not through weekly adjustments alone. The model that actually works is identifying the real movement restriction driving the pain, treating it hands-on, and building the strength and mobility around it so it doesn’t come back once you’re back on court. Every case at RXN Performance includes a movement assessment, hands-on treatment, and a progressive plan built around your sport.
What’s the most common padel injury?
Elbow pain, by a wide margin, specifically lateral tendinopathy, the same injury as tennis elbow. Lower back, shoulder, and knee follow, roughly in that order. Almost all of them trace back to a mobility restriction or mechanics issue somewhere else in the chain, not actual damage in the spot that hurts.
Is padel harder on your body than pickleball?
They load the body differently more than one is simply “harder.” Pickleball’s quick, flat volleys and sudden stops tend to hammer the knees (see our guide on Pickleball Knee Pain), while padel’s walls and longer points spread the load across the elbow, shoulder, and lower back as well. If you play both, you’re covering most of the injury patterns either sport can throw at you, which makes a solid warm-up and a periodic movement check worth the 20 minutes.
If you’re picking up padel in Dallas and something is already nagging at you, we can help. RXN Performance specializes in root-cause care for athletes: full movement assessment, hands-on treatment, and a plan that gets you back on court instead of just resting and hoping it holds. Book a discovery call.