Introducing Whole-Body Pickleball
The Dance of Pickleball
What if there were a way to play pickleball that was more balanced and flowing, and much easier on the body? What if you could move quickly and lightly to the ball, with a spring in your step, as if playfully dancing? What if you could find easy power with a relaxed swing that didn’t hurt your shoulder or back or elbow? What if you could keep your mind focused, and play without self-judgment or performance anxiety?
In fact, all of that is possible. And that’s exactly what Whole-Body Pickleball is all about. It’s a systematic method to train your body, mind and nervous system to play the game better. These training methods work for elite athletes yet can be adapted to meet the needs of older and less fit players, and those working with injuries. This mindful, whole-body approach can also be applied to many other sports and physical activities from golf to dancing to playing a violin.
In Whole-Body Pickleball, we focus how to optimize posture, breath, movement and mental focus as well as swing mechanics to find easy, almost effortless power. We work to tailor each player's training program to their unique situation and goals, based on a comprehensive mind-body approach.
We look at the body holistically, studying how the different parts work in a integrated fashion. Rather than focus primarily on muscles and joints, standard in most athletic training, we examine how the bones move through the body's connective tissue, the fascia. Certain alignments of bones help transmit power. Others help dampen forces, as when the feet hit the ground. One advantage of this whole-body method is that you can go deep into understanding and feeling the body without worrying about things like the names of muscles and where they attach or how much the elbow is bent at some particular point of the swing. This approach aims to take you out of your thinking mind — which often interferes with good play — and into noticing how it feels to move and hit the ball well.
One area in particular that has fascinated me about high-level pickleball and tennis is the crucial role played by the hands and the feet — rarely discussed in any detail in traditional racket sports instruction. Similarly, movements of the spine with the swing turn out to be crucial in generating power, but are seldom mentioned, and are a major focus in Whole-Body Pickleball.
This is a different way to approach the game. Rather than focus on hacks and quick fixes, Whole-Body Pickleball is a practice, a systematic method to train to, step-by-step, improve your play. For students willing to do the work — ideally at least a few minutes per day (on and/or off the court) — it is a path aimed at mastery.
What if there were a way to play pickleball that was more balanced and flowing, and much easier on the body? What if you could move quickly and lightly to the ball, with a spring in your step, as if playfully dancing? What if you could find easy power with a relaxed swing that didn’t hurt your shoulder or back or elbow? What if you could keep your mind focused, and play without self-judgment or performance anxiety?
In fact, all of that is possible. And that’s exactly what Whole-Body Pickleball is all about. It’s a systematic method to train your body, mind and nervous system to play the game better. These training methods work for elite athletes yet can be adapted to meet the needs of older and less fit players, and those working with injuries. This mindful, whole-body approach can also be applied to many other sports and physical activities from golf to dancing to playing a violin.
In Whole-Body Pickleball, we focus how to optimize posture, breath, movement and mental focus as well as swing mechanics to find easy, almost effortless power. We work to tailor each player's training program to their unique situation and goals, based on a comprehensive mind-body approach.
We look at the body holistically, studying how the different parts work in a integrated fashion. Rather than focus primarily on muscles and joints, standard in most athletic training, we examine how the bones move through the body's connective tissue, the fascia. Certain alignments of bones help transmit power. Others help dampen forces, as when the feet hit the ground. One advantage of this whole-body method is that you can go deep into understanding and feeling the body without worrying about things like the names of muscles and where they attach or how much the elbow is bent at some particular point of the swing. This approach aims to take you out of your thinking mind — which often interferes with good play — and into noticing how it feels to move and hit the ball well.
One area in particular that has fascinated me about high-level pickleball and tennis is the crucial role played by the hands and the feet — rarely discussed in any detail in traditional racket sports instruction. Similarly, movements of the spine with the swing turn out to be crucial in generating power, but are seldom mentioned, and are a major focus in Whole-Body Pickleball.
This is a different way to approach the game. Rather than focus on hacks and quick fixes, Whole-Body Pickleball is a practice, a systematic method to train to, step-by-step, improve your play. For students willing to do the work — ideally at least a few minutes per day (on and/or off the court) — it is a path aimed at mastery.
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Timothy McCall, MD is the founder of Whole-Body Pickleball, offering coaching tailored to each individual’s unique situation and goals. He is the author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Yoga as Medicine. Since leaving his internal medicine practice 27 years ago, he has been a scholar, teacher and practitioner of yoga therapy. In 2021, Timothy won the Gold Medal in his age group in the Vermont State tennis championships. He has been coaching pickleball since 2023. Most recently he and his partner won the 2025 Vermont State championship in Pickleball in the 60+ division, at the 4.5+ skill level.
To learn more about Timothy's work in yoga therapy, click here. To learn more about his path into tennis and pickleball, and the role yoga played in his evolution as a player, you might want to check out the revised and updated edition of his memoir Saving My Neck, published in July of 2024. It is available as an eBook on Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books.
To learn more about Timothy's work in yoga therapy, click here. To learn more about his path into tennis and pickleball, and the role yoga played in his evolution as a player, you might want to check out the revised and updated edition of his memoir Saving My Neck, published in July of 2024. It is available as an eBook on Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books.
This is Timothy en route to winning the Gold Medal in the 2021 Vermont State tennis championships in the 65+ division.