4 Core Exercises Pro Pickleball Players Use Instead of Crunches

If your idea of core training is grinding through three sets of crunches after a session on the court, you are not alone. Most recreational pickleball players do exactly that. And most of them wonder why their drives still feel weak, their overheads lack pop, and their body starts to fade in the third game of the day. The answer is almost always the same: the core training you are doing has almost nothing to do with the movements pickleball actually demands from your body.

This is not about working harder. It is about training smarter, specifically in ways that directly mirror what happens during every rally, every reset, every explosive speed-up at the kitchen line. The four exercises covered in this article come from That Pickleball Trainer, coach Connor Derrickson on YouTube, who works with pros like Anna Bright and applies the same training principles to players at every level who want to add real, measurable power to their game.

Let’s get into why your current core routine is probably failing you, and what to do instead.

Why Standard Core Training Does Not Work for Pickleball

Here is something most players never stop to think about: a crunch is not a strength exercise in any meaningful sense. It trains one movement pattern — spinal flexion — through a very short range of motion, with no external load, and at a volume so high that you are essentially doing endurance work on a muscle that needs explosive power. Doing 50 crunches every morning is a bit like doing 200 bodyweight squats and expecting it to translate into a powerful split-step and push off the court. It just does not work that way.

Real strength training means loading a muscle through a meaningful range of motion, keeping your reps in a productive range, and actually stressing the tissue enough to force adaptation. Your core deserves exactly the same approach you would use for your legs or your shoulders. According to pickleball fitness research, the core demands of the sport go well beyond simple flexion and extension.

Pickleball asks your core to do three distinct things during play. First, it needs to flex and extend — the forward and backward movement most people think of when they hear “core training.” Second, it needs to laterally flex and stabilize — the side-to-side movements that happen constantly during wide balls and defensive stretches. Third, and most importantly, it needs to rotate powerfully around the spine on every shot you hit. That third demand is where pickleball is won and lost, and it is almost entirely ignored by traditional ab work.

If you want to hit overheads with real authority, drive volleys with pace, and stay structurally stable through a long dink exchange, you need a completely different approach to how you train your midsection. Here is exactly what that looks like.

What This Means If You Are New to Strength Training for Pickleball

Before diving into the exercises, it is worth taking a moment for anyone who is relatively new to thinking about fitness in the context of pickleball. You do not need to be a gym regular or an athlete to benefit from this kind of training. The core, which is the group of muscles wrapping around your trunk from your hips to your ribcage, is responsible for transferring force between your lower body and your upper body. Every time you swing a paddle, plant your feet and redirect a hard shot, or hold your ground during a fast exchange at the net, your core is doing the work in the background.

When that core is weak or undertrained, energy leaks out of your swing. Your balance suffers. You get tired faster. Shots that should be put-aways end up floating. The good news is that training the right patterns does not take hours in the gym. Two focused sessions a week using the exercises below is enough to see real improvement on the court within a few weeks.

Exercise 1: Cable Chops and Lifts

Cable chops and lifts are the single best category of exercises you can add to a pickleball-specific training program. They load the obliques and the rectus abdominis through rotational and anti-rotational patterns that directly mirror the mechanics of every shot you take on the court. Unlike a crunch, which asks your abs to do minimal work against minimal resistance, cable chops and lifts force your core to move or resist a real external load through patterns that actually show up in your game.

There are three variations to work through, and ideally you rotate between all three over time. The first is the anti-rotational chop, performed with the cable set high. You pull the rope or handle downward using your core, not your arms, while actively resisting any rotation in your torso. The obliques are doing the work here. The second is the anti-rotational lift, cable set low, where you drive the weight upward while keeping your lower body locked and stable. Again, you are resisting the force of the cable, and that resistance is precisely what builds functional core strength.

The third and most sport-specific variation is the rotational chop, where you actually let the upper body rotate with the cable movement. Keep your lower body as still as possible and drive the weight with full rotational force. This mirrors the hip-to-shoulder sequence that you need for a powerful forehand drive. The key on all three variations is the mind-muscle connection. Stop thinking about moving your arms. Think about your obliques moving the weight. The moment you make that mental shift, the exercise becomes noticeably harder and dramatically more effective.

This is the foundation of any serious pickleball core training program: load, not repetition. Treat it like a strength exercise, not a cardio finisher.

Exercise 2: Med Ball Rotational Throws

Building rotational strength through cables gives you the foundation, but pickleball also demands that you express that strength at high speed. Speed and power are trained differently than raw strength, and that is exactly what med ball rotational throws are for. These exercises teach your core to fire fast and transfer force explosively, which is the exact quality that separates a soft, pushable shot from one that pins your opponent to the back of the court.

Use a six to eight pound ball for these. Keep your reps at five to six per side across three sets. Going higher than that shifts you out of power training and into conditioning, which is not the goal here. Every single rep should be a maximum effort. If you are coasting through the throws, you are wasting your time.

The first variation is the scoop toss. Load the ball on your back hip, drive your hips toward the wall first, and then let your arms follow through. The hips lead, the upper body slings through last. This is the exact sequencing your body needs for powerful groundstrokes and drives. The second variation is the shot put throw, with the ball loaded at chest height and your elbow directly behind it. Same hip-first sequence, then explode through the ball into the wall. This one builds the upper-body snap that shows up on speed-ups and attacks at the net.

The third variation is the rotational overhead slam. Reach as high as possible and slam the ball toward the ground near your opposite foot, throwing your hips back as you go. This trains the overhead pattern and the flexion sequence that crunches attempt to develop but never actually load enough to produce real results. This kind of explosive rotational training connects directly to overheads and put-aways, where the hip-to-shoulder sequence is what makes the difference between a winner and a popup.

Understanding Anti-Extension: Why It Matters More Than You Think

If you are newer to strength training language, the term anti-extension is worth understanding because it comes up constantly in quality core programming. Anti-extension simply means your core is resisting the tendency of your lower back to arch and collapse under load or during fast movements. When you keep your lower back pressed flat to the floor during a dead bug exercise, your core is working hard to prevent that extension from happening. That is anti-extension work.

Why does this matter for pickleball? Because every time you reach for a wide ball, stretch into a return of serve, or hold your athletic position through a long rally, your lower back is under load and your core needs to protect it automatically. Anti-extension training builds that protection into your movement patterns so it happens without you thinking about it. It is the kind of deep stability that keeps your spine healthy and your whole kinetic chain connected during the fast, reactive movements pickleball demands.

Exercise 3: Dead Bugs

Dead bugs are one of the most underrated exercises in any athletic training program, and they are a staple of serious pickleball core work for good reason. They train the anti-extension pattern described above through a progressive series of variations, building the ability to keep your spine stable and your core braced while your limbs are moving independently and under load.

The basic setup is simple: lie on your back with your arms extended toward the ceiling, knees bent at ninety degrees. The challenge is keeping your lower back completely flat against the floor as you lower one leg and the opposite arm simultaneously. The moment your back arches off the floor, the exercise gets easier and you have lost the benefit. Keep it pressed down the entire time, and you will feel your deep core working in a way that no amount of crunches ever produces.

There are four progressions to work through. Start with the wall dead bug, where you push your hands lightly against a wall behind your head and move only your legs. This teaches the bracing pattern in a controlled way before you add complexity. Move to the standard dead bug next, lowering opposite arm and leg simultaneously with no wall support. From there, add a resistance band held overhead throughout the movement, moving only the legs. The band forces constant core engagement and teaches you to brace properly under tension. The most advanced variation uses a five to twenty-five pound weight held overhead, with one leg lowering at a time. This seriously challenges the rectus abdominis and the deep stabilizers together.

Aim for six to eight reps per leg across two to three sets. Slow and controlled is non-negotiable here. A deliberate, well-executed dead bug is worth ten rushed ones. Pair this kind of stability training with sharp pickleball footwork and you will notice your court coverage and positioning tighten up significantly over time. Solid anti-extension strength is what keeps your body connected and efficient during long rallies and precise shot placement situations.

Exercise 4: Reverse Crunches

Reverse crunches are the one crunch-adjacent movement that actually earns a place in a serious training program, and the reason is in how they are performed. Most people do them wrong, which turns a genuinely hard and productive exercise into something that barely challenges the body at all. Done correctly, the reverse crunch is significantly more demanding than a standard crunch and targets the lower portion of the rectus abdominis with real intent.

The movement starts by lying on a bench, holding the back of it with only one or two fingers. Knees bent at ninety degrees. The key cue that most people miss is this: lift your hips and glutes straight up toward the ceiling first, before curling them toward your face. That upward component is what makes the exercise hard. If you just tuck your knees toward your chest, you are leaving most of the value on the table and probably using your hip flexors more than your abs.

The descent is equally important. Lower yourself as slowly as possible — at least three seconds on the way down. That slow eccentric phase is where the real muscular development happens, following the same principle that coaches use for building stronger legs through tempo squats. Rushing the lowering phase turns the exercise into a momentum drill rather than a strength drill.

There are two useful variations here. The bench version allows you to control difficulty through your grip — a lighter fingertip grip makes it harder. The floor version uses a light kettlebell held above your head throughout the movement, which forces your core to control the entire exercise without any assistance. Counterintuitively, a lighter weight makes this harder, not easier, because you have to generate all the stability yourself rather than using the momentum of a heavier object. You can also place a foam roller behind your knees and squeeze it throughout. This adds leg tension that increases the overall difficulty by roughly ten to twenty percent.

Anna Bright includes reverse crunches in her core training program. Watch her handle fast exchanges at the kitchen and the connection between a stable, strong trunk and sharp, controlled hands becomes immediately obvious. If you want to understand why that trunk stability matters so much at speed, fast hands in pickleball start from a stable core, not just quick reflexes.

How to Build Your Weekly Core Training Routine Around These Exercises

You do not need to fit all four exercises into a single session. Spreading them across two training days per week gives you enough frequency to drive adaptation without compromising recovery. Here is a simple structure that works well for most players.

On Day One, run all three cable chop and lift variations for three sets each, then add two to three sets of dead bugs as your stability work. This pairing gives you loaded rotational training alongside the anti-extension stability work that protects your spine and deepens your bracing pattern. On Day Two, perform your med ball rotational throws first — three sets of five to six reps per side — treating each rep like a sprint and resting fully between sets. Follow that with reverse crunches for three sets of eight to ten reps, focusing on the upward hip lift and the slow, controlled descent.

Keep the med ball throws genuinely explosive. The moment you start going through the motions on those, you are no longer training power. The cable and dead bug work can be done with a more deliberate, controlled tempo, but even there, the load should be meaningful rather than comfortable. This structured approach to training is what separates players who improve steadily from those who plateau.

The broader principle here is straightforward: train your core the way you would train any other muscle group. Load it. Stress it. Let it recover. Come back stronger. That cycle is what produces the kind of core that actually helps you on the court — one that drives topspin shots with confidence, holds stable through fast exchanges, and stays strong deep into a competitive day of play.

Weak, undertrained obliques are one of the most common reasons players struggle to generate real pace on their drives and overheads. A strong rotational core gives you the physical base to swing freely and fully without your body collapsing or compensating. If you want to see how that rotational strength shows up in actual match play, look at the speed-up patterns that 5.0 players use at the kitchen line. That level of