What to Eat Before Playing Pickleball for More Energy and Better Performance

ou’ve ever started open play feeling great and completely run out of steam a few games later, it may not be your conditioning.

Sometimes, you just didn’t eat enough.

It’s easy to overlook food before pickleball, especially if you’re squeezing in a few games after work or heading to the courts first thing in the morning. You grab your paddle, fill up your water bottle, and go. Then an hour later, your legs feel heavy, you’re getting to balls late, and shots you were making earlier suddenly aren’t there.

That’s usually when we start blaming our legs, the heat, or, naturally, the paddle.

But before you go blaming everything else, think about what you ate that day and how long it had been since your last meal or snack.

Pickleball may not feel like a traditional workout, but you’re still asking quite a bit of your body. Research on recreational pickleball players found that they spent more than 70% of their playing time in moderate-to-vigorous heart-rate zones. Singles players averaged roughly 3,322 steps per hour, while doubles players averaged about 2,791.

Another study put average energy expenditure around 354 calories per hour of play.

Of course, those numbers will vary depending on whether you’re playing singles or doubles, how long and hard you play, your age, body size, and other factors. But if lunch was at noon and you’re heading to open play at 6 without eating anything, there’s a good chance you’re going to feel it.

What to Eat Before Pickleball: Yes, Carbs Are Your Friend Here

Carbs have gotten a bad reputation over the years, but before you play pickleball is not the time to be afraid of them.

Your body breaks carbohydrates down into glucose, with some stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen. That gives your body a readily available source of energy when you start moving.

And there’s more happening during a pickleball game than just running around. You’re tracking the ball, reacting to your opponents, anticipating the next shot, and making quick decisions point after point.

You don’t need to start counting grams of carbohydrates before Tuesday night open play. You just want to avoid showing up hungry and expecting your body to perform at its best.

What to Eat Two to Three Hours Before Pickleball

If you have two or three hours before you hit the court, there’s no need to make your pre-pickleball meal complicated. Eat a normal meal with carbohydrates, some protein, and foods you already know agree with you.

Chicken and rice, a turkey sandwich with fruit, oatmeal with banana and Greek yogurt, eggs with toast and fruit, pasta with lean protein, or a rice bowl can all work.

You want to eat enough that you’re not getting hungry halfway through your second game, but not so much that you feel overly full once you start moving.

What to Eat an Hour Before Pickleball

If you only have an hour or so, keep it lighter.

A banana with a little peanut butter, toast with honey, yogurt and fruit, applesauce, oatmeal, crackers, or a granola bar can give you some energy without leaving you feeling too full.

The closer you get to playing, the more careful you may want to be with a big meal, particularly one high in fat or fiber that takes longer to digest.

In other words, maybe save the cheeseburger and fries for after open play.

The “I Just Left Work and Have Pickleball in 20 Minutes” Problem

This is probably the situation a lot of us run into most often.

You leave work. Open play starts at 6. Lunch was at noon. You have enough time to change and grab your paddle, only to hit every red light between your house and the courts.

Don’t just decide you’ll eat when you get home.

Grab a banana, an applesauce pouch, pretzels, a granola bar, crackers, or dried fruit on your way out the door. Even a sports drink can provide some quick carbohydrates when you really don’t have time to eat much.

You’re not trying to squeeze dinner in before your first game. You just want something in your system so you’re not starting on empty.

It’s also worth keeping an emergency snack in your pickleball bag. We find room for three paddles, six overgrips, sunscreen, two pairs of glasses, and a brace for a body part that hasn’t hurt since 2024. We can fit a granola bar.

And Please Drink Some Water

What you eat matters, but so does what you drink.

Sports research has found that dehydration of around 2% of body weight can increase cardiovascular strain and hurt endurance performance, particularly during longer exercise or hot conditions.

Ideally, you’re drinking water throughout the day rather than realizing you’re thirsty five minutes before your first game and trying to catch up in the parking lot.

How much you need will depend on the conditions and how much you sweat. An hour of indoor doubles is very different from playing outside for three hours in July. If you’re sweating heavily, playing in the heat, or staying on court for several hours, fluids and electrolytes become even more important.

What About Coffee Before Pickleball?

Morning players, we’re not taking your coffee away.

Caffeine can help with alertness and exercise performance for many people. If you normally have coffee before you play and it agrees with you, there’s no reason to suddenly change your routine.

Just don’t make a tournament morning the day you decide to become a triple-espresso person.

The same goes for an energy drink or supplement you’ve never tried before because your doubles partner swears it changed his life.

Don’t experiment on tournament day.

The middle of a close match is a terrible time to find out that your stomach strongly disagrees with your doubles partner.

What to Eat During a Pickleball Tournament

If you’re playing rec doubles for an hour, you probably don’t need gels, powders, or a carefully calculated fueling plan.

Eat normally, get some carbohydrates beforehand, drink water, and go play.

Tournament days require a little more planning because you could be at the courts for most of the day. You might warm up at 7:30 in the morning and still be competing hours later. 

Breakfast probably isn’t going to carry you through that.

Bring foods that are easy to eat between matches and that you know sit well with you. Bananas, pretzels, fruit, applesauce, crackers, sports drinks, and simple sandwiches are all easy options. If you have a longer break, you can eat something more substantial and give yourself time to digest it.

Most importantly, don’t wait until you’re starving. If you know you have a long day ahead, eat along the way.

Fueling Your Body for Pickleball

We sometimes underestimate how much we’re doing on the court because pickleball doesn’t always feel like exercise.

You’re having fun. You’re talking between points. You might spend ten minutes waiting for a court. Then your game starts and you’re accelerating, stopping, changing direction, swinging, reacting, and doing it all over again.

Do that for a couple of hours, and what you ate beforehand can make a difference.

So if you regularly feel your energy drop halfway through open play, pay attention to when you last ate. You may find that changing something as simple as your afternoon snack makes those last few games feel a whole lot better.

Fueling for pickleball doesn’t need to become another thing to obsess over. Eat a decent meal a few hours beforehand when you can. Grab something small if it’s been several hours since you ate. Drink water throughout the day. And if you’re playing for hours, bring food with you and keep fueling along the way.

Unfortunately, you can’t blame your paddle for this one.

A quick note: This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical or nutritional advice. Everyone’s health, dietary needs, medications, and exercise tolerance are different. As always, consult your physician or a qualified healthcare professional before making significant changes to your diet, hydration, supplement use, or exercise routine, especially if you have an underlying health condition or take medication.