Why Do I Leak Urine When Playing Pickleball or Tennis?
If you leak urine when playing tennis or pickleball, you’re not alone—and you don’t necessarily need to stop playing.
Urinary leakage with exercise, often called stress urinary incontinence, can happen during quick movements, jumping, running, lunging, or other activities that rapidly increase pressure through the abdomen and pelvic floor.
For tennis and pickleball players, that can mean leaking during a serve, sprinting toward the net, changing direction, reaching for a difficult shot, or playing a long, competitive match.
While urinary leakage is common, especially in women, it doesn’t have to simply become part of staying active as you get older. Pelvic floor physical therapy can help identify why leakage is occurring and build the strength, coordination, and confidence needed to stay on the court.
Check Out our What Is The Pelvic Floor and How Does It Work article.
Why Do I Leak Urine When Playing Pickleball or Tennis?
Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles that helps support your bladder and pelvic organs while also contributing to continence and core stability.
During tennis and pickleball, your pelvic floor has to respond quickly to changing demands.
Consider what happens during a typical point:
You accelerate and decelerate rapidly.
You repeatedly change direction.
You lunge and reach outside your base of support.
You rotate forcefully through your trunk.
You may jump or push off aggressively.
You brace your core during harder shots.
Each of these movements changes the pressure placed on your abdominal and pelvic-floor muscles.
If your pelvic floor isn't able to appropriately manage that pressure, urine can leak during higher-demand movements.
Is It Just a Weak Pelvic Floor?
Not necessarily.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding urinary leakage.
Some people do have pelvic-floor weakness and benefit from strengthening. But others have pelvic-floor muscles that are overactive, poorly coordinated, or unable to relax and contract at the appropriate times.
Breathing and abdominal pressure also matter.
For example, holding your breath and aggressively bracing every time you serve, sprint, or reach for a shot may create significantly different demands on your pelvic floor than breathing and managing pressure efficiently.
That’s why simply being told to “do more Kegels” doesn't address every case of urinary leakage.
Why Pickleball Can Expose Pelvic Floor Symptoms
Pickleball may look lower-impact than running or some other sports, but it still requires a surprising amount of explosive movement.
Short accelerations, lateral shuffling, sudden stops, reaching for low shots, and repeated changes of direction can all challenge the pelvic floor.
This can be especially noticeable for someone who feels completely fine during everyday activities but begins leaking when playing more aggressively.
You might have enough pelvic-floor capacity for walking, stairs, or normal exercise—but not yet enough to consistently handle the demands of a competitive match.
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy for Urinary Leakage
A pelvic floor physical therapist can evaluate much more than pelvic-floor strength alone.
Depending on your symptoms, an assessment may look at:
Pelvic-floor strength and coordination: Can the muscles contract when needed—and relax afterward?
Breathing and pressure management: Are you holding your breath or creating excessive pressure during difficult movements?
Hip and core strength: Your pelvic floor works as part of a larger system, not in isolation.
Single-leg control and balance: Tennis and pickleball frequently require producing and absorbing force from one leg.
Sport-specific movement: How does your body respond when you lunge, rotate, change direction, or reproduce the movement that normally causes leakage?
The goal isn't simply to make your pelvic floor stronger.
The goal is to make it better prepared for tennis or pickleball.
Do I Have to Stop Playing?
In many cases, no.
Pelvic floor rehabilitation should help you build toward the activities you want to perform—not automatically remove them.
Treatment may initially involve modifying certain activities while improving pelvic-floor function, breathing, strength, and movement control. As your capacity improves, exercises can become progressively more similar to what actually happens on the court.
Eventually, rehabilitation might include lateral movement, lunging, quick changes of direction, jumping, rotational exercises, and other higher-level movements.
Because if your goal is to play pickleball or tennis without leaking, your rehabilitation should eventually prepare you to play pickleball or tennis without leaking.
Don’t Let Urinary Leakage Keep You Off the Court
Urinary leakage during exercise is common, but that doesn't mean you have to accept it as a normal part of aging, having children, or staying active.
If you notice leakage while serving, running, lunging, jumping, or changing direction during tennis or pickleball, a pelvic floor physical therapy evaluation can help determine what is contributing to your symptoms.
At Summit Physical Therapy, our pelvic health physical therapists work with active adults to address pelvic-floor symptoms while helping them continue doing the activities they enjoy.
Whether your goal is getting back onto the court or simply making it through a competitive match without worrying about leakage, treatment should be built around helping you return to the level of activity that matters to you.
Looking for pelvic floor physical therapy for urinary leakage, tennis, or pickleball? Contact Summit Physical Therapy to schedule an evaluation and learn how we can help you stay active and confident on the court.