Why You Always Hit a Wall After 90 Minutes of Pickleball

Over the past few months I have been playing more than I ever have. What used to be a casual ninety minute session has slowly turned into three hours, sometimes four if the games are good and nobody wants to leave. At first it felt like progress. More reps. More competition. More improvement.

But there was a pattern I could not ignore.

Somewhere around the ninety minute mark, sometimes closer to two hours, I would feel a subtle shift. Not exhaustion. Not the urge to sit down. Just a quiet dulling. My feet felt a half step slower. My reactions were slightly delayed. I could still make shots, but I had to think harder about them.

For a while I told myself I just needed better conditioning.

What I eventually realized is that I was not running out of fitness. I was running out of fuel.

Pickleball does not look like an endurance sport. You are not jogging steadily for hours. You are starting, stopping, lunging, reacting, and recovering over and over again. It feels social and manageable.

Metabolically, however, it is demanding.

Those repeated accelerations rely heavily on glycogen, which is the stored form of carbohydrate in your muscles and liver. Glycogen is what allows you to push off explosively, stabilize at the kitchen, and recover quickly between points. Even though rallies are short, the cumulative effect across three or four hours is significant.

Most players begin a session with adequate glycogen from prior meals. For the first hour, sometimes longer, performance feels smooth. Then the tank slowly begins to empty.

The early signs are subtle. Reaction time dulls slightly. Footwork loses precision. Decision making feels heavier. The game does not collapse. It just becomes harder.

This is not weakness or poor conditioning. It is physiology.

When I first started noticing this drop, I did what many players do. I reached for something fast and sugary. Candy. Stroopwafels. Anything that would raise blood glucose quickly.

And it worked.

Within minutes I felt sharper. Energy surged back. My focus returned. For a brief window, I felt almost better than before.

Then the crash came.

The reason is straightforward. Rapid sugars enter the bloodstream quickly, causing blood glucose to spike. The pancreas releases insulin to move that glucose into cells. If the spike is large relative to what the body needs in that moment, the subsequent drop can feel just as abrupt.

During prolonged intermittent exercise like pickleball, that swing can translate into unstable energy. You feel great, then flat. Alert, then foggy. It becomes a cycle of chasing the next boost.

The sugar was not inherently bad. The strategy was.

Eventually I simplified things. I began eating a banana roughly every hour to hour and a half during longer sessions, whether I felt depleted or not.

The difference was noticeable and surprisingly steady.

Energy did not spike. It stabilized. The final hour began to feel more like the first. I was not suddenly explosive. I was simply consistent.

A banana provides carbohydrate in a more moderate and predictable way. The fiber slows absorption compared to candy. The total carbohydrate dose is manageable rather than overwhelming. Potassium supports muscle contraction and nerve signaling, which matters during repeated high intensity movements.

More importantly, I stopped waiting for the crash. I fueled before I felt depleted.

From a physiological standpoint, this matters. Once glycogen stores are significantly reduced, restoring performance mid session is difficult. Smaller, consistent carbohydrate intake helps maintain blood glucose and delay depletion rather than attempting to reverse it after the fact.

One of the biggest misconceptions in recreational sport is that fueling is something you do once you feel tired.

In reality, by the time fatigue becomes obvious, glycogen stores are already low. The goal during long sessions is maintenance, not rescue.

Research in endurance and intermittent sports consistently shows that steady carbohydrate intake during prolonged activity supports sustained performance and reduces perceived exertion. The body prefers stability. Sharp swings require regulatory effort, which can amplify feelings of fatigue.

Pickleball players often underestimate this because the sport feels stop and go. But across three to four hours, the cumulative carbohydrate demand becomes meaningful. Treating fueling as something to manage proactively, rather than reactively, changes the experience of the entire session.

Carbohydrate is only part of the equation.

During extended sessions, especially in warm environments, sodium is steadily lost through sweat. Sodium is essential for maintaining plasma volume and supporting nerve conduction. When sodium levels drop, players may experience heavy legs, dizziness, headaches, or a vague sense of weakness that water alone does not fix.

This is not always dramatic cramping. Often it is just a subtle decline in how the body feels and responds. The legs feel dull. Movement feels slightly effortful in a way that is hard to name. Players often attribute this to fatigue when it is closer to a fluid and mineral imbalance.

Adding modest electrolyte replacement during long sessions can help maintain fluid balance and reduce late session fatigue. The goal is not over supplementation. It is preventing a quiet deficit from compounding over time.

Occasional ninety minute sessions rarely expose poor fueling strategy. Three to four hour stretches do.

As weekly volume increases, the margin for error narrows. Underfueling not only impairs performance but may also affect recovery and adaptation. Glycogen plays a role in muscle repair signaling. Chronically depleted stores can amplify soreness and slow recovery between sessions.

There is also a safety consideration. Late session fatigue affects mechanics. Reaction time slows. Balance becomes less precise. Many awkward falls and missteps occur when concentration and energy dip simultaneously. Maintaining steady fuel will not eliminate injury risk, but it removes one predictable contributor.

What surprised me most was not that bananas helped. It was how much better the last hour felt when I stopped trying to rescue myself and started maintaining myself.

Recovery improved. The next morning stiffness felt proportional rather than exaggerated. I did not feel like I had emptied the tank completely.

We tend to believe improvement comes from effort alone. Sometimes it comes from support.

Long pickleball sessions are a real physiological demand. The body responds well when that demand is matched with steady carbohydrate intake, adequate hydration, and modest electrolyte support. These are not complicated interventions. They do not require special products or rigid schedules. They require only a small shift in how you think about what your body needs during sustained effort.

The wall at ninety minutes is not a character flaw. It is a signal worth listening to.

Fueling rarely gets discussed at recreational courts. Yet as sessions grow longer and competition intensifies, it becomes one of the quiet variables that determines whether your final hour feels sharp or sluggish. Sometimes progress comes not from pushing harder, but from supporting the work you are already doing.

Boris.

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read in this newsletter.