How Pickleball Helped a Woman Rebuild Her Life After a Stroke

See Elise and Tom’s Top 3 Takeaways

One morning in May 2020, Elise Laedtke woke up feeling confused, slurring her words, and struggling to walk. This was bizarre for an otherwise healthy 59-year-old woman, but especially for Elise, who had been a competitive athlete all her life.

Elise and her husband, Tom, went straight to the hospital, where the medical evaluation and CT scan revealed Elise had suffered a stroke during the night.

Tom, an endocrinologist, was shocked. Given Elise’s age and health, it hadn’t occurred to him that her symptoms could be the result of a stroke. “We thought it was other causes,” he says. She didn’t have any risk factors for stroke, which include high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.

Elise spent the following week in the hospital and another week in rehab. After subsequent testing and medical workups, her team of doctors discovered that she had a congenital anomaly — a hole in her heart that had allowed a blood clot to travel from her lower abdomen to her brain. Six months after the stroke, she under­went surgery to close the hole and reduce the risk of future strokes.

After months of physical, occupational, and speech therapy, Elise was able to walk again, even drive, but her speech and strength lagged behind. She couldn’t participate in life the way she once did, which affected how she felt mentally and emotionally.

That is, until her former tennis coach put a pickleball paddle in her hand.

Always an Athlete

Elise had long enjoyed sports. Her father was an All-American swimmer and guided three children to successful swimming careers; Elise was a Division I swimmer in college.

After graduating in 1984, she moved back to her hometown of Rochester, Minn., where she became an elementary school teacher and taught swimming lessons on the side.

Meanwhile, Tom had been a lifelong tennis enthusiast, and they started playing together in the early years of their marriage. Elise had played some tennis as a child and picked it up easily; the sport became a part of her life, as much for the social interaction as for the love of the game.

After moving to Edina, Minn., Elise and Tom joined Northwest Athletic Club in 1998, before it became Life Time. In time, Elise was competing in league play twice a week, coached by tennis pro Rajan Keswani. “Elise’s routine had been tennis, tennis, tennis, tennis,” Tom says.

The couple maintained an active lifestyle off the court and regularly walked, biked, and golfed together.

Before the stroke, Elise was free of physical complaints. In retrospect, both she and Tom are convinced her good health and active lifestyle — along with her drive and determination — ultimately spurred her recovery.

Quality Coaching

In spring 2021, after Elise recovered from heart surgery, she was hopeful about reclaiming her fitness routine.

Strokes often result in long-term complications, including muscle weakness and the language disorder aphasia. Although Elise felt encouraged by the progress she was making with walking and driving, her strength remained limited and she still had trouble speaking.

She and Tom started branching out, incorporating some of the activities that had been part of Elise’s life for years. “We were searching for what Elise could do to have fun,” Tom remembers.

She started walking their dogs, Frankie and Stella. At the pool, she found that her swimming stroke was as good as ever. She and Tom rented a tandem bicycle, and they rode around nearby lakes with ease. She practiced her golf swing.

All of that brought her joy, but she still missed her tennis game.

Tom began taking her to the tennis court and dropping balls for her to hit. “It was nice to be back on the court, but she couldn’t play like she used to,” he says. Her weak grip strength made holding a racket difficult, and she couldn’t manage the coordination required to swing the racket or quickly move around the court.

“It was kind of depressing,” Tom says. “We felt good that she tried, but Elise didn’t feel like she was getting much better at tennis.”

Tom could see how hard this was for Elise: She wasn’t accustomed to being a mediocre player, and improvement seemed unlikely. It was hard to accept that she’d lost the game she loved as well as the social network she’d developed while playing competitively.

One day that spring, Keswani, who had coached Elise on her tennis game for more than a decade, saw her on the court and suggested she come to the first pickleball mixer he was hosting. Pickleball was so new at Life Time that there wasn’t yet dedicated space for it: Keswani used masking tape to create a pickleball layout on a tennis court.

“Why don’t you try it?” Keswani suggested. He thought a racket sport with a smaller court and a smaller, lighter paddle might provide the accommodations Elise needed. He was right.

Elise and Tom showed up to that first mixer, along with about a dozen other Life Time members who were all learning too. Elise took to pickleball right away — and the more she played, the more she smiled.

“She was bubbly again,” Tom says about the way playing pickleball brought out her personality. “When she plays pickleball, I can see the Elise I married.”

More Than a Sport

Elise has attended a weekly drill class and twice-weekly pickleball mixers ever since. She and Tom are grateful for the variety of Life Time’s pickleball offerings. Tom shares that her successful adoption of the sport has improved her fitness and eased some of the frustration she experienced in the wake of her stroke. Participating in the mixers helps her running ability, overall fitness, and math (thanks to the nuanced scoring system).

Pickleball has also introduced her to a new group of friends who are understanding, supportive, and encouraging. “When she goes to Life Time and does these pickleball mixers, she has a big smile on her face,” Tom notes. “She sees people she knows, and more importantly, they know her and they’re very kind to her.”

As her cognitive processing improves, her teammates provide visual cues to help her keep score.

“We’re blown away at her incredible progress,” says Keswani. “Over the last three years, she has blossomed into a very good pickleball player. She listens, plays hard, never wants to stop, hydrates, then throws in an adorable dance when she wins a point.”

Elise continues with speech therapy twice a week, which has helped her increase her vocabulary and communication. “Her pickleball friends laugh because she has a few famous phrases, such as ‘Close, but no cigar,’ when the ball lands out of bounds,” Tom says.

And she still practices her tennis game, which has gradually improved. Occasionally, she’ll play doubles in a tennis mixer. She says she still likes tennis, but pickleball is now Elise’s sport of choice.

Elise and Tom’s Top Takeaways

1. Focus on recovery with physical activities and speech therapy. Elise is diligent and puts in a lot of practice.
2. Stay open to adjustments and accommodations. Elise may not play tennis like she used to, but she’s grateful for her new sport and for organized pickleball mixers.
3. Surround yourself with empathetic and supportive friends. Stroke recovery is a long, slow process, and the support of family and friends is priceless!

This article originally appeared as “A New Game” in the March/April 2025 issue of Experience Life.