Ben Johns - The Most Dominant Pickleball Athlete In The World #826

Dec 3, 2025

Ben Johns, the world's top pickleball player, shares his journey from discovering the sport to dominating competitions. He discusses the intense travel schedule and physical demands of pickleball, emphasizing the importance of recovery and data-driven training. Ben reveals his unique strategies for sleep optimization and nutrition that keep him at peak performance. The podcast also delves into the evolution of the sport and Ben's approach to training leg strength and explosiveness, proving that preparation and athleticism go hand in hand for success.

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ANECDOTE

Unexpected Path To Pro Pickleball

Ben started pickleball in 2016 after tennis and table tennis and played the first U.S. Open near his Florida home.
He transitioned to full-time pro pickleball after the pro tour began in 2020 and graduating in 2022.

ADVICE

Build Leg Strength And Explosiveness

Emphasize leg strength via squats, deadlifts, weighted plyometrics, and sled work to support low stances and repeated lateral changes.
Train explosiveness and strength-endurance together for tournament durability.

INSIGHT

Full-Stack Optimization Matters

RAPID built a data-driven system around sleep, recovery, hydration, nutrition, and S&C for Ben.
This allowed precise dosing of fatigue and auto-regulation across a near year-round competitive calendar.

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In this episode, the world's #1 pickleball player, Ben Johns, joins Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to unpack what it really takes to stay at the top of one of the fastest-growing sports on the planet. Ben walks through the insane travel schedule, the perpetual in-season demands, and the growing physical toll of a sport played in deep athletic stances, high-velocity lateral movements, and multi-hour tournament days. For the past year, Ben has partnered with RAPID Health Optimization to build a data-driven system around sleep, recovery, hydration, nutrition, and personalized strength and conditioning giving him a competitive edge in a sport where consistency and longevity are becoming just as important as pure skill.

The team breaks down how RAPID reverse-engineered the physiology of pickleball by analyzing metabolic demands, movement patterns, travel stress, and tournament structure. Ben shares what has changed the most: HRV-driven sleep routines, hydration and electrolyte protocols, rapid-turnaround nutrition systems during six-day competition blocks, and gym programming that prioritizes leg strength, acceleration, deceleration, rotational power, and the ability to repeatedly produce peak output with minimal fatigue. With only an eight-week "off-season" each year, Ben's entire training plan now revolves around precision dosing of fatigue, auto-regulation, and strategic recovery backed by data from Oura, lab analysis (blood, stool, saliva, urine) and the RAPID coaching team.

Finally, the conversation moves into the strategic side of dominance: pattern recognition, the metagame of adjustments, and the ability to keep learning in a young sport where the rules of mastery are still being written. Ben explains how having a full-stack performance team allows him to focus on playing, developing new skills, and outlasting opponents who aren't managing sleep, travel, workload, or recovery with the same level of precision. If you want an inside look at how the best player in the world trains, prepares, and stays healthy and how RAPID Health Optimization builds elite longevity systems for professional athletes this episode is a must-listen.

Links:

Ben Johns on Instagram

Anders Varner on Instagram

Doug Larson on Instagram

Coach Travis Mash on Instagram