Hospitals turn to sports performance centers to offer athletes elite care — for the right price

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Jodi Cullity calls herself a pickleball fanatic. The 29-year-old is the founding CEO of Eleven-0, an organization devoted to the sport, in which players dart across a space smaller than a tennis court to dink a small ball over a net with a paddle.

“It’s the fastest-growing sport in America because you could be any shape, size, age,” Cullity said. “There’s an 82-year-old who kicks my butt.”

There’s virtually nothing that could keep her away from the court — except maybe her own injury history. Cullity tore her anterior cruciate ligament three times while playing basketball in high school and lacrosse in college, injuries she’s intent on avoiding with training tailored to her past and future.

That’s why she and her organization have partnered with a hospital’s sports performance center to design fitness programs for Eleven-0’s members, who can also participate in research.

“You feel like you’re getting what the Patriots next door get every day,” she said on a recent Friday afternoon.

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