Leap Creative Group Presents

Bounce
Back

What happens when sport becomes medicine?

Watch the teaser

The Film

Watch the teaser.

The Story

Recovery isn't a straight line.

For veterans and first responders living with PTSD, treatment options are limited, slow, and often inaccessible. Bounce Back follows an unlikely experiment — and the people inside it.

On the surface, pickleball is a simple game. Fast, social, low-impact. But for a growing number of veterans and first responders, it has become something else: a way back.

Bounce Back is a documentary about what happens when researchers take that idea seriously. It follows the people, the clinical thinking, and the technology behind an emerging study of pickleball as a structured therapeutic approach to post-traumatic stress disorder.

This is not a wellness story. It's a science story — with human beings at the centre of it.

Why It Matters

The need is real. The help is too often out of reach.

For veterans and first responders, post-traumatic stress is common — and getting help is harder than it should be. Stigma and access remain the two biggest barriers to care. That's why approachable, low-pressure ways to support recovery are worth taking seriously.

Up to 10%

of Canadian war-zone veterans are estimated to develop chronic PTSD.

Veterans Affairs Canada

23.2%

of Canadian public safety personnel screen positive for symptoms of PTSD — well above the general population.

Carleton et al., Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 2018

12 trials

Pooled research finds structured exercise can modestly reduce PTSD symptoms — as a complement to frontline care, not a replacement.

Systematic review & meta-analysis, Medicine, 2025

Sources: Veterans Affairs Canada, PTSD and war-related stress (official estimate); R.N. Carleton et al., “Mental Disorder Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel in Canada,” The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (2018) — figures reflect symptom screening, not clinical diagnosis; systematic review & meta-analysis of exercise and PTSD, Medicine (2025). Exercise evidence refers to physical activity broadly as an adjunct to first-line treatment, and is not specific to any single activity.

The Research

Grounded in real research.

2
Study arms — a controlled trial measured against real-world data
RCT
A randomized controlled design at the core — the clinical benchmark
24/7
Continuous biometric measurement through wearable technology

Bounce Back follows the development of a formal clinical study into pickleball as a structured therapeutic approach for post-traumatic stress disorder. The study is being designed around two arms: a randomized controlled trial — the clinical gold standard — measured against real-world, open-label data. Rigour and reach, side by side.

Wearable biometric data will provide continuous, objective measurement throughout — moving the question from anecdote toward evidence.

Research partners, investigators, and study details will be announced as they are confirmed.

Who's Behind It

Made by people who do this for a living.

Bounce Back is produced by Leap Creative Group — a Vancouver creative studio that has spent more than two decades working with cultural institutions, health and science organizations, and professional regulators. The same care those clients demand shapes how this story is told.

Production & Direction

Leap Creative Group

A Vancouver creative studio with two decades of brand, film, and storytelling work for cultural, health, and science organizations.

Film & Production

Red ONE Media

A Vancouver-based digital production studio and one of Canada's leading Indigenous-owned media producers, creating narrative film, motion, and branded content since 2010.

Film & Creative

Black Rhino Creative

A Vancouver film and creative studio led by Ryan Mah and Danny Berish, bringing documentary craft and visual storytelling to the project.

Research & Technology

Synametrix

The health-technology company behind WearSync AI — a platform pairing wearable biometric data with AI-driven health analytics — informing the project's approach to measurement.

Community and pickleball facility partners across British Columbia — along with additional creative and clinical credits — will be announced as they are confirmed.

Questions

Straight answers.

Is pickleball a proven treatment for PTSD?

Not yet — and we won't claim otherwise. That's exactly what the research sets out to examine, using established clinical methods. Bounce Back follows the question honestly, wherever it leads.

Who is this documentary for?

Veterans and first responders living with PTSD, the clinicians and researchers exploring new approaches, and anyone who has watched someone they love work their way back.

Is the film affiliated with an official health or research body?

The documentary follows independent research as it develops. Research partners, investigators, and institutions will be named here as each one is confirmed — never before.

How can I support or get involved?

Sign up below to follow the project, or reach out through the partners and investors form. We read every message.

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Partners and investors

We're building partnerships with organizations aligned with veterans' health, research funding, documentary distribution, and pickleball facilities and clubs across the region.

A detailed project overview is available on request — just mention it in your note below and we'll send it over.