Whether you are a beginner, an intermediate or an advanced pickleball player, drilling is essential to help you hone your skills. The Fit Pickler has compiled drills for all skill levels to help you practice specific skills and shots, create muscle memory, and improve your accuracy.
As our skill levels develop, we need more challenging drills to continue to improve.
This focused practice translates directly into better execution during matches, sharpening your reactions and consistency, and giving you a greater range of tactical options.
PICKLEBALL DRILLS FOR BEGINNERS
Skill: Groundstrokes
- Desired outcome: Consistent and controlled groundstrokes to the corners or center of the opponent’s court with comfortable depth.
- Drill: Wall Practice:
- Find a large, smooth wall to practice against.
- Stand at a comfortable distance and begin hitting forehands against the wall, focusing on a smooth swing and targeting specific areas. (Tape a line the height of the net to the wall and add X’s for even more accuracy.)
- Repeat the process with your backhand side.
- As you improve, increase the distance from the wall to challenge your power and accuracy.
Skill: Dinking
- Desired outcome: Soft dinks that land just over the net (“drop dinks”) or forceful dinks that push your opponents back from the net.
- Drill: Target Dinking:
- Place targets (cones, boxes, tape etc.) at various points in the kitchen and on the opposite side.
- Practice your dinks, trying to accurately hit the targets. Start with stationary dinks and gradually incorporate movement.
- Challenge yourself by switching between drop dinks and forceful dinks with each target.
Skill: Volleying
- Desired outcome: Controlled and well-placed volleys with the ability to punch the ball both for placement and power.
- Drill: Partner Volleys:
- Stand at the non-volley line with a partner positioned on the opposite side.
- Have your partner feed you soft balls to volley back over the net.
- Focus on a short backswing and punching through the ball with a controlled forward motion.
- As you improve, vary the speed and location of the fed balls to practice different types of volleys.
Skill: Serving
- Desired outcome: A consistent deep serve that either forces a weak return or, ideally, puts your opponent into immediate defensive mode.
- Drill: Target Serving:
- Place targets or cones in the deep corners of your opponent’s service box.
- Practice your serve, aiming accurately at the targets.
- Experiment with height, spin, and power to see how they affect your placement and the difficulty of returning your serve.
Skill: Footwork
- Desired outcome: Quick, agile movements to reach shots and maintain court positioning at all times.
- Drill: Agility Ladder or Cone Drills
- If you have an agility ladder, practice various footwork patterns to increase speed and coordination.
- Without a ladder, set up cones in different patterns and practice lateral shuffles, short sprints, crossover steps, and quick changes of direction.
Remember
- Start slowly: Focus on proper technique before increasing speed and power.
- Use a partner: Partner drills allow for more realistic practice and can be fun!
- Be patient: Progress takes time. Enjoy the journey of improvement in this great sport!
PICKLEBALL DRILLS FOR INTERMEDIATE
Skill: Third Shot Advantage
- Desired outcome: Capitalize on the third shot to take control of the point. Use a powerful drop shot to catch opponents off guard as they approach the net, or execute an angled drive to force them to react quickly.
- Drill: Third Shot Wars:
- With a partner, position yourselves at opposite baselines.
- The first player underhand feeds a ball (to simulate a serve return) to the opponent.
- The opponent hits a third-shot drop, to which the first player responds with a drive or another offensive shot.
Focus on controlling the direction of your third shot, putting pressure on your opponent.
Skill: Advanced Dinking
- Desired outcome: Expand your dinking arsenal to include strategic cross-court dinks, angled dinks to open the court, the “Ernie” (a powerful dink with topspin) and disguising your dink shots.
- Drill: The Dinking Gauntlet:
- Set up multiple targets across the kitchen on both sides of the court.
- Have a partner call out targets or patterns (e.g., “left, right, middle” or “Ernie, drop, cross-court”)
- Your goal is to respond with accurate dinks that hit the designated targets, practicing your range and control.
Skill: Mastering the Volley
- Desired outcome: Develop the ability to hit deep, penetrating volleys to push opponents back, as well as drop volleys to set up easy put-away shots.
- Drill: Volley Wars:
- Two players stand at their respective non-volley lines.
- One player feeds an underhand ball that the other player volleys back.
- Play short rallies, focusing on volleying deep with power or placing drop volleys right at your opponent’s feet. Switch roles after a set number of hits.
Skill: Strategic Serving
- Desired outcome: Control the pace and direction of rallies with different serving techniques. This includes spin serves (sidespin or topspin), as well as targeting specific zones to induce weak returns.
- Drill: Serve and Attack:
- Practice a specific type of serve (e.g., deep topspin to the backhand).
- After your serve, aggressively follow it to the net.
- Focus on anticipating the return and hitting your third shot with power and accuracy.
Skill: Doubles Domination
- Desired outcome: Effective communication, court coverage, and coordinated poaching with your doubles partner.
- Drill: Live Doubles with a Focus:
- Choose a specific doubles strategy to practice during a full game (e.g., consistent cross-court targeting or aggressive poaching).
- Communicate constantly with your partner, and discuss after the game what worked and what could be improved.
Additional Tips for Intermediate Players:
- Film yourself: Video analysis helps identify areas for technical improvement.
- Play against better players: Challenge yourself to learn, adapt, and develop your strategy.
- Develop a “go-to” shot: Identify a specific shot you’re exceptionally good at and make it your weapon.
PICKLEBALL DRILLS FOR ADVANCED
Skill: Shot Deception
- Desired outcome: Master disguising your shots, making it difficult for your opponents to anticipate and react to your intentions. This includes fakes, late changes of direction, and deceptive paddle movements.
- Drill: The Disguise Game
- Play a mini-game with a partner where you alternate shots, but before each shot, you must exaggerate a fake in the opposite direction (e.g. fake a forehand dink then hit a backhand drive).
- Focus on making your fakes convincing, followed by quick, decisive changes of direction. This enhances reaction time and deceptive skills.
Skill: Power Management
- Desired outcome: Finely tuned control over your shots with the ability to generate power for put-away shots, while also maintaining the touch for precision dinks and controlled volleys.
- Drill: The Power Spectrum
- Have a partner feed you balls at a consistent pace.
- Start with a soft dink, followed by a slightly firmer dink, gradually increasing the power until you hit a full-power drive.
- Immediately work your way back down the power spectrum, ending with a soft dink.
- Repeat in various combinations, focusing on smoothly transitioning between power levels.
Skill: Exploiting Weaknesses
- Desired outcome: Quickly identifying an opponent’s weaknesses (backhand, footwork, specific shots) and relentlessly targeting them through strategic shot selection.
- Drill: Weakness Wars
- Designate a specific weakness that you’ll focus on exposing during a short rally. (e.g., opponent’s backhand volley)
- Play points with your partner, deliberately aiming at the agreed-upon weakness.
- Rotate weaknesses after a set number of points to practice targeting different areas.
Skill: Mental Toughness
- Desired Outcome: Composure in high-pressure situations and the ability to reset and recover from unforced errors.
- Drill: Pressure Cooker
- Play a set with a point handicap (e.g., your opponent starts at 5 points).
- Your objective is to fight back against the odds and win despite the disadvantage.
- Repeat with varying handicaps, focusing on maintaining your best game regardless of the score.
Skill: Around-the-Post (ATP) Mastery
- Desired outcome: The ability to hit accurate and controlled ATP shots around the net post, both offensively and defensively.
- Drill: ATP Target Practice
- Place targets or cones both down the line and cross-court from the net post on the opposite side.
- Practice hitting ATPs to land accurately on your targets
- Focus on using a combination of power and spin to get the ball to curve around the post with consistency.
Important Note: For advanced players, finding equally skilled partners for these drills is crucial. Incorporating these unique practice methods will help refine your game and take you to the next competitive level.
