5 of the Best Pickleball Drills to Improve Your Game

In order to get better at pickleball, you must practice and drill constantly if you are at the intermediate or 4.0 level. Take drills seriously if you want to improve.

And don’t worry - these drills don’t have to be boring. In fact, they’re all quite fun. Just don’t think of it as “work.” After all, pickleball probably isn’t your full time job!  

Why should I do pickleball drills?

In your pickleball journey, why are drills so important? Exercise that trains muscle memory is the number one reason to drill the same shot over and over again. You'll be more confident and able to focus on other things if you train your muscle memory.

A match can be very intense and thinking about your shots is the last thing you want to do. Muscle memory and your subconscious mind must take care of this. Drills are an essential role in this process. It gets better with practice. 

So, let’s get into it.

Dinking for points

The dinking for points drill is a great place to start. You probably know that enduring long dinking rallies is a crucial part of pickleball. When you dink for points, you completely eliminate the serve, return, and third shot. By tracking your scores, you can spend more time on dinking while also staying competitive. 

Dinking can be done either straightaway or cross-court, depending on what you need to work on.

Triangle dinking drills

You can do this drill so easily and quickly! This drill can be easily incorporated into a drilling session or while warming up before open play. It emphasizes the practice of straightaway dinks and moves your opponent around.

In this drill, we are going to hit three landing spots successively in a triangular pattern. There is no need for perfection. Using the surrounding area is fine. You want to avoid hitting the same spot twice. Immediately following a left-handed strike, the next dink should not be on that side.  

Dinking to the same spot over and over again is one of the biggest mistakes I see from intermediate players. While I'm happy you're over the net, there's nothing you can do to fool your opponent by doing this, which is the whole point of the dink in the first place. 

Forehand and backhand can also be practiced with this drill. In order to hit to your partner's left or right, you'll need to hit from either your backhand or forehand because he or she is also hitting in a triangle. Making things fun and interesting by using different types of shots and simulations!

Reflex training

Occasionally, you may burst into laughter while doing this drill. Pickleball can be a fast-paced sport, as you know. You must have sharp reflexes at all times. These reflex drills will help you.

The process is as follows:

Like usual, both of you will stand at the kitchen line. Just dink backward and forward like normal. Smack a hard drive right into your partner out of nowhere. In this drill, they should block the shot successfully while also not popping it up.

In pickleball, pop-ups are common. If you are not ready, you will be hit with a hard ball! The drill will help you develop a smooth, confident block while also improving your reflexes.

Using a bucket of balls can make this drill a bit more interesting. You can hit soft shots to your partner instead of back and forth dinking. After that, sneak up on them by smashing one down. Be stealthy! Your partner's training will be more effective if it is more subtle.

Third shot drop and returns training

The message has been repeated many times before. It is imperative to learn the third shot drop in pickleball. For this reason, a drill must be created to practice this.

It will be the same as if they were playing a real game. One player stands at the baseline and the other just outside the kitchen. Balls are fed to the baseline player by the person at the kitchen, and then the third shot drop attempt is made. 

There is a good reason for this drill to be repetitive. Here, muscle memory is the goal. Try to do 50-100 of these a day, and you'll improve. You should bring a lot of balls. Your partner can simply pull out another ball if you hit it into the net, so the match can continue.

Skinny pickleball

Playing “skinny pickleball” or “skinny singles” is a two-player game that only uses half the pickleball court. You can play on the same side (so the right or left side of the court, using the center line as an out of bounds line). Or you can play on the diagonal.

This type of game will help you hone in on certain types of shots from certain areas of the court.

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Now that you know what drills to do and how to structure your workouts, it's time for you to go out there and do them! You will notice a noticeable improvement in your skills.  

Thanks for reading and as always, feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments section below.