The Best Pickleball Drills You Can Do By Yourself

Let’s face it. We can’t always get what we want. For pickleball lovers, this means not always being able to make it to the court and not always having someone to play or practice with. Fortunately, if you try sometimes you can get what you need–even if you have to fly solo.

Today’s article is all about pickleball drills you can do by yourself. Because we all know that you can’t get better until you practice. So, let’s grab a bucket of balls, find an area we can practice in, and do some drills to take our game to the next level.

Drill #1 - Practice Hitting Above the Line

Hopefully, you have an area close to your home that has a wall you can hit against. And remember, pickleball balls are light and don’t leave much of a mark. So your surface won’t get banged up like if you were throwing a baseball or launching a hockey puck at it. From the base of the wall, make a line (with tape or sidewalk chalk) about 34 to 36 inches across. This line represents the height of the pickleball net.

Give yourself plenty of room behind. On a court, you have about 20 feet from the net on each side. But, even if you don’t have 20 feet to play with, that’s okay. Try to give yourself at least 7 to 10 feet, though.

Now that you’re set up, practice dropping the ball down and hitting above the line. Run around, hitting it back and forth against the wall. If you don’t hit it above the line, reset your position.

Drill #2 - Practice Your Serve

Using the same line and wall, let’s practice serving. This is something you want to get really good at in pickleball because a great serve can help you win a lot of matches. Stand at your baseline, as far back as 20 feet. Put your bucket of balls next to you. Then let it rip. But, instead of running around chasing balls, you should reset between each strike. Your goal isn’t to just hit above the line now but to fine-tune the types of serves you want to use in a game. Don’t forget to practice from different spots along the baseline and on each “side.”

Drill #3 - Hit Your Target

Now that we’ve had some practice hitting above the line let’s make it more challenging. Grab some tape or sidewalk chalk and draw a square somewhere along the line. Start with a square that’s 1x1, then make it smaller as you progress. This square is going to be your target.

Practice hitting shots like you did before, but now instead of just above the line, you want to hit your square as often as possible.

You can practice serves, lobs, dinks, or drives. To make it more challenging, make multiple squares of different sizes and try to hit all three in succession.

Drill #4 - Switch to the Backhand

Great pickleball players are just as deadly with their backhand as they are with their forehand. You can practice slices and spins, even slams and put away shots. When you’re doing these drills, be sure to mix it up and take different shots from all over your practice area.

Drill #5 - Practice Your Volley

For this drill, you want to stand seven feet from the wall. Why 7 feet? Because that’s how far it is to the kitchen line from the net. You’ll practice volleying the ball by hitting it against the wall and trying not to let it bounce before your next strike. You can still aim for targets or simply focus on keeping the ball in the air. See if you can volley it ten times. Then see how long you can do it. Practice hitting it left and right with a forehand, backhand, and two hands. This will help you learn to volley better during games when everyone is up at the kitchen line.

Drill #6 - Learn to Cook

Of course, you don’t have to volley it when you're at the kitchen line. You can let it bounce inside the kitchen, and you can try to drive the ball through a lane to win the rally. Let’s try a few volleys, then a few bouncers, then finish with a volley-winning drive. For a better challenge, you can mark multiple targets and make one of the smaller ones for you to drive the ball into.

The smaller target you can hit consistently, the better you’ll become.

Drill #7 - Serve, Drive, and Drop

Now, we’re going to put it all together. Start at your baseline and serve the ball against the wall. As it’s returning to you, drive the ball back into a target or above the line. On your third shot, perform a drop shot.

Then reset and start again. The goal here is to simulate the types of shots you might take early on in a match. Again, challenge yourself by hitting the target or making three different targets along the wall.

Drill #8 - Practice Legwork

Being an excellent pickleball player is about more than being able to hit quality shots. It’s also about how you move on the court. As you’re practicing, don’t forget to always be in a ready position and shuffle back and forth. Try not to allow your feet to cross each other because that’s an easy way to lose your balance, fall, or hit a bad shot from a bad position.

An easy drill is to simply mark two sidelines and practice shuffling across from line to line. Keep your center of gravity low and focus on using your legs and thighs to get across quickly.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you have lots of people to play pickleball with. But, not everyone is down for a good practice session. But you know better. You know that if you want to improve your game, it’s all about the practice. So get out there and hit some of these drills. And soon, your opponents won’t know what hit them.