They say ‘practice makes perfect,’ and if you’re an advanced pickleball player looking to up their game even further, then that’s exactly what it’s going to take. While playing pickleball games will help you improve, spending some time working on specific pickleball stroke skills and running through some pickleball drills for advanced players will also up your skill level and help you master both the basic pickleball strokes and the more difficult shots.
As with other racquet sports, there’s a wide range of pickleball shots to master, and setting up a fun drill to help you practice hitting each kind of shot—especially the ones you consider a weakness in your pickleball game—is a great way to hone your techniques and become a stronger, better pickleball player.
So, grab a drill partner and head to the pickleball court, and dedicate a bit of time to running through some of these advanced pickleball drills to perfect your core shots and become a better player.
The Importance Of Pickleball Drills
Spending time on the pickleball court is the best way to become a better player, but playing endless games doesn’t give you the opportunity to work on a specific weakness in your game. Incorporating some pickleball practice drills into your court time, though, can give you the time to iron out any specific deficiencies in your game or technique.
Not happy with your cross-court backhand shots? Do your overhead smash shots fail to hit the mark? Are your third-shot drop shots clipping the net?
Running through a specific drill for one type of shot can help you correct your technique and develop muscle memory, which will then allow you to bring the improved technique into your next game.
Journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell put forward the notion of the 10,000-hour rule in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success,” which tells us that 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in a particular field is sufficient to master it.
Now, that’s not to suggest you need to schedule 10,000 hours worth of pickleball drills in order to improve your game, but practice, or rather, repeated practice, does go a long way to helping you reach perfection on the court and eliminate sloppy shots from your game.
Basic Pickleball Drills Vs. Advanced Pickleball Drills
If you began your pickleball journey by practicing some basic or intermediate drills, chances are you can tweak this a little to add more complexity, making them more suitable for advanced players.
A great way of making drills more challenging is to add movement. Instead of hitting the balls from a stationary position, players can also work on their timing and left foot and lead foot movements whilst also improving their fitness too.
Here are some shot-specific advanced pickleball drills for experienced pickleball players who are looking to take their game to the next level or to iron out any specific weaknesses in their arsenal of shots:
Pickleball Drills For Advancing Your Game
While we all love real pickleball gameplay, playing game after game doesn’t allow you to repeatedly practice one certain type of shot in the way a practice drill can. Practice drills allow you to focus on one technique at a time, free from the stresses of real gameplay, and also give you more time to analyze and think about your shots.
Serve & Return Drills
After a warm-up, a good way to start your drill practice is to practice your serve and return techniques. With your drill partner, while one of you practices their serve, the other can practice their return of serve.
The key to success in sports is consistency. When practicing your serves, you should practice serving consistently to different parts of your opponent’s court – serving the ball deep, short serves, wide serves, and serving down the middle – with the aim of landing the ball in pretty much the same spot on each type of serve.
As you practice your different serving techniques, your drill partner can practice their return of serve. They should also aim for consistency and can practice both down-the-line returns and hitting cross-court.
Adding variety with consistency to your serves can help you when you face different players in real gameplay. You’ll be able to serve consistently to your opponents’ backhands, regardless of whether you face left- or right-handed players.
To take your service practice to an even higher level, you can also introduce third-shot drops. Shots like these are an integral part of the game, and you should also aim for consistency here. Mastering the third-shot drop is a vital part of taking your game to the next level and a great way of turning your service drills into more advanced service drills.
Forehand Shot Drills
As the most commonly used shot in pickleball, the forearm shot demands good technique. Of course, there are different types of forehand shots that you can work on, and as advanced players, you should already have a solid and correct swing technique and be consistently hitting the ball straight, allowing you to focus on more specific types of shots.
To make the forehand drills more difficult and suitable for advanced pickleball players, you can introduce all the different spins into your drills. Practice hitting consistent returns with backspin and topspin, and also practice your slices.
Backhand Shot Drills
After your forehand drills, simply switch to practicing your backhand shot repertoire in a similar way, including practicing backhand spin shots. Advanced pickleball players can then add movement into their shot practice to add further difficulty. Rather than just hitting the same shot from static positions, you should practice hitting consistent forehands whilst on the move.
To start the practice drill, have player one stand on the baseline in the center of the court, and they can hit the ball alternatively to each corner of the opponent’s baseline.
Player two can then practice running from corner to corner, hitting the ball back to player one whilst on the run in a continuous hitting format, alternately hitting cross court forehand shots and down-the-line backhand shots.
To mix it up a little, player one can then move to one of the baseline corners, so player two is practicing hitting back to a different area of the court, and then finally, they can move across to the other corner of the court, before the players can switch roles.
Volley Drills
If your volley shots need a bit of work, you can make a few adjustments to your forehand and backhand shot practice so that player one stands just behind the non-volley zone line instead of the baseline.
Player two can continue to practice their fore- and backhands, but this time hitting their returns shorter, towards the non-volley zone, where player one is waiting to alternately hit forehand volleys and backhand volleys. Having a solid athletic stance, slightly wider than your shoulders, allows for good movement to hit the shots from one side and then the other.
Player one should aim for consistency in their returns and look to volley deep towards the baseline, pushing player two into the court’s corners with each shot. The two players can then switch roles.
If mobility is an issue, you can still practice your volleys by having a third player join in, with one standing on each corner of the baseline and then taking turns to hit the return without the need to then rush across to the other corner.
Drop Shots
While you can practice third-shot drop shots as part of your service drills, you shouldn’t neglect to practice regular drop shots either. Being able to consistently hit soft shots that fall into your opponent’s non-volley zone, also known as ‘the kitchen.’
You should mix your practice drills up a little so you’re practicing drop shots from different sides of the court. Practice both your forehand and backhand drop shots with the aim of reaching the consistency of the shot. Drop your shots just over the net and also practice cross-court drop shots too.
Dink Shots
A dink shot is similar to a drop shot but tends to be struck from closer to the net and requires an even gentler touch. The aim is to be comfortable with both forehand and backhand dinks and with hitting straight dinks and cross-court dinks.
To practice your dinks, stand close to the non-volley zone line and have your partner feed you balls, and practice hitting soft shots that just clear the net and land in the opponent’s non-volley zone.
Hit alternate forehand and backhand dinks with a little backspin and look for consistency of touch, trying to have the ball land consistently in the same spot on each side of the court.
Lob Shots
The ability to consistently launch a perfectly executed surprise lob over your opponents’ heads is a great skill to be able to call upon on the pickleball court and can help you win a few extra points.
It’s a special skill, and it requires good hand-eye coordination: a well-hit lob can win you points, but a poorly hit lob can just as easily lose you a point.
The keys to a successful lob shot are consistency, an element of surprise, and make sure you clear your opponent’s head. To push your lob shots up to the next level, you should also look to add some topspin.
To set up a drill in a way that will help you incorporate the shot into your actual gameplay, build it into a sequence of shots.
For example, start with a serve. Have player one start the sequence by serving, then player two can hit the second shot and rush the net, leaving the empty space behind them for player one to lob the ball into on their next shot.
Overhead Smash Shots
Once both players have practiced their lob shots, you can then use a similar set-up to move into a drill to practice the sport’s most-aggressive shot: the smash. As the most-offensive shot in the game, it’s a great tool to have in your locker.
Instead of player two rushing the net after their return of serve, they can stay put on the baseline, and this time, when player one hits the lob, player one can try to smash it overhead.
It’s a great way to master a great body position for the shot and can help sharpen up your timing and your hand-eye coordination. You should aim to hit the ball with your body slightly ahead of your feet. Leaning in this way adds power.
You need to get a good feel for how much power to put into these shots, as an overhit smash can sail out of bounds, and an under-hit smash can be too easy to return.
Practice forehand and backhand smashes, and also practice smashing the ball cross-court and down the line.
Gameplay Drills
A pickleball drill that mimics gameplay to a certain extent is a great way to up your skill level and help you to transfer the skills you practice into a real singles or doubles match the next time you play. For two people, a good and fun drill to try is skinny singles.
To enjoy this pickleball drill, you simply need to split the court in half, lengthways, and play on one side only. With less of the court to aim for, you need more accuracy in your shots, and you can practice the full range of pickleball shots in a more realistic gameplay scenario.
While it may not be the ideal way to practice cross-court shots due to the reduced space, it’s a great way to incorporate drop shots and both forehand and backhand dinks.
The limited space requires less lateral movement along the baseline, which also makes it a good way to practice more powerful shots and their returns.
Practicing offensive third-shot drive shots works well in this situation as you can concentrate on the actual shot rather than needing to run and think about your positioning so much.
Single-Player Drills
Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player, backboard-wall practice drills can also help you improve your game and to sharpen your reflexes.
Beginners can practice their basic shots against a backboard wall, aiming for consistency in the fundamentals: striking the ball slightly ahead of the body, good lead foot forward movements, and having a consistent swing.
Intermediate player backboard wall drills can be used to practice the basic shots with added spin, and advanced pickleball players can work on more advanced shots and shot combinations using the wall.
The Short-Hop Shot
One advanced technique you can master using a backboard wall is the technique for executing short-hop shots. To execute a short-hop shot, you need good timing, so you make your shot just after the ball bounces. This shot is also known as a half-volley, and it can prove tricky to control.
To practice this, stand on a line, about five feet back from the wall, and hit a slow-speed shot that bounces on or close to your feet and the line. You need to practice making contact with the ball in such a way that it rises sharply enough to clear the net but soft enough to land in your opponent’s kitchen. Repetition will help you gain muscle memory for these kinds of trickier shots.
FAQs
What are the best pickleball drills?
The best pickleball drills are the ones that help you address weaknesses in your own game. If you struggle to consistently hit a perfect backhand drop shot, a pickleball drill focusing on forehand volleys will not help much.
What are the three key things you should focus on in pickleball?
The three key things you should focus on in pickleball, and other racquet sports, are footwork, shot selection & execution, and on-court communication/teamwork. As these individual areas of your game improve, so too will your overall gameplay.
How do you become a level 4.0 player in pickleball?
In pickleball, level 4.0 is considered the highest level of play, and achieving this distinction requires dedication and lots of practice. To reach this level, you need a full arsenal of well-developed strokes and to be able to fully control the direction and speed of the ball from anywhere on the court.
Key Takeaways
- Practice makes perfect! Repeat your pickleball drills to achieve consistency.
- Hit the same stroke over and over until it’s consigned to muscle memory.
- Work on hitting all the different shots – forehand, backhand, down-the-line, crosscourt, dinks, drops, lobs, and smashes!
- Making one sloppy shot or one miss-hit doesn’t make you a bad player – be realistic in your goals.
- Making one great shot doesn’t make you a great pickleball player – every dog has its day – the aim is to be able to hit consistently good shots.
- No drill partner? No worries – incorporate a backboard wall into your pickleball practice.
- Remember, pickleball drills should be fun too!
- Eat, sleep, repeat! Repetition is key to success.