Advance your pickleball skills with these 5 drills you can do with a partner. Pickleball drills to help you practice your dinks, volleys, and drop shots — so you can speed up your hands, and slow down the game.
Find the right 2-person pickleball drill to skyrocket your skills in every aspect of the game.
Drill #1: Dink Dink Bang Drill
The first pickleball drill allows you to practice almost every type of shot at the kitchen line — from dinks to speed-ups to resets and blocks.
Your partner will be right in front of you, you're both at the kitchen line.
Hit three dinks (player 1, player 2, player 1).
The fourth shot will be a speed-up (player 2).
The fifth shot will be a reset shot (player 1).
Then go back into three dinks and continue the drill.
It will be “dink - dink - dink - bang - reset” and you will keep going with that pattern. Even if you miss a couple of shots, the whole point is to get comfortable dinking, speeding up, and then hitting those resets.
Drill #2: Fast Hands drill
The fast hands drill will speed up your hands and get you to the next level in pickleball.
Your partner will be right in front of you, you're both at the kitchen line.
Volley the ball back and forth, aiming for each other’s hips.
Both partners should take one step into the kitchen.
Continue volleying.
Take one more step into the kitchen.
Continue volleying and taking additional steps into the kitchen until one of you faults.
The fast hands drill will help you work on your hand speed and eye contact. It will make the ball seem much slower when you are back at the kitchen line and in a real-life game situation.
Drill #3: Slinky drill
The Slinky drill will help you practice hitting shots in the transition zone.
Your partner will be right in front of you, you're both at the kitchen line.
Your partner will stay completely stationary throughout the entire drill.
You will be moving from the kitchen line back to the baseline and back to the kitchen line.
You will hit three consecutive dinks at the kitchen line, then take a step back.
Hit three more shots, then take a step back.
Continue hitting three shots and taking a step back until you reach the baseline.
Hit three more shots, then take a step forward.
Continue hitting three shots and taking a step forward until you reach the kitchen line.
The goal of the Slinky drill is to hit shots in all areas of the transition zone. After you have completed your drill, let your partner start from the beginning on their side.
Drill #4: Work-Up drill
The Work-Up drill will help you work your way from your baseline to your kitchen line.
Your partner will be right in front of you, you're at the kitchen line and they are at their baseline.
The partner at the kitchen line initially feeds the ball to the partner at the baseline.
The partner at the baseline will be actively trying to make their way up to their kitchen line, while the partner at the kitchen is actively trying to keep them back.
Once the partner at the baseline works their way up to the kitchen, they will play out the point.
After a fault, start again at the beginning.
This drill will allow you to work on your drives, drops, and speed-ups. It will also help you see what part of your game needs the most adjustment.
Drill #5: Skinny Singles drill
The Skinny Singles drill is the most similar to an actual pickleball game, especially if you only have two people. The Skilly Singles drill is a full-court drill, and is similar to a singles pickleball, except you will only be using half of your side of the court at any give time.
Your partner and you will start on opposite baselines.
You will score yourselves like a regular pickleball game: the first one to 11 wins.
You will only use one half of your side of the court at a time.
The side of your court you are using at any given time is based on your current score.
Left = odd (1, 3, 5, etc.).
Right = even (0, 2, 4, etc.).
The game will start with both you and your opponent using only the right side of your respective sides of your court and the serve will be done crosscourt.
You will continue to play and switch sides as your points change.
Play until one of you reaches 11 points.
Pickleball drills for beginners
Improving your pickleball skills isn’t just about playing pickleball, but also practicing different aspects of your pickleball game. With these 2-person pickleball drills, you can focus on your skills in every aspect of the game.
