Pickleball drills for beginners

If you only have twenty minutes, spend it on dinking and serve consistency. Those two fix more lost points for a new player than anything else, and neither requires athleticism — just repetition. Everything below is ordered by how much it will improve your game per minute spent.

A note on expectations: drilling is not playing. Fifteen minutes of focused repetition will do more for your game than two hours of casual games, because in a game you hit a given shot maybe three times, and in a drill you hit it eighty. Most recreational players never drill at all, which is precisely why drilling works so well.

Drill 1 — Dinking over the net (with a partner)

What it fixes: the single most important skill in doubles.

Both players stand just behind the kitchen line, diagonally opposite. Tap the ball softly back and forth so it lands in the other person's kitchen. No winners, no put-aways — the goal is simply to keep it going.

Count your rally. Ten in a row is a genuine achievement at first; work up to fifty. Keep the paddle face open, keep the motion from your shoulder rather than your wrist, and let your legs do the work by bending rather than reaching.

Why it matters: most recreational points are decided in the kitchen. A player who can dink twenty in a row beats a player with a harder drive almost every time.

Drill 2 — Serve to targets (solo)

What it fixes: serving faults, which are free points given away.

Put a towel, a cone or a water bottle in the deep corner of the diagonal service box. Serve ten balls. Count how many land in the box at all, then how many land near the target.

Don't chase power. A serve that lands deep and legal every time is far more valuable than a hard serve that faults one in three. Your goal is ten out of ten in the box before you worry about placement, and only then depth.

Drill 3 — Wall dinks (solo)

What it fixes: paddle control and soft hands, without needing anyone else.

Stand about five feet from a solid wall. Tap the ball gently against it, controlling the rebound, keeping it going as long as you can. Aim for a spot at roughly net height and try to hit the same spot every time.

This is the best solo drill in the sport. It builds the soft touch that dinking requires, and you can do it in a garage or a driveway. A slightly soft, retired ball is fine here — see how long pickleballs last for what to do with balls past their best.

Drill 4 — The third-shot drop (with a partner)

What it fixes: the shot that separates beginners from intermediates.

One player stands at the baseline, the other at the kitchen line. The baseline player tries to drop the ball softly into the kitchen — high enough to clear the net, low enough that the net player can't attack it. The net player catches or gently returns it, and you repeat.

This is hard. Expect to fail a lot at first: too low into the net, too high and attackable. Ten good drops out of twenty is a solid session. Swap roles every twenty balls.

Why it matters: the third shot is how the serving team gets to the net, and getting to the net is how you win points. A 16mm control paddle makes this shot considerably easier — see our core thickness guide.

Drill 5 — Return depth (with a partner)

What it fixes: short returns, which hand your opponents the net.

One player serves, the other returns, aiming to land the ball in the back third of the court. Mark the target zone with a towel if it helps. The returner then moves up to the kitchen line — which is the actual point of a deep return.

A deep return buys you the time to get to the net. A short return lets the serving side move in first, and you spend the rest of the rally defending.

Drill 6 — Ready position and split step (solo)

What it fixes:being late to the ball, which feels like a speed problem and usually isn't.

Stand at the kitchen line with your paddle up in front of your chest — not down by your side. Practice a small hop, landing on the balls of both feet, every time an imaginary opponent strikes the ball. Do twenty.

Paddle up is the habit that matters most. At the kitchen line, exchanges are fast enough that a paddle held low simply cannot get up in time, no matter how quick your reactions are.

Drill 7 — Dink, then attack (with a partner)

What it fixes: knowing when to speed the ball up.

Dink cross-court as in drill 1, but this time either player may attack when they get a ball above net height. Play the point out from there.

This teaches patience and recognition together: attacking a low ball puts it into the net, while letting an attackable ball go wastes the opening. Once you can tell the difference instinctively, you've stopped being a beginner.

How to structure a practice session

A useful 30-minute session: five minutes of wall dinks to warm up, ten minutes of cross-court dinking, ten minutes of third-shot drops, five minutes of serves to finish. Do that twice a week and you will visibly improve within a month.

Two things that make drilling worthwhile: count everything, because a number turns vague practice into measurable progress, and drill before you play rather than after, while you're fresh and focused.

What you need

A paddle, a few balls, and a wall for the solo drills. That's genuinely it. If your paddle's grip is slick you'll fight it during long dinking sessions — an overgripis the cheapest fix in the sport. And if you're still in running shoes, sort that out before you drill footwork: do you need pickleball shoes?