The Best Pickleball Drills (Solo & Partner)

The 30-second version

You improve faster by drilling than by only playing games — games give you a few reps of each shot; drilling gives you dozens.
The highest-leverage drills target the soft game: dinks, the third-shot drop, and resets.
Aim for a 40% drill / 40% play / 20% hands split in your practice time.
Several of these you can do solo — a wall and a ball are all you need.

Players doing pickleball drills

The single biggest difference between players who improve and players who plateau? The improvers drill. A game gives you a handful of reps of any one shot; ten focused minutes of drilling gives you dozens. Here are the best pickleball drills, organized by skill, with links to the full technique guides.

On this page

Dinking drills

Cross-court dink rally: rally soft dinks cross-court with a partner, aiming for control and a high count.
Dink until it’s free: dink where neither player may attack a ball below net height — you can only speed up a ball above the tape. Trains patience and recognition.
Target dinks: place a paddle cover in the kitchen and try to land dinks on it.

Full technique: how to dink.

Third-shot drop drills

10 in a row: from the baseline, hit soft drops into the kitchen and count consecutive makes. Push your streak up.
Drop and advance: hit a drop, move up through the transition zone, and take the kitchen line — mimicking a real point.

Full technique: the third-shot drop.

Reset drills

Block and drop: a partner drives balls at you from mid-court; softly reset each one into their kitchen with relaxed hands and a still paddle.

Full technique: the reset.

Hands & speed-up drills

Hands battle: two players at the kitchen fire fast exchanges that must last at least four balls — train the counter, not just the first punch.
Attack the pop-up: dink until a ball comes up, speed it up with disguise, then get your paddle back up to block the counter.

Full technique: hands battles & speed-ups.

Serve & return drills

20 deep: put a towel in the back third of the service box and serve 20 balls to it; count how many land deep and in.
Return and run: return serve deep, then sprint to the kitchen line — grooving the habit of getting up.

Full technique: a better serve & returning serve.

Footwork drills

Drop and freeze: hit a drop, take two steps in, split-step and freeze as your partner contacts the ball; reset if needed, repeat to the line.

Full technique: transition-zone footwork.

Solo drills (practice alone)

Wall drills: hit against a wall to groove consistent contact, dinks, resets, and reflexes — the best solo option.
Shadow footwork: practice the split-step and transition movement with no ball, to build the rhythm.
Serve targets: a bucket of balls and a target is all you need to groove a reliable serve.
Self-dink: dink against a wall or bounce-and-control drills to build soft hands.

How to structure your practice

Don’t just play. A good weekly split is roughly 40% drilling the soft game (dinks and drops first), 40% games where you apply one focus at a time, and 20% hands and resets. Even 15 focused minutes of drilling before open play will move your game faster than months of games alone.

Building a weekly practice plan from these drills

Random drilling beats no drilling, but a structured week beats both. A template that fits around two or three play sessions: Session A (skills, 30 min): 10 minutes drops (“10 in a row”), 10 minutes dink games (dink-until-it’s-free), 10 minutes serves and returns with targets. Session B (pressure, 30 min): 10 minutes resets under fire, 10 minutes hands battles, 10 minutes transition gauntlet. Before open play (10 min): the warm-up ladder — dinks, drops, volleys, serves, escalating pace. Rotate which session leads each week based on what failed most recently in games. The honest ratio to hold: for every three hours of games, one hour of deliberate drilling — that’s the mix that moves ratings.

Making drills game-like (the transfer problem)

The classic frustration: perfect drops in drills, popcorn in games. The gap is context — games add decision-making, movement, and consequences that block practice doesn’t. Close it by progressively “gamifying” every drill: add scoring (drops out of 10, losers pick up balls), add randomness (the feeder mixes drives into your drop practice so you must read first), add movement (hit a drop, advance, hit the next from transition), and finish every drill block with a constrained game that forces the skill (e.g., your team may only score after a successful drop). A drill you can’t fail teaches technique; a drill you can lose teaches pickleball.

Ten-minute solo sessions that actually work

No partner, no problem — but structure the wall time or it becomes mindless banging. Minute 0–3: control ladder — soft dinks to a wall target, stepping back one foot every 10 makes. Minute 3–6: reflex volleys — close to the wall, continuous, counting your streak (this is the single best hands trainer that exists). Minute 6–8: short-hop pickups — stand where the rebound lands at your feet, half-volley everything softly. Minute 8–10: serve targets — if you’ve got court access, a towel deep in the box, tracking makes out of 20 (keep the number in your phone; watching it climb is the motivation system). Ten focused minutes, three times a week, outperforms an hour of casual rallying — the wall never misses, so every ball is a rep.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best pickleball drills for beginners?

Start with cross-court dink rallies, the “20 deep” serve drill, and simple third-shot drop reps. These build the soft game and consistency that matter most early on. Wall drills are great for solo practice.

How can I practice pickleball by myself?

Use a wall — hit dinks, resets, drives, and reflex volleys against it to groove contact and soft hands. You can also do serve-target practice with a bucket of balls and shadow-footwork drills with no ball at all.

What is the best drill to improve at pickleball?

For most players, drilling the third-shot drop (“10 in a row”) and patient cross-court dinking gives the biggest return, because the soft game decides the most points. Add reset drills as you advance.

How often should I drill pickleball?

Even 15 focused minutes before open play helps. A good target is a roughly 40% drill / 40% play / 20% hands-and-resets split. Consistent, deliberate drilling beats simply playing more games for improvement.

Is drilling better than playing games?

For improvement, yes. Games give you only a few reps of each shot and let you avoid your weaknesses, while drilling gives you dozens of focused reps of exactly the skill you’re building. The best players do both.

Know what to drill

Not sure which skills to focus on? Find your level and your priorities in our guide to improving your game — each rung tells you exactly what to work on next.