Deliberate Drilling is the Key

How to start implementing deliberate drilling sessions in your pickleball journey and what that looks like.

Deliberate (adj.): intentional or planned.

And that is what deliberate drilling is. It is us having a clear intention or plan for when we get out on court. These intentions are often both physical (technique and strategy) and mental.

When I get on court to drill, I already have a plan either written down or in my head about what shots and skills I want to work on and what drills I’m going to use to do so. And I also have a mental focus. That could be consistency, aggression, not reacting to mistakes, or staying relaxed. And normally, I have drills in mind for both practicing the individual skill and for putting it into pressure, game-like situations.

Now, with a partner, that often means we take turns with what we want to work on, but in pickleball and in most sports, it’s still the fundamentals we need to master over and over again. Being able to hit 100 aggressive and pinpoint dinks is going to be way more valuable than hitting 1 out 5 behind the back flicks.

To be fair, I will be flexible as stuff comes up during a drill session, but I love the focus and the challenge of improving my own skills. It’s a game to me. If I can get that 1% better, than I won.

So what might a 90-minute drill session look like? Let’s say the focus is on transitioning dinks to attacks.

• 10 minutes: warm-up (dynamic warm-up, some dinks, volleys, moving the feet, working back to the baseline and back up again).

• 10 minutes: each player takes turns attempting to turn aggressive dinks into attackable balls. Moving the dinks around and pushing the opponent off the kitchen line. The opponent works on not putting balls up and resetting as needed.

• Kitchen Battles all four directions x2. These are rally scoring games to 11 where both players are trying to win the point. Since my focus is on creating opportunities, in these games, I will look to move my dinks and lean in for attackable balls rather than swinging away at any ball. I’m building patience and my “hunting” skills. This also includes good footwork to set myself in a better position for attackable balls. This could take a while. Anywhere from 30-45 minutes.

• 20 minutes: Working from baseline to kitchen (3^rd shots). While I am working on moving up, I’m also really looking to the transition when I get the kitchen to get back into my deliberate dinking and hunting.

• 15 minutes: Skinny Singles

To be fair, I typically drill for longer than 90 minutes, but if that was all the time I had, I want to make the most of it and that requires a clearer focus and plan. But also keeping your goals in mind for that specific session can help you get overwhelmed by the whole process and many layers to a pickleball game.

One of my goals is to share a drill session plan a week with subscribers. Let me know what you are working on or might want to see. As far as drill ideas, feel free to check out my YouTube or Instagram (linked in my bio). Or if you take lessons, ask your local coach for specific ideas.

And remember, deliberate doesn’t mean overly intense, serious, or boring. You are more than encouraged to laugh during a session, take breaks to brainstorm with your partner, and make drills into games.