As I bring my readers along on my pickleball journey I wanted to share with you all some goals I have to improve my skills as a pickleball player. More specifically, my primary pickleball goal for 2023 is to improve my skills enough to improve my level of play from a 3.5 to a 4.0 player. In order to do that, I have put together a pickleball training plan that includes a range of skills improvement drills and routines that I hope will take my pickleball skills to the next level.
How to get Better at Pickleball
I am not going to over think this at all and write down some big plan that ultimately will never be followed. I want to keep things simple, straight forward, and achievable based on my time availability and skill level as a pickleball player.
I like the article written by my fellow blogger Sarah Ansboury on her blog where she writes about the 3 P’s to Pickleball Improvement. Her path to improving your pickleball game is a simple one, but it is a path recommended by a number of tennis coaches that also applies to pickleball. Her guidance says if you are able to drill, practice, and play, that is a plan that will improve your pickleball game over time.
Of course, there is a bit more to it but that is an easy approach that provides a solid starting point for most pickleball players. To fill in the blanks, you need to come up with a few drills that focus on skills you want to improve. And when you practice, I am a firm believer that you should be practicing with a purpose, and what I mean by that is players should have a focus at each practice that works on improving a particular skill rather than just hitting the ball randomly back and forth.
And of course, players should play actual pickleball games to see how much that practice translates in to actual play. Playing actual games is the only way to know if your drills and practice are making a difference in actual game play.
Pickleball Drills to Improve Your Game
Having had quite a bit of experience on the coaching side with both of my kids coaching them in Tennis, I can see how much drills improve one’s game. Learning a new tennis or pickleball shot starts with the teaching of the shot, and then drills practicing repetition of that shot to implement the new shot in to one’s game.
And when possible, try using multiple drills to teach that shot in different game scenarios. For example, if you are practicing volley’s, work on drills from both the forehand and the backhand side to become proficient at hitting volley’s with either shot.
Here is a video that shows some pickleball drills from one of the top women’s players in the sport of pickleball that will teach you how to get better at pickleball.
So far, on my pickleball playing journey I have only been playing games when time permits, with no drills ever, and no practice. And while playing games is always fun, it’s frustrating not being able to hit the shots I want when playing.
So I said to myself after a recent game, I can’t keep playing and hoping to improve without any practice and making the same mistakes on the court each time I play. I need to change up my routine a bit and that will include mixing in a few drills that focus on improving my skills followed by some practice sessions to reinforce those skills.
Practice With a Purpose
When I coached my kids and we had practice time on the tennis court, I always had a plan for each practice that we held. We always tried to focus on 2 – 3 skills at each practice with sometimes all drills or a mix of drills and practice time.
And when those drills and practice resulted in proficiency at the new skill, we would work on strategy in practice to learn the best times to use those skills in a tennis match. The same can be done in pickleball and that is the plan I will follow. Work on 2 – 3 drills to improve my skills, then practice those drills until I learn the skill well enough to confidently use it in a game.
To me, this practice plan is the blueprint for learning new skills well enough to the point the player can actually use those skills effectively in a game environment.
Oh, Those Unforced Errors
Having had the fortunate opportunity to play pickleball with some very skilled players, I have a good idea of what I need to improve on to raise my skill level from a 3.5 player to a 4.0 player.
From what I can see, the 4.0 and above player has a good mix of power and control in their game and while they can drive the ball when they need to, the difference maker is having the finesse to hit the softer precise shots and place the ball where they want it on the court to win more points.
The 4.0 level and above player also has a good “court awareness” and knows where their opponents are standing on the court, and they have the ability to return the ball to an area of the court where either the opponent can not reach it or it will be such a difficult return that the ball may or may not even come back as a returned shot.
One more thing is unforced errors. The 4.0 and above player doesn’t make 4 – 5 errors per game, such as hitting the ball in to the net, dinking the ball in to the net or wide when you are trying to push your opponent wide with a cross-court dink. Or, the overhead smash that either goes in to the net or long because you are trying to hit the ball too hard instead of also focusing on placement on where you want the ball to go.
The better and more skilled players don’t make many errors when playing and as a result they don’t give many points away which helps them win a higher percentage of their games because their points are so much more competitive.
For me, if I can improve on reducing my unforced errors by practicing a few key shots, that will help improve my game by allowing me to give away fewer points to my opponents which is a problem for me at the moment. I am confident drills and practice will help and this will be part of my plan to improve my game going forward.
What is the Most Important Shot in Pickleball?
While we are on the subject of learning new shots, what do you think is the most important shot in pickleball and the one all players that want to play more competitively should learn?
The pickleball third shot drop is one of the hardest shots to learn but one of the most important shots to master because of it’s effectiveness for pickleball game strategy. Being able to float the ball just over the net and in to the “kitchen area” from the baseline or the mid court area looks easy when you watch the pros effortlessly execute the shot.
But when you get on the court and try to hit this shot consistently, it really does take some practice to learn. But, if you can learn to hit this shot consistently from different spots on the court, it will take your game to the next level when you can hit this shot with any sort of regularity.
Because of how effective this shot is when playing a game, the pickleball third shot drop is the one other shot that I hope to learn via drills and practice until I can hit it consistently and eventually use it effectively in games playing against competition.
Pickleball Wall Drills for Quick Hands
I don’t want to make my skills improvement list too long, but this is one more skill that I believe every pickleball player should have. Quick hands is a must in pickleball since many points are won at the non-volley zone using quick hands to defend quick shots coming towards you from your opponents.
This is a skill that I need to get better at so adding some pickleball wall drills to my practice plan will be on the calendar going forward.
A good way to work on having quick hands for pickleball is to practice against a wall doing pickleball wall drills. These drills are not only effective, but they are also pretty fun and obviously can be done alone when time permits.
To see almost immediate improvement in your play up at the non volley zone, incorporate these pickleball wall drills in to your practice routine.
So now you know my pickleball training plan for the next several months and that is to incorporate drills to learn new skills, a bit of practice to enforce those new skills, then trying out those new skills in actual pickleball games. That way, I can see if I am making any progress towards raising my play level from a 3.5 to a 4.0 player.
Good luck to you and hopefully elevating your game. Let’s re-visit this in six months to see if I am making any progress.