The key to improving your game, whether it be pickleball or tennis, is to practice relentlessly. People say that practice makes perfect, but I personally believe that the saying should really be “perfect practice makes perfect!” It is said that to master a stroke, you must repeat it at least 10,000 times. That takes dedication, hard work, and perseverance. It also takes good drills. That means drills that help reinforce good habits, but ones that are fun, practical, and competitive. Below I will show two of my favorite drills, one for pickleball and one for tennis.
Pickleball Drill: First Three Shots
The “first three shots” drill does precisely what you’d think. It helps you improve your serve, return of serve, and third shot (drop in this case). You may also refer to this practice session as “Long, Long, Short” or “Serve, Return, Drop,” and there are many other names as well.
This drill is simple to understand but challenging to master. Start by simply serving the ball. Your opponent then returns it, and you attempt a third-shot drop. Sounds super easy, right?
The key is you want to get your serve to land in the back 3 feet of the court, your return to do the same, and your third shot should drop into the no-volley zone (aka “kitchen”). After the third shot, play stops, and the next person serves.
The scoring helps make this drill fun because what’s better than a little competition? There are many variations to scoring. My personal favorite is 1 point for a deep serve within 3 feet of the baseline, 1 point for a correct deep return within 3 feet of the baseline, and 2 points for a correct drop into the kitchen.
While it is possible to do the drill by guesstimating if the serve and return are deep enough, it’s much easier and more fun if you have actual lines on the court. This can be done with chalk – don’t do it on our courts though – or better yet, with painters tape, or you can try the Gamma Court Lines, which make it super simple to toss down lines anywhere, or you can be imaginative and use your own court dividers.
Play to 21 and once you’ve finished the drill, you should feel like a pro starting off the point!
Tennis Drill: Crosscourt Vs Down The Line
The “crosscourt vs down the line” tennis drill is not only good for your strokes, including your accuracy and placement, but also offers one of the best workouts humanly possible. It is a drill I learned growing up and one of my go-tos if you need a good workout or want to learn to play like a pro.
This drill is also simple to understand but very challenging to master. Start on opposite sides of the court with both players in the middle of the baseline. Player A feeds the ball crosscourt, and then player B must return the ball down the line. Every shot from Player A must be crosscourt in the singles court, while every shot Player B hits must be down the line into the singles court.
While drilling, the goal is to keep the ball deep, past the service line. If a player hits the ball and it lands short of the service line, all bets are off, and the player can approach anywhere for the rest of the point; you can use the entire singles court.
The scoring helps make this game a very competitive and fun way to improve your groundies and passing shots. If a player wins the point from the baseline, they receive 1 point. If a player gets a short ball and proceeds to win the point from the net (inside the service line), they receive 2 points. The first player to win 21 points is the victor. After the drill concludes, switch it up … with players now hitting down the line that were hitting crosscourt and vice versa, playing the drill the opposite way. This is an amazing skill and fitness drill and one of my all-time favorites!
