- I would like to improve my pickleball skills
Great — let’s make this a proper training session.
Before I map out drills and strategies, I need to know two things so we can aim at the right level:
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Your current level: Have you played enough to be comfortable with basic rules and strokes, or are you still learning fundamentals like serving, dinking, and keeping score?
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Your main goal: Do you want to get better at winning points in games, consistency and control, or speed and power?
Once I know those, I can walk you through a skill-building plan with short, focused steps you can practice each time you play.
- I am comfortable with basic rules and strokes. My main goal is to get better at consistency and control.
Perfect — you’re already past the beginner stage, so we can focus on the parts of pickleball that win matches quietly:
ball placement, unforced error reduction, and steady rallying under pressure.
Here’s how we’ll tackle it step-by-step, and I’ll check in after each part so you can tell me what clicks or needs more detail.
Step 1: Strengthen Your “Reset” Game
This is the foundation of consistency — being able to take a hard or awkward shot and place it back into a neutral rally, usually with a soft dink or drop.
Drill:
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Have a partner hit medium-paced drives at you from mid-court or baseline.
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Focus on absorbing the pace by holding a loose grip and letting the paddle face do the work.
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Aim for the ball to land in the kitchen with minimal arc.
Key checkpoint: If the ball’s coming back fast, you should never swing hard — think “catch and release” with your paddle.
Step 2: Precision Dinking
Most control battles are won at the kitchen.
Drill:
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Pick a small target area (like a towel) in the kitchen on the other side.
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Play cross-court dinks with a partner, but only count it as a win if it lands on or within a paddle’s length of the target.
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Keep rallies going for 20–25 hits without an error before increasing speed or depth.
Key checkpoint: Your wrist should be quiet — most of the motion comes from your shoulder.
Step 3: Third-Shot Drop Consistency
A soft third shot forces your opponents to give up the net advantage.
Drill:
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From baseline, drop feed a ball to yourself, hit a soft drop into the kitchen, then move forward into position.
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Track your “success rate” — e.g., how many land in the kitchen out of 10 tries.
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Gradually increase the pace of feeds to simulate game pressure.
Step 4: Mental Control Rallies
Control isn’t just about mechanics — it’s about patience.
Game:
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Play a rally-to-11 game where you can only score after 30 consecutive shots land in.
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This forces you to focus on staying in the point rather than rushing a winner.
If you want, we can turn this into a 4-week “Consistency Builder” plan where each week adds one small challenge so you get measurable progress without overwhelm.
Do you want me to set that plan up for you next? (Full ChatGPT 5 Session)
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