1. Kitchen Work( Dinking and Control)
• Start at the non-volley zone and hit cooperative dinks with your partner. Focus on positioning by moving your feet to keep the ball in front of you, stillness upon contacting the ball, and maintaining a relaxed but stable paddle position with little to no wrist movement while contacting the ball.
• Progress to crosscourt dinking on both sides to reinforce footwork and angle control.
2. Midcourt Touch( Drops and Resets)
• One player moves halfway back while the other remains at the kitchen. The player in transition / middle of the court works on controlled drops, being sure to make clean contact and maintain a soft touch.
• Repeat this crosscourt.
3. Third-Shot Drops and Drives
• Move all the way back to the baseline and practice third-shot drops both straight ahead and crosscourt. Pay attention to consistency— your goal is to land the majority of your drops in the kitchen with a controlled feel and touch, so your partner has to take them below the net. If you miss too many in the net, then err on the side of hitting them too high and dial them back down, or move closer to the net, or ask your partner to feed you easier balls so you can regain your touch and feel.
• Alternate between drops and drives. Drives should be hit with purpose, whether it’ s to set up a followup shot or force a mishit or weak response from your opponent.
4. Overheads
• Work on overheads by starting at the kitchen line, then moving back toward the baseline before striking and running back to the line again and repeating.
• Make sure to return to the kitchen after each overhead— this helps reinforce good movement habits and will get your legs warm and your heart pumping.
5. Serve and Return Practice
• Too many players overlook these two shots, yet they’ re the most important shots in every point.
• Work on hitting deep, controlled serves with variety in speed, placement and spin if you like. You can be like a baseball pitcher, giving your opponents different looks— keeping them on their toes and surprising them sometimes.
• Make sure your returns are also deep and wellplaced to prevent the serving team from gaining control and attacking early.
6. Countering and Hands Battle
• One player stays at the net while the other hits drives from the baseline. The net player works on countering deep and low to keep the other player from being able to attack or gain control. This helps build fast-twitch reactions and confidence in defending.
• Then both players work on hands battles; cooperative 50-70 percent speed, attacking shots out of the air at the kitchen with the goal of keeping the same ball going while both players work on their hands and reactions.
7. Final Game-Like Exchanges
• Spend the last five minutes of warm-up playing cooperative points, starting with a serve and return but focusing on keeping the rally going, aka playing consistently. If you set up a put-away, go for it, you earned it— but don’ t overhit too early and miss; your goal is to play consistently and the attackable shots will appear.( This is higher-level play, and the“ attackable” balls will have a higher likelihood of winning the point or leading to better outcomes.)
• The goal is to simulate realistic play and ensure that both players feel fully warmed up.
The Big Takeaway: Drill More, Drill Smarter
If you truly want to improve, you must shift your mindset around drilling. Instead of rushing through a five-minute warm-up or hitting mindless shots, commit to intentional, structured practice sessions. The best players don’ t just train until they get it right; they train until they can’ t get it wrong.
Whether you’ re working on attacking, resetting or simply getting your body ready for a match, spending more time drilling and doing it the right way will set you apart from the competition.
Next time you step on the court, don’ t just play— train with purpose, and watch your game transform. •
Kyle McMakin is a touring pickleball professional, former Division I tennis player( UC Davis) and head pro for LevelUp Pickleball Camps. Kyle is a two-time Triple Crown winner. His DUPR is above 6.0 in both singles and doubles.
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