If the pickleball bug has bitten you, you’re most likely wanting to play often and win. But that may be challenging when your opponents get the best of you. So how can you get better and improve at pickleball? Here are three things you can do right now.
3 Tips To Improve At Pickleball
Learn The Soft Game
If you come from a tennis background, one of the most challenging transitions to pickleball is slowing the game down. Tennis players love to drive the ball and hit hard. While they may be great for putting a high ball away, they will not take you far.
You may hear of the term “placement over power” in pickleball and you will find more truth in that once you play with higher-level players. Being able to control where the ball goes will give you control of the point. You will be able to move the opponents around, forcing them to make errors or set yourself up for a putaway.
Learning the soft game means knowing how to dink, drop, and reset. While those shots are not the fanciest or hardest to do, creating unattackable balls are skills that will help you improve at pickleball.
Work On Muscle Memory
The best way to improve at pickleball is to drill. Drilling the same shots over and over again creates muscle memory for the shots you know how to do and shots that you’re not great at. The reason this is so important is that when you’re in the middle of a game, you may not always get a chance to think through each point or each shot as they’re happening.
When your opponents are giving you pressured shots, you may only have a chance to react out of your reflexes. Drilling will help you control how much pace and power to use for each shot, even if you’re only reacting to a shot. And most important, drilling or working on your muscle memory will help you be consistent and minimize unforced errors.
Drilling can include dinking back and forth with a friend hundreds of times back and forth. Or dropping from all areas of the court while they stand at the kitchen line and try to keep you back. Invest in a caddy, feed each other balls, and take turns. You may be surprised at how it will improve your game.
Play Up To Mix It Up
In order to improve at anything, including pickleball, you will need to have a higher obstacle or better opponents than you are. That means trying to get in games where you know you will lose because you will be playing against better players than you.
Better players will hit harder shots that require you to have better control, speed, and shots in general. But you will know what shots you’re having trouble with, what you need to practice more of, and what your current limitations are. While losing often may not be as fun, you will see your skills improve.
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