How long have you been playing pickleball? Six months, three years, ten years? Pickleball is a wonderful game that almost anyone can play. Coupled with the incredible physical and mental health benefits, the sport continues to grow in popularity among expanding age groups. If most players were asked the question: How often do you practice? Or, how many times have you practiced since you have been playing? The answers tend to be quite different than answering the question - how long have you been playing?
Many players are quite happy with their current skill level and should continue playing the game that they love. For players who want to take their current pickleball abilities up a level (both mentally and physically), there are many practical ways to maximize valuable time and improve your skillset. It's time to take your practice time to the next level.
Practice Makes Perfect
As all sports continue to evolve and get better, many sports instructors now prefer the phrase, "Perfect Practice Makes Perfect". Whether it is just a phrase or a motivating factor, practicing as "perfect" is an effective way to gain the most in the least amount of time and with the least amount of energy spent. So, the question changes to how do I or how does my group get more aligned with perfect practice?
- Set aside certain days and time periods for a small group of players who want to improve their skills. This will disable the tendency to always play instead of practice. Once you have a small group (four or five players) and set aside time to practice (3 hours suggested per practice session for non-pro players), now you have created the environment to potentially improve. This is very important because your group must be on the same page with all participants having the same pickleball goals.
- Have a leader run the practice session so everyone knows who is running the particular practice. The leader should preplan and communicate three or four skills or tactics to focus on during the 3-hour session. Having too many things to work on in a given session will dilute the ability to really embrace what is being worked on and the potential to implement the new skills will be minimized. The leader should schedule out the timing of each skill or tactic and stick to that plan, making sure not to rush things.
Build and Practice a Progression of Drills
In all cases, players should treat practice as real games, and the more the group can simulate the pace and the pressure of real games the better. Some practice groups may put in time at the courts, but they do not build progressively and they do not put the pressure and pace of the game into the mix of drills they do. For instance, if you are practicing backhand drop shots, you can start with good technique from various places on the court having the ball returned to you at medium speed. Once your skills progress, have the person at the opposing NVZ line who is hitting the ball back to you treat it like a real game where the ball gets slammed back to you if your drop shot is not good. The player who is working on their drop shot should treat every single drop shot as if it were the last one they may do and the "game" depends on a successful one. In other words, do not just casually hit drop shots but do so with the challenge of game pace and with someone giving you instant feedback on your drop shots so you will learn in real-time how to get better. Set yourself and your fellow players up for success.
You will want to organize your practice sessions to work on different parts of the game each session, starting from technique and then moving quickly to game pace and direct competitive feedback. This practice strategy will lead to consistent results. You will feel increasingly more confident after a great "perfect practice" session that leverages what you have learned in competitive play situations. When doing so, it will be much easier to be confident during games because you will be prepared and know what to expect. Implementation is much easier and you maximize your time working on efficiency and effectiveness rather than just time and repetitions.