Elevate Your Pickleball Game: The Power of Drilling with a Partner
- mkiatipis
- Jun 18, 2024
- 2 min read
While many players enjoy the social and competitive aspects of open play, drilling with a partner can significantly accelerate your improvement. Let's explore why focused drills are more effective and use some numbers to illustrate the difference.
Why Drilling Beats Open Play
Repetition and Muscle Memory
Drilling allows you to practice specific shots repeatedly, ingraining the correct techniques into your muscle memory. During open play, the variety and unpredictability of shots make it hard to focus on perfecting individual skills.
Controlled Environment
In drills, you can create controlled scenarios to work on weaknesses, such as third-shot drops, dinks, or volleys. Open play, by contrast, often lacks this structured focus, making it harder to systematically improve.
Consistent Feedback
When drilling with a partner, you can provide immediate feedback to each other, fine-tuning your techniques in real-time. This constant feedback loop is less feasible in the dynamic environment of open play.
Maximized Touches
The sheer volume of touches (shots) you get during drills far exceeds what you would experience in open play. More repetitions lead to faster skill acquisition and improvement.
The Numbers Game: Drills vs. Open Play
To illustrate the difference, let’s compare the number of touches you might get in a two-hour drill session versus a night of open play.
Drilling Session
In a focused drilling session, you and your partner can structure your practice to maximize the number of shots. Here’s a breakdown:
Warm-Up (15 minutes): 150 shots (75 each)
Dinking Drills (30 minutes): 300 shots (150 each)
Third-Shot Drop Drills (30 minutes): 200 shots (100 each)
Volleys and Smashes (30 minutes): 250 shots (125 each)
Serve and Return Practice (15 minutes): 100 shots (50 each)
Total Shots in 2 Hours: 1,000 shots (500 each)
Open Play
Open play usually consists of social matches with varied skill levels and less structured play. Assuming a night of open play lasts about 3 hours and you play 6 games, here’s a rough estimate:
Average Points Per Game: 11
Average Rallies Per Point: 3
Average Shots Per Rally: 4
Total Shots Per Game: 132 shots
Total Shots in 6 Games: 792 shots
Total Shots in 3 Hours: 792 shots (396 each)
The Impact of Drilling
Comparing these numbers, in just 2 hours of drilling, you might make 500 shots each. In 3 hours of open play, you might only make 396 shots each. This stark difference shows how drilling can significantly increase your touches, providing more opportunities to refine your skills.
Conclusion
While open play is essential for putting your skills into practice and enjoying the social aspects of pickleball, dedicated drilling with a partner is where substantial improvement happens. By structuring your practice sessions to focus on specific skills and maximize repetitions, you can advance your game much faster. So, grab a partner, set up some drills, and watch your pickleball prowess soar!
Join Our Blog
Looking to improve your pickleball game even further? Subscribe to our blog for more expert tips, training drills, and strategies. Stay updated with the latest insights to keep your game sharp and competitive. Don't miss out – join our pickleball community today and elevate your game to the next level!
Comments