If you don’t find ways to practice pickleball when you have nobody else around its hard to ever take that next step as a player. Not everyone has a pickleball court with 3 friends in their backyard, even professionals. I’ve talked to 5.0 players who spend more time drilling in front of a wall than on the pickleball court some weeks. Literally just hitting the ball against the wall. Best part is these wall drills for pickleball are very simple. Anyone start no matter the skill level.
Pickleball Skills Developed
We’re going to walk you step by step through a variety of wall drills for pickleball that will work on every aspect of your game. I don’t care what anybody says, you can become an exceptional pickleball player even if you are only playing actual games once a week or maybe even less. These drills are that good.
These solo drills will work on forehand and backhand for dinks, volleys, groundstrokes, overheads, and resets.
But they also present an opportunity to improve on skills translatable to all aspects of the game. In addition to practicing the shots above, you’ll improve rapidly at things like:
- Form
- Footwork
- Ball Placement
- Hand-eye Coordination
- Reflexes and Reaction Time
Pickleball Court Setup for Solo Wall Drills
It’s going to be impossible to do these drills without a wall. You don’t need much to do these drills, but without a good wall to hit the ball against you’re fighting an uphill battle.
Luckily most people won’t have this problem, and if you do you can just make a DIY pickleball wall. You can also use a wall in your garage or a spot out on a driveway, but these drills don’t have to be done at home. Almost everyone can find a public wall in a nearby area with good space and a flat surface to play on.
Once you’ve found your spot, get something to mark the wall with. Any kind of colored tape will do nicely here. Paint also works but will be more permanent.
You’re going to measure 34 inches off the ground and put a line a tape to mark where the net would be.
Then measure 7 feet back from the wall and put a line of tape on the ground to represent the non volley zone line.
Setting a Target
One of the most important things in practicing is intentionality.
Yes you will still get better if you hit the ball off the wall 10,000 times. But you’re progression when focusing and practicing with intentionality will accelerate your skill development and maximize your time.
This is why I strongly recommend setting up a small box on the wall with whatever you used to mark the net.
Ideally we want to be able to pick any spot on the pickleball court and have the ball placement skills to put it there. It’s the mark a great pickleball player. And now because we have the target in place we’re going to be developing this in every drill.
This target should be placed right above the net because we want to practice keeping the ball as low as possible while still clearing the net to prevent opponents in a real game from being able to hit down on the ball as it puts you at an inherent disadvantage. Be sure to keep it small but still achievable.
Wall Drills for the Kitchen/Non Volley Zone
These wall drills for pickleball are going to train both the forehand and backhand. We need both in pickleball so let’s train both.
Ideally do at least 3 rounds of each drill. One with just the forehand, one with just the backhand, and one alternating between the two on each shot.
Dink Drill
Stand behind the kitchen line. Starting with your forehand, hit the ball aiming at the target box. Let the ball bounce and then hit it back at the wall. Repeat this until you switch to backhand.
In the spirit of practicing with intentionality, we always want to have a goal. For example let’s say we have to get 10 dinks in a row into the target box with our forehand before we switch to backhand.
These quantitative totals are better than mass totals like 100 reps of each. This ensures you give more attention to your weaker shot by holding it to the same standards as your preferred stroke.
Here, we want to focus on aim and hitting the ball out in front of us like we would in a game. Focusing on form here will make it feel like muscle memory in an actual game.
Volley Drill
This pickleball drill works exactly the same way as the dink drill but we aren’t going to let it bounce.
Remember start with forehand, move to backhand, then alternate.
Again make sure to use proper form.
Reflexes Drill
This one is really cool.
It begins very similar to the volley drill. But once you’re in a comfortable rhythm, start walking slwoly forward towards the wall. As you get closer and closer the time to hit will get shorter and you’ll have to react faster.
Yes we want to walk into the kitchen for this. It is illegal in a game but this drill is not to practice volleys, its to practice your reflexes and hand eye coordination to be better prepared for those rapid exchanges at the net with the ball whizzing back and forth.
It’s important to go until you mess up. Drills aren’t helpful when you remain comfortable doing only things you are capable of. We improve by repeatedly pushing to the edge of our ability, and you won’t find this until you mess up.
How to Train Other Pickleball Shots
Groundstroke Drill
Depending on where you’re practicing, you may not have space for these next two wall drills. If you’re inside your garage or in a confined area go ahead and skip to the reset drill because that can be done in a variety of locations.
The rest of y’all are probably outdoors. Go ahead and take several steps back. We’re practicing our groundstrokes now and this is going to need to simulate hitting from behind the service line or inside the service box.
There are two ways to do this drill. Wait for every shot to bounce before hitting it because we are focusing on groundstrokes after all.
The first is basically playing a simulated rally. Send groundstroke after groundstroke at the wall, aiming at the target. Focus on proper technique and footwork. Try to get as much power and topspin over the ball as you can while keeping it low. This version will let you get as many reps as possible in a short time.
The other iteration is arguably more interesting, and will likely result in a more versatile and well rounded skill set. For this version you’re going to alternate shot types. Begin hitting the ball off the wall to set the ball for yourself, follow this up with a hard, driving groundstroke. However, for the next shot, change to a different type of set to practice hitting your groundstroke in different context and at different angles.
This way we vary the types of shots we’re able to deal with. Maybe you start with a hard shot that comes at you low for your first set and then your next is a slower more arcing shot with a high bounce.
Overhead Drill
Practicing overheads will use a similar concept of setting like the previous drill. Hit the ball high off the wall, and then set up for your overhead with feet perpendicular to the net, using the correct footwork. Hit the overhead and then gather the ball to set it to yourself again.
Don’t forget to vary your power on your sets. You should be practicing lobs that are both in front of you and also lobs that go high over your head, forcing you to retreat back for the slam while tracking the ball in the air.
Reset Drill
This drill practices an incredibly valuable skill that gets the game under control when you feel yourself getting hurried by the opponents shots.
You can practice this drill anywhere from where the service line would be to the edge of the non volley zone.
Hit a hard shot off the wall, then with your second shot try to take all the momentum and speed out of the ball so that your return would just drop gently over the net and force your opponent to dink. Practice it with volleys and groundstrokes.
This comes in handy in any game where you feel your opponent has you on the defensive, hitting powerful quick shots at you in rapid succession. This shot resets control of the point by forcing your opponent to dink and letting you set the tempo on your next return.
Wrap Up – Wall Drills for Pickleball
You should have plenty of drills to practice almost any aspect of the game now all by yourself. There are numerous professional and 5.0 players that incorporate drills like these into their training. It only takes doing these only a few times a week to seriously elevate your game. You might not even recognize yourself the next time you’re on the court.