This is a new one for most. We’ve only heard of a few people that utilize this advanced pickleball drill…but man, is it effective.

The gist: you don’t hit ANY attacking shots for an entire game, at least.

No speedups. No overheads. No nothin’.

You can only hit third shots, resets or dinks. Think you can do it?

Train for Consistency & Shot Selection

The goal is to outlast your opponent and minimize errors. Consistency above all else.

This is an extremely effective way to harness patience, improve consistency and force you to think analytically about shot selection, and just as importantly, shot creation.

Shot Creation: strategic shot placement that forces your opponent into playing certain balls to you.

Think of a third shot that lands at your opponent’s foot on the backhand side. Often, you’ll earn yourself a pop up. Identifying these patterns is like learning cheat codes.

By contrast, you’ll also begin to better read your opponent’s shots and tendencies. You’ll develop an acumen for identifying smart vs not-so-smart shot selection.

Perhaps you’ll notice the same patterns in your own game.

Can you win a game, or even a match, if you never hit an attacking shot?

We bet you can. In fact, we’d be willing to bet that this strategy is not only great for training, but can also win you most matches, particularly if you’re under 4.5.

Perfect Your Dink Game

This drill is the perfect opportunity to practice the 81 Dink combinations.

Lastly, let’s incorporate different options for placement: straight ahead, middle, cross-court. So now we have:

• Spin: flat, backspin, topspin
• Speed: slow, medium, fast
• Depth: shallow, medium, deep
• Placement: straight ahead, middle, cross-court

There are 81 different combinations available to you. Use them.

Here's a great video that breaks down the journey of developing a sound dink game. It's a journey.

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