The Best Pickleball Drills for 2 Players
These are the best pickleball drills for 2 players. They’re a great idea because it’s one of the quickest ways to improve your game. When you practice them drills consistently, you’ll take your game to the next level.
Pickleball Dinking Drills
DRILL #1 – Half-Court Dinking
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 1.5+
- Skill Focus: dink shots, hand-eye coordination, ball placement, soft shots
- Drill Name: Half-Court Dinking
The Half-court Dinking Drill is a great way for pickleball players to improve their dink shot. It’s played on half of the court at the non-volley zone. One player is on one side of the net and the other player is directly across on the other side of the net.
You want to practice hitting soft shots that are controlled.
If the ball goes outside the sideline, baseline, or center line of that half of the court – it’s out.
And the same rules apply for hitting at the non-volley zone.
DRILL #2 – Cross-Court Dinks
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 1.5+
- Skill Focus: dink shots, eye-hand coordination, ball placement, soft shots
- Drill Name: Cross-Court Dinks
The cross-court dinks drill is similar to the half-court dinking drill except that there are only 2 players on a court and you’re playing cross-court (diagonal) which means that if you hit the ball outside the court that is diagonal to you, the ball is out.
Player A stands at the non-volley line in the ready position and Player B stands on the court that is diagonal to Player A.
They play as usual except that players must hit the ball across the net and into the non-volley zone that is diagonal to their court.
This drill is good for different strokes including volley shots and groundstrokes.
The cross-court dink drill focuses on only dinking which means you don’t need to worry about your serving, return of serve, or the third shot drop skills.
You can focus just on your dink shots.
Cross-court Dink Shot: Video
DRILL #3 – Triangle Dinks
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.5+
- Skill Focus: ball placement, ball placement variety, reaction time, lateral movements
- Drill Name: Triangle Dinks
The triangle dink drill is excellent for practicing ball placement. Each player stands at the non-volley zone on their side of the net.The idea is to keep your opponent moving around the non-volley zone by hitting the ball to three different spots, forming a triangle.
If you dink to different spots, the opposing player will need to keep moving and they’ll need to anticipate where your shot is going. That will be difficult if you keep placing the ball in different locations.
This drill is great for practicing forehand shots and backhand shots.
Your opponent will also be hitting the ball to your side of the net in a triangle which means you’ll have plenty of opportunities to practice both.
DRILL #4 – Forehand, Backhand Dinks
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.0+
- Skill Focus: backhand dinks, forehand dinks
- Drill Name: Forehand, backhand dinks
With the forehand and backhand dinks drill, both players stand at the non-volley zone on their side of the net. One player practices their forehand shot and the other player practices their backhand shot. The player practicing their forehand shot will hit the ball to the other player’s backhand.
DRILL #5A – Crosscourt Forehand and Backhand Dinks
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.0+
- Skill Focus: backhand dinks, forehand dinks
- Drill Name: Crosscourt Forehand and Backhand Dinks
With the crosscourt forehand and backhand dinks drill, players stand at the non-volley zone that is diagonal to each other. One player practices their forehand shot and the other player practices their backhand shot. The player practicing their forehand shot will hit the ball to the other player’s backhand.
DRILL #5B – Alternating Forehand and Backhand Dinks
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.0+
- Skill Focus: backhand dinking, forehand dinking
- Drill Name: Alternating Forehand and Backhand Dinks
This drill is similar to the previous drill except that both players alternate between hitting with a forehand shot and hitting with a backhand shot.
With the alternating forehand and backhand dinks drill, players stand at the non-volley zone that is diagonal to each other. Each player alternates hitting a forehand and backhand shot. One player hits with their forehand shot to the other player’s backhand. And then they alternate shots.
Pickleball Volley Drills
DRILL #6 – Half-Court Kitchen Volley Shots
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 1.0+
- Skill Focus: forehand, backhand volley-dink shots
- Drill Name: Half-Court Kitchen Volley Shots
In the Half-Court Kitchen Volley Shots Drill, both players stand by the kitchen and volley the ball. Players focus on not letting the ball bounce and returning shots that are controlled and stay within the non-volley zone.This drill is great for backhand, forehand, one-handed, and two-handed volley shots.
DRILL #7 – Block and Volley
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.0+
- Skill Focus: ball control and handling
- Drill Name: Block and volley
The Block and Volley Drill will help with ball control. As the ball comes over the net, hold your paddle up. Let the ball hit your paddle but don’t put any movement or force behind your hit.It should pop off your paddle and over the net.
Then your practice partner should let the ball block off their paddle in the same way, without any force or swing).
It’s a great strategy for just about any ball that has any momentum coming over the net while you’re standing at the NVZ line zone.
DRILL #8 – Volley Shot Drill
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.5+
- Skill Focus: Fast hands, reset to the ready position, resetting the ball, soft shots, reflexes
- Drill Name: Volley Shot Drill
The volley shot drill is about volleying the ball while at the non-volley zone. There are five different skills involved to help improve your pickleball game. This drill will help improve your 1. reflexes 2. getting into the ready position 3. reset of the ball, and 4. your soft shots.
This is a really fun drill that helps with many skills.
Stand by the kitchen line, and begin the volley shot drill by hitting volley shots over the net to your partner.
Once you hit a volley shot to your partner, immediately move into the ready position.
The ready position is when you stand with a slight bend in your knees with your paddle up and in front of you so that you are well positioned to hit the next volley shot. This is an important skill to develop and should just happen with muscle memory.
Another skill that the volley shot will help you develop is the reset of the ball.
Sometimes a rally at the non-volley zone can pick up speed and you might feel that you’re at risk of losing control of the ball.
Practice resetting the ball in a downward position on the other side of the net. This will help slow the ball and the rally. Learning how to position those soft shots can be a game saver.
Playing a really fast volley rally is another great skill to develop from practicing with the Volley Shot Drill. Pick up some speed and see how long you and your partner can keep the rally going.
Pickleball Kitchen, Transition and Third Shot Drop Drills
DRILL #9 – Half-Court Groundies
- Number of Players: 2 or 4
- Skill Level: 1.0+
- Skill Focus: forehand, backhand groundstroke fundamentals
- Drill Name: Half-Court Groundstroke
The Half-Court Groundstroke Drill allows four players to use one pickleball court.Players hit forehand or backhand groundstrokes and try to keep the ball in their half of the court. This can be played as a warmup, for points, or to see how long the rally can be kept going.
Once a game/time has finished, players can rotate one position.
It’s important to remember that if the ball goes outside the sideline, baseline, or center line of that half of the court – it’s out.
DRILL #10 – Skinny Singles
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 1.0+
- Skill Focus: all the skills
- Drill Name: Skinny Singles
To play skinny singles, each partner stands on their side of the court and you play a singles game as you typically would, but you only use the side of the court that you’re standing on. That means that you serve directly across the net, not diagonally.
Skinny singles is played the same as a regular game but on only one side of the court. This means that the court lines are only on one side of the court and include the sideline, baseline, centerline from the baseline to the net, and non-volley zone line.
If the ball goes outside these boundaries, the ball is out.Keep this in mind when hitting an overhead smash or a hard drive.
Because only half the court is being used, two teams could play at the same time which can get a bit crazy with balls going outside the correct side of the court but it’s a good way to get more players on the court practicing.
Learn more about singles rules.
DRILL #11 – Kitchen to Baseline Hits
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.5+
- Skill Focus: paddle & ball control, ball placement
- Drill Name: Kitchen to Baseline Hits
When practicing the Kitchen-to-Baseline Hits Drill, one player stands at the baseline and one stands on the other side of the net, by the non-volley zone line. The player at the baseline hits the ball over the net and the person at the non-volley zone returns it.
This is a great drill to get to know your paddle and practice hitting the ball where you want it to go.
Switch positions so each player gets to practice from both the non-volley zone line and the baseline.
DRILL #12 – Back and Forth
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.5+
- Skill Focus: ball distance control, ball placement, drop shots
- Drill Name: Back and forth
With the back-and-forth drill, both players start at the kitchen line.The first player dinks the ball over the net and the other player returns it. The player who returns the ball takes a big step backward and the player at the net will hit the shot a little deeper.
The player being drilled will continue to move back with every shot and the drill continues until the player reaches the baseline which means the player being drilled now hits a third shot drop.
After the player at the baseline makes the third shot drop, they start taking steps towards the kitchen line with every shot and the person who was previously doing the drilling becomes the person being drilled.
And now they begin backing up with every shot and work their way back to the baseline.
DRILL #13 – Kitchen Runs
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 1.5+
- Skill Focus: moving to the kitchen, 3rd shots
- Drill Name: Kitchen runs
The purpose of the kitchen runs drill is to practice making the transition from playing at the back of the court to playing at the non-volley zone. One player stands at the non-volley zone line and the other stands at the baseline on the other side of the net.
The player at the non-volley zone line will hit a deep serve to the player at the baseline, who will attempt to hit a third shot drop (landing in their opponent’s kitchen).
This drill is perfect for practicing and building muscle memory.
Learn about pickleball rules.
DRILL #14 – Third Shot Drop
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.5+
- Skill Focus: ball placement on the third shot
- Drill Name: Third Shot Drop
The Third Shot Drop Drill will help you build muscle memory and hit a fantastic third-shot drop. It’s often referred to as the most important shot of a game and this drill will help you hit a ball that rises high and over the net into your opponent’s non-volley zone.
With the Third Shot Drop Drill, your partner stands at the non-volley zone and you stand at the back of the court.
Your partner feeds you balls and you return them by hitting the ball with a pendulum swing that helps your ball rise high and over the net into your opponent’s non-volley zone.
DRILL #15 – Transition Reset Drill
- Number of Players: 2
- Skill Level: 2.5+
- Skill Focus: Fast hands, reset to the ready position, resetting the ball, soft shots, reflexes
- Drill Name: Volley Shot Drill
When practicing the Transition Reset Drill, one player stands at the non-volley zone line and the other player stands in the transition zone. The drill starts by hitting the ball back and forth but the player in the transition zone must reset the ball 3 times before playing the point.
The important thing about this drill is that the player at the non-volley zone should make it as difficult as possible for the player in the transition zone to reset the ball.
Remember, resetting the ball makes it less likely for it to be an attackable ball.
Advanced players will often hit kill shots in this drill – it’s the best way to make it difficult for your opponent to return the ball.
The Transition Reset Drill can also be played cross-court and be sure to switch sides of the court so that you get practice from both sides of the net.
Summary – Pickleball Drills for 2 Players
Hopefully you’ve found this list of the best pickleball drills for 2 players helpful. Drills are a great idea because it’s one of the quickest ways to improve your game. When you practice these drills consistently, you’ll take your game to the next level. Three drills to start with include half-court dinking, block and volley and half-court groundies.
