15 Best Pickleball Drills For 2 Players - Pickleball Adventure (2024)

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 #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.