Pickleball Drills to Improve Net Play

Top Pickleball Drills to Improve Your Net Play and Dominate the Kitchen

Net play is a key part of pickleball that often determines who wins a match. If you are good at playing at the net, you can dictate play, set up winners, and apply pressure to your opponents. A good net game brings a whole new dimension to your game and a whole new level of excitement to the sport. In short, if you want to get better at pickleball, you need to get better at playing at the net.

An aerial top shot of the Pickleball court in Vasse, Western Australia

And this is where specific, targeted pickleball drills come in. Certain drills work on exactly the aspects you need to play great at the net in pickleball, be it volleying technique, getting to the net, or quick reactions to your opponents’ shots. Add these drills to your training, and you will be a much more rounded player, confident that you can hold your own in any match situation.

In the rest of this article, we will detail some of the very best drills that will make you better at the key techniques you need to play an effective net game. Whether you are a relative newcomer to pickleball or an experienced player looking to improve, you can use these drills to become a more accomplished pickleball player.

Understanding the Importance of Net Play in Pickleball

Net play in pickleball, as the name suggests, refers to the gameplay that players should use near the net. This area of play encourages players to be nimble and is where point-winning shot accuracy rests heavily. Being better in this area will win you more points as you force the opposing player to remain defensive. In pickleball particularly, plays to get to the net are common, and is a major contributor to the mix of game exchanges that pickleball players are most familiar with. This push for play to be quick is inconvenient for adult players. Simply, the quicker played, the quicker finished. As for the last piece of information, learning how to volley indicates what to expect from the offensive player. The player must volley beyond or at the baseline of the kitchen because it leads to play at the center of the court. Faster players will benefit from being offensive. The kitchen area has a very specific function and players should learn to use it that way.

Essential Pickleball Drills to Sharpen Your Net Game

Dinking that enables a player to go very soft and just over the net is critical during net play. It doesn’t give your opponent hard balls and good angles to hit back. To drill for dinks, you and your partner should start just off the net and hit softly back and forth. Start with hitting across each other then switch to cross court after. The drill helps you develop your ability to go soft during matches and is essential to be a good net player.

Volleys are also a must-learn pickleball technique. Volleys allow a player to hit the ball to the opponent very fast at the kitchen line which doesn’t give them much time for their next shot. Have your partner kick you some balls to work on your volleys. Drive toward you first and then right at your chest. You should aim to hit near your chest height. Working together helps develop your skills and the all-important team chemistry.

Advanced Techniques for Dominating the Kitchen

The drop shot is a vital weapon to have in your armory for net play. This is where you play the ball just far enough over the net so that your opponent finds it hard to reach. You would look to use a drop shot when your opponent’s positional play is nearer to their baseline. It’s quite a soft shot and you have to take the pace out of it and probably aim for its placement. These can delay your opponent’s return time and an opportunity for you to get to the kitchen.

Net play is an important skill in pickleball. It’s often the players who can control the net who will control the overall flow of the game, so be sure to get in plenty of work on drills that will improve your reflexes, positioning, and shot choice. The more you work on these drills, the more confidence you’ll have every time you’re at the net. The more confidence you have, the easier it will be to make your chosen shot. Whatever that shot is, make sure that it’s part of whatever drills you choose to set up for yourself. Practicing as many different types of shots as you possibly can will increase the number of times you’ll be able to produce a winner in your own games.

Work some of these drills into your own practice routine, share a few of your other favorite drills with members of the pickleball community. Who knows, maybe someday we’ll all get to set one of our shots up against one of your shots.