The best pickleball drills you can do with the Dink Master Pro

Alex Lantz

Director of Content

Last Edited

May 08 2025

Fast hands drill

This is what it sounds like, and it's a very useful drill for 4.0+ players who want to work on fast exchanges at the kitchen line and win more hands battles (and who doesn't want that?). The Dink Master Pro has a Speed Master side, which features multiple lines showing the height of the net, a line at 8 inches above the net and a line toward the middle part of the hitting surface.

When you're just starting out, a simple drill is to set up about 7 feet from the Dink Master Pro (the distance between the kitchen line and the net) and volley the ball back and forth while trying to keep it above the net line and below the second line. This will train you to keep the ball low in quick exchanges and will also improve your hand-eye coordination over time.

Once you've got that down, it's time to get more advanced with your placement. The Speed Master side has three "zones" across the board horizontally. You can use the zones in several ways, but a good place to start is by hitting one shot into each box, moving through zones 1, 2 and 3 and back again. For a right-handed player, this will train you to switch from your backhand to your forehand when you get to zone 3, which is on the right side of your body, then switch back to your backhand for punch volleys in zones 1 and 2.

Speed up combinations

As pickleball has trended toward more offense in the past few years, developing a speed up off the bounce has become more important. The Dink Master Pro can help simulate what a speed up into a hands battle feels like, and can also help you anticipate where the next shot will be.

At the 4.5+ level, the location of the initial speed up is crucial. If you're playing against a right-handed player, a speed up should most often go toward your opponent's paddle-side hip/torso. The idea is to cause the classic chicken-wing pop-up and give you an easy ball to put away.

You can practice this by giving yourself a relatively easy dink to your forehand side, hitting a speed up at zone 1, then switching to your backhand and being ready to counter the next shot, which will be coming toward the left side of your body.

If you're a player looking to develop a two-handed speed up off the bounce, you can work on a similar combination by giving yourself an easy dink to the backhand side, speeding up at zone 3, then being ready for the next shot with your forehand.

These are combinations that pros and high-level amateurs use frequently, and the Dink Master Pro will allow you to get a ton of reps to get them dialed.

Dinking on the move

This drill will require a bit more space, like a garage or even taking your Dink Master Pro out to the court with you.

You can flip the board over to the Dink Master side, which has several targets and also a line to help you determine when a dink has sailed too high. Practice hitting dinks at an angle so that you're forced to move from side to side and switch between your forehand and backhand.

Keeping the ball between the net line and the "too-high" line while on the move might be a challenge at first, but will improve your technique and consistency over time.

Cross-court dinking

This is where the Dink Master Pro being so easy to move around is really helpful. Simply move it so that it's at an angle facing you a couple steps to your right or left. In this setup you can work on your cross-court dinks and incorporate more pace (because you have more space to work with when dinking cross court). You can also work on adding more topspin and taking balls out of the air.

There are seemingly endless drills you can work on with the Dink Master Pro -- these are just a few of our favorites. For more, check out Enhance Pickleball's drill catalog.