You Should Practice Pickleball With Lower-Level Players, Too

James Ignatowich

Team The Kitchen

Last Edited

Sep 25 2024

Category

Instruction

Many players I talk to are worried about the level of their drilling partners.

While it’s usually best to drill with someone of your level or even slightly better, it's also wise to work with someone below your level from time to time.

Aside from the confidence you can gain by repeatedly wiping the floor with your friend, these practices can be really beneficial for you.

Next time, try drilling with someone below your level, focusing on a few of these details to get the most out of your practice:

Opportunities: when drilling at the kitchen line with someone below your level, chances are they'll pop the ball up more often.

You can use this as practice for leaning in, deciding which dinks to take out of the air, and which one’s you can speed up on.

Related: The Backhand Flick: Go Up in Your Pickleball Skill Level

Attacks: This is your time to experiment with some of the attacks that don’t come naturally for you.

For example, I’m most comfortable hitting my backhand flick crosscourt or through the middle. When I’m in these types of practice sessions, maybe I’ll play a dink game where I only hit my backhand flick down the line.

Mid-court aggression: The better you get, the more you have to pick and choose your poaches and speedups through the mid-court.

If your someone that naturally likes to reset the ball at the mid-court, look to work on your aggression and take some risks poaching.

Ideally, practicing with someone below your level should be a win-win for both players: you'll gain all of the advantages I described above, while your partner will get the chance to level up their own game by playing someone more advanced than they are.

In fact, you can use that as a selling point to get someone to do this with.

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