Pickleball is a different sort of game and is not very well-known among people who are not into sports. Since you all must be fully aware of table tennis and badminton games, understanding pickleball is not very difficult.
Pickleball is kind of a mixture of all the games played with a racket and a ball or shuttle. You would need the basic pickleball equipment including a racket and a ball.
Importance of practicing pickleball:
Practicing pickleball or any other sport can make you a perfect player. However, for consistent practice, any player would require an opponent player to accompany which might be a hindrance in practicing since the opponent player would not be available at the time you wish to practice. It doesn’t mean that the player cannot practice without having a partner. Also, read the What is a Rally in Pickleball?
If you want to be an exceptional expert in pickleball games, which of course any professional player would love to be. The most important way to be an exceptional player is to do the maximum practice.
Well, this could not always be as easy as it sounds, and also sometimes it might be next to impossible to do as much practice as you want within your limited resources. You can have the best practicing moments even if you do not have a partner to play with you. The basic types of equipment and a wall can serve the purpose.
Practicing pickleball alone without having any partner player around:
We will discuss in detail in this article that if you have a pickleball racket and a pickleball game, you can always come up with numerous ideas for practicing alone without having any partner player around and within your limited resources. Also, read the What is the Non-Volley Zone in Pickleball?
Now the question arises how it would be practically possible to practice a game that is played with a minimum of two players without having any other person around?
Let’s discuss all the possible ways by which anyone can practice pickleball alone and without having access to a proper court and an opponent player because sometimes you might not be able to go to the court or if you can somehow make it to the court but don’t have any person available who is willing to play with you for the mere sake of practice or may be all you want is to practice this game without any other person to make yourself an expert player utilizing all the special technique and tips you have just learned from your favorite couch. Also, check the How to Hold a Pickleball Paddle?
Practicing pickleball all by yourself would take your expertise to a next-level approach and you can make your single shots highly professional just with the help of your playing equipment and hours of practice. For this purpose, you literally do not need anyone with you to support your practicing hours.
How you can achieve next-level success in your practice whether you are practicing on a court or at home, let us let you know which points should be kept in mind.
1- Space and area for practicing:
First of all, you have to recognize where you can get the maximum space and peace in a suitable place around you to practice the best you can. It could be your home garden, a pickleball stadium near you, or even a badminton or table tennis stadium to which you have easy access. Also, read the What is a Dink in Pickleball?
If you have a good space at home then that would be the best place because it will save you time and energy to reach an ideal place and also you won’t have to make up your mind every time you want to practice. You can just simply stand up when you are in the mood and start playing even with your kids or spouse.
2- Identifying the kind of drill you want to practice the most:
First, let’s identify what a pickleball drill is.
The word drill doesn’t sound what it means in a pickleball game. In pickleball, the players are taught several drills to practice their skills to an expert level.
The drill is basically a kind of exercise and body mechanic specially formulated to improve a particular pickleball technique. The importance of drills is not usually understood as it should be. Being the most valuable practicing part in any sport, drills greatly assist the players to develop unimaginably incredible body mechanics that automatically gets saved in the muscle memory.
- Developing highly practiced and professional drills is the core to winning any sport including a pickleball game because once a drill is established, the player can automatically make a perfect stroke instinctively and unconsciously using the muscle memory.
- Being an extremely fast-paced game, instinctive actions are as important as knowing the rules and regulations of the game. Without having quick and prompt instincts, it won’t be possible for the player to overtake the opponent’s tricky moves. Also, check the What Kind Of Ball Is Used In Pickleball?
- Before practicing, the pickleball player has to decide on his weaker drills and practice those with consistent repetition. Without numerous repetitions, it’s not possible to get a complete hold on any skill. For example, if you feel that you are weak in defending the forehand stroke, you need to identify the body position and mechanics you are required to repeatedly practice. It saves in your muscle memory making you able to instantly move your body parts in a particular language. So, it helps to hit the right stroke at the right time within a fraction of time.
3- Practising and repeating the drilling mechanics in a favorable and non-pressured environment:
This is extremely important to understand that pickleball is a nerve-racking game where the player has to be extremely mentally stable and quick respondent allowing him to give perfect shots within a split second. Split-second decisions can only be made if the practice has been done in a relaxed and not-so-stressed environment so that the drill gets easily absorbed and saved in muscle memory.
4- The rule of 10,000 shots and how is this rule related to the pickleball Drill?
This is an extremely fun-knowing fact about the pickleball game. Now that you have clearly understood what exactly is a pickleball drill and how it is important to the practicing part, let’s get to know another interesting rule known as the 10,000 rule. Also, check the How to Become a Professional Pickleball Player?
The 10,000 rule is self-explanatory by name means that the player must practice. each drill repeatedly for 10,000 times and even more to have a complete hold on it And that’s how it will be permanently saved to the muscle memory. Isn’t that amazing?
The tip is to focus on the quality of those 10,000 shots and not just the quantity to achieve maximum efficiency.
Type of drills that a player can practice without any partner:
There are few solo drilling techniques that can be easily practiced alone and a solo player would not require any special equipment/playing court/partner player to practice these techniques.
All you require is some space, a wall, a racket, and a pickleball to do these drilling practices alone:
- Drill to achieve accuracy in volley:
Almost all the pickleball players, especially beginners must be facing the difficulty of not hitting the ball exactly where they want. If you are one of them, this solo drilling technique would definitely help you achieve a great level of accuracy.
If you have a wall in front of you, you can make a mark on it with the help of a marker or any colored tape. Then practice several times hitting the same mark standing at different positions.
Keep practicing unless you hit the mark from any position and constantly achieving the same result would give you unimaginable results.
- Mastering your forehand and backhand stroker:
Mastering the strokes is highly important in pickleball because having an expert level of grip on your strokes would not help you with the best results.
In this fast-paced game, your stroke skills must be saved in your instinct reflex and that can be possibly achieved with continuous practice. You Can also check the Best Pickleball Gloves.
For practicing alone, use this technique in front of a wall.
Stand away from a wall at a distance of 7 feet and make a service in the forehand style keeping in mind that you are serving in a professional match. Consider the bounced ball as the opponent’s response, make a backhand stroke, and vice versa.
Keep repeating the procedure until you achieve the master-level strokes.
- Leg movements practice:
While practicing the pickleball drills, the leg practice is mostly neglected which might cause a weakness in your skills. It’s highly important to focus on your leg movements and exercises before you start playing on a proper court. Practice your leg exercises whenever you get time out of the stroke practices and focus on flexibility and promptness.
The tip is to consider that you are playing on a court and start running imagining that you are making consistent shots and the opponent is giving your tough and unattackable shots. This is something that you can practice alone without even having any equipment and a wall. Just an open space would help you practice as much as you want. You Can also check the What Kind Of Ball Is Used In Pickleball?
Apart from these, you can think of various other techniques during the procedure of your solo practice, you will automatically come up with a number of ideas.
Conclusion:
According to a proverb where there is a will, there is a way. If you actually want to be the best in your skills and master all the drilling techniques, you don’t have to be in an ideal court and with a professional player to be the best.
The above ideas would help you to think of other ideas too with the help of which you can achieve next-level expertise in no time.