5 Pickleball Drills That Took Me To 5.0 (Improve Your Game Fast)

These are the five pickleball drills that allowed me to become a 5.0 rated player. They're super fun and engaging and they ensure that you're working on the appropriate skills to reach that beloved 5.0 status. Without further ado, let's jump right into it with drill number one. Our first game is called tug of war. This is going to make sure we're super comfortable in long extended dink rallies. How it works, we have a joint score. We start out at five points. I have to get to 10. Ridley has to get to zero. Every time Ridley misses into the net, I get a point. Every time I miss into the net, Ridley gets a point. All right. So now the score is four. Let's go. Tug of war, baby. No speed ups. Off the bounce. Only out of the air. Oh, God. Three. God. Three. Let's go. Oh, that's two. That was very high. All right. Climbing a mountain. Now the catch is he's at two. If he gets one more point and is at one, to add some pressure, if he loses the next point, it resets to five. So he's on that game winning point. He has to close out or he's punished. Let's go. What's it at? Two, Ridley? Yeah. Okay. I got to pick it up. Hey. Oh my God. All right. That's one. All right. That's what everybody's been waiting for. Yeah. Getting to zero. It's the number of the universe. I think it hasn't been defined. Let's go, Ridley. Number zero. Here we go. Come on. Don't miss. Don't miss, Ridley. Yeah. Now we're back to five. Inexcusable. So that's how that game works. Super fun. Adds pressure. Taking a quick break from the video for one second in between Ridley's training, he has something to tell you. Subscribe. Drill number two is single-handedly responsible for how I got fast hands. I absolutely love this drill and do it in all of my drill sessions. How it works. You're going to line up with your partner in front of you. You're going to hit them a ball. They're going to hit you a dead dink like that. And I have to speed it up. And then we play it out. Let's go. Yeah. Getting good at this drill is the separator that will take you to the next level. Let me explain. When I play with these top pro players, what they do better than anybody is when they speed up the ball, they're ready for the next one. Always. Amateur players, when they speed up the ball, they're caught off guard thinking they hit a winner. And then they react to the next ball. The pros think of it as a one-two punch. The speed up is the one. The two is the put away. Just like in boxing. Never speed up and expect the point to be over. The second thing that's a literal cheat code and allows you to anticipate where he's going to hit the counter attack is something called the triangle effect. It's vital that you understand this. What it means is where you speed up the ball will determine where you put your paddle. If I speed up down the line like this, I can assume that the ball is going to come back to my backhand here or to my body. I can assume it's not going to be on this side of my body. Think of it like a wall. If I have this wall here and I speed up straight ahead, where'd the ball come back to? Straight back to me. If I speed up cross court or cross body on him, where's the ball going to go? Triangle. I sped up there. The ball came here. Exact same concept with this wall. If I attack across body, look where it would have went. Boom, boom. You can use this when you're going against an opponent to anticipate that next shot. Let's put it into action. I'm going to speed up this first ball across Ridley's body. Watch how I prematurely open to my forehand. I'm going to obliterate it. Watch this. Not staged. Did you hear anything I said? No. Okay. Are you ready to go? Absolutely. Is this staged? No, this is not staged everyone. Not staged. I'm going to smoke you. Ready? Come on. Oh, I missed the shot, but you saw it. That is what I'm talking about. That gives me that leg up on my opponent. Drill three is to teach us and help develop our IQ on how to attack and be aggressive on balls in the middle of the court. The year is 2025. Our paddles are faster. You have to be able to attack from all areas of the court to make yourself a threat. Otherwise, your opponent will feel no pressure and have all the confidence in the world. How it works, Ridley is going to feed me a ball. I'm going to hit an aggressive third shot drop and Ridley's going to attack it. After I hit that drop, I'm crashing, looking to start a hands battle on the run. And then we play it out. Drill number four is to work on our defense, especially when we're in sticky situations. How it's going to work, Ridley at the kitchen line is going to feed me a ball. I'm going to hit him a lob and he's going to smash an overhead. And then we're going to play out the point. This drill is phenomenal for really earning your way to that kitchen line and having game-like intensity. Oh, the lob back. Oh, what's one thing you notice I'm doing every time? When I throw up that lob to Ridley and he's slamming it, I'm driving that first ball. I'm not trying to reset off of his overhead. When you watch Ben Johns and Analee Waters play, whenever the opponent lobs them over their head and they run back to get it, if they ever lob it back up, they always drive the next ball. The reason is this gets you in to like a third shot of the game, like a third shot drive, and then you approach. Trying to reset a ball that somebody's cranking is next to impossible. Oh, drill number five is one of Hayden Patroquin's favorite drills that he does. He's ranked number two in the world in men's doubles. He says it has the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to drilling. I just started doing it and I have noticed an immediate improvement in my game. How it works, Ridley is going to serve the ball from there. I'm going to return to him and run to the kitchen. Ridley is going to drive that ball down the line and this is working on me handling that drive like we're unstacking from a point. Oh, my God. Yeah. Thanks for making it to the end of the video. Make sure to comment down below which drill is your favorite. Ridley? Well, all this training, I've been working really hard this week and I'm getting ready for the US Open on Monday and I want to take all this drilling and put it in a competition. I'm fired up. You're ready to compete! Compete! Yes! If you purchase any gear from carbonpickleball.com, like this paddle, this hoodie, or this bag, use my discount code TANNERTIPS for 10% off.