12 Pickleball Drills You Can Do by Yourself (No Partner Needed)
By José Cabrera · October 7, 2026 · 7 min read
The best pickleball drills to do by yourself are serve targets on an empty court, wall dinks and wall volleys, drop shots against a wall line, drop and hit groundstrokes, footwork shuffles along the kitchen line, and ball-tap control drills. A wall, a bucket of balls and 30 minutes, three times a week, improve consistency faster than playing games alone.
Most players improve by playing games, and games are great. But in a game you might hit five third shot drops in an hour. In fifteen minutes alone, you can hit fifty.
Solo drills are the fastest way to make basic shots automatic. You do not need a partner, a coach or even a court for most of them. Here are twelve, grouped by what they train, plus a 30-minute plan and a simple way to track progress.
What you need
- A bucket of balls, ideally 20 to 50
- A wall, garage door or rebound net for most drills
- Chalk or tape to mark a net line on the wall
- An empty court for serving and targets
- A few targets: towels, cones or even paper plates
Mark a line on the wall at net height: about 34 inches for the center of a pickleball net, or 36 inches if you want a little margin. Aim just above it.
Serve drills
1. Target serves
Put a towel in the back third of the service box. Serve 20 balls from the right side, then 20 from the left. Count how many land in the box and how many land on or near the towel.
Goal: 18 of 20 in the box on each side. Then move the towel or make it smaller.
This is the single most useful solo drill in the sport, because the serve is the one shot you only get one try at. The technique behind it is in the step-by-step serving guide.
2. Depth ladder
Serve five balls aiming just past the kitchen, five to the middle of the box, five to the back. It teaches you to control depth on purpose rather than by accident.
Wall drills
3. Wall dinks
Stand about 7 feet from the wall, the same distance as the kitchen. Hit soft dinks that land just above the net line and come back on a bounce. Keep the paddle face open and the swing short.
Goal: 25 in a row without a miss, then 50.
4. Wall volleys
Stand closer, about 5 feet, and volley the ball against the wall without letting it bounce. Keep the paddle in front of you, the wrist firm and the swing tiny.
Goal: 30 in a row. Then alternate forehand and backhand.
5. Backhand only
Repeat drills 3 and 4 with backhand only. Most players are noticeably weaker on this side, and opponents find it fast.
6. Drop shots against the wall
Stand 15 to 20 feet back. Hit soft, arcing shots that clear the net line and fall onto the ground near the wall, like a drop into the kitchen. It is the closest solo version of the third shot drop, which is broken down step by step in the third shot drop guide.
7. Reset drill
Hit the ball hard at the wall, then try to soften the return: absorb the pace and send a soft ball back above the line. It trains the reset, one of the most valuable shots at the intermediate level.
Court drills
8. Drop and hit groundstrokes
Stand at the baseline, drop a ball, let it bounce and hit a groundstroke deep into the opposite court. Aim at a target. Then switch to crosscourt. Useful for returns of serve, which should always be deep.
9. Self-fed third shot drops
From the baseline, drop and hit soft shots that land in the opposite kitchen. Count how many land in. Harder than it sounds, and exactly the skill that moves players from 3.0 to 3.5.
Footwork and control
10. Kitchen line shuffles
Stand at the kitchen line in a ready position, paddle up. Shuffle sideways from one sideline to the other without crossing your feet, staying low. Ten times. It builds the lateral movement that dink rallies require.
11. Split step and recover
From the baseline, take three quick steps forward, split step, freeze in a balanced ready position, then backpedal carefully to the start. Repeat ten times. The split step is how good players arrive balanced for every shot.
12. Paddle taps
Bounce the ball on your paddle face, alternating forehand and backhand faces, while standing still, then while walking. It is a warm-up that builds touch and control. Aim for 50 without dropping it.
A 30-minute solo session
- 5 minutes: paddle taps and kitchen shuffles to warm up
- 5 minutes: wall dinks, forehand and backhand
- 5 minutes: wall volleys and resets
- 5 minutes: drop shots against the wall or self-fed drops on court
- 10 minutes: target serves, 20 from each side, counting
Do this three times a week and you will notice the difference within a month, especially in how few easy points you give away.
Track your progress
Write down three numbers after every session:
- Serves in, out of 20, each side
- Longest wall dink rally
- Longest wall volley rally
Numbers make progress visible, and visible progress keeps you practicing. If you want an honest read on where your game is overall, the pickleball rating calculator takes two minutes and names the two skills to focus on.
Using a ball machine
If you have access to a ball machine, it is the best solo tool there is. Set it to feed:
- Deep balls to practice third shot drops from the baseline
- Balls to the kitchen line to practice dinks and volleys
- Faster balls at your body to practice resets
Start slow and increase speed only when you are consistent.
What solo drills cannot do
They cannot teach you to read an opponent, disguise a shot or work with a partner. Those come from games, and if two friends can join you, there are three-player formats that still feel like a game. What solo drills do is make the basic shots automatic, so that in a game your attention goes to strategy instead of mechanics.
The best mix for most players: solo drills a couple of times a week, games the rest. Then take what you learned into real points, which is where a level-by-level checklist helps decide what to focus on.
If you only have ten minutes
Skip everything else and do two things: ten target serves from each side, then wall dinks until you miss three times. Those two cover the shot you get one attempt at and the shot that decides most rec rallies. Ten minutes a day of that beats an hour once a week.
Safety for solo practice
Warm up first, especially calves and shoulders.
Pick up loose balls. Stepping on one is an easy way to twist an ankle when nobody is there to help.
Wear court shoes, even on a driveway.
Stay hydrated, and do not practice alone in extreme heat.
The short version
A wall, a bucket of balls and 30 minutes are enough. Serve to targets, dink and volley against a wall line at net height, drop and reset, and work on footwork at the kitchen line. Three short sessions a week, with numbers written down, will make your shots automatic faster than playing games alone. If that sounds like your idea of a good afternoon, the collection for people who planned their life around court time has a shirt or a t-shirt for exactly that level of commitment.
Common questions
- How can I practice pickleball by myself?
- Use a wall or garage door for dinks, volleys and drops, an empty court with a bucket of balls for serves and targets, and a driveway for footwork and paddle control drills. A ball machine helps if you have access to one.
- What is the best solo pickleball drill?
- Serving 20 balls in a row to a target in the back third of the service box, from both sides. It trains the shot you get only one attempt at, and you can do it anywhere with a court.
- Can you practice pickleball against a wall?
- Yes. A wall is excellent for dinks, volleys and control. Mark a line on the wall at net height, about 34 to 36 inches, and aim just above it.
- How long should solo pickleball practice be?
- Twenty to thirty minutes of focused practice is enough. Short, frequent sessions three times a week improve consistency more than one long session.
- Do solo drills actually help your pickleball game?
- Yes, especially for consistency, touch and serving. They cannot replace reading an opponent, but they make the basic shots automatic so you can think about strategy in games.
The Obsessed
Six paddles is a normal number of paddles.
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