Blog: Order On The Court: You’ll find joy in repetition drills

Repetition drills build a solid foundation of consistency

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Hit, hit, bend down lower, hit, hit, hit…forehand…backhand…good technique. 

The joy of repetition in pickleball training can be found in practices and drills that feature accuracy and control, hard wiring the correct technique for easy use when it really matters in game play.

In my first blog I touched on the importance of repetition in process improvement…in this case developing consistency on the courts.

 Although becoming the  “Roger Federer of my public school’s red brick wall” by hitting it with a tennis ball 10,000 times was tongue in cheek, in fact it’s an appropriate metaphor for a specific approach to developing a better all-around court game. 

And it highlights a major departure point in early stroke development among pickleball players. Those who embrace the monotony of repetition, in developing the perfect groundstroke, and those who don’t.

In this blog, The Joy of Repetition, I focus on the importance of Repetition Drills to hard wire technique in hitting pickleballs and building your consistency to bring “Order in the Court”. 

It starts by acknowledging good pickleball players aren’t born with any unique skill set that makes them particularly effective in playing the game. Tall and thin, short and stocky, fast and agile, slow and accurate, pickleball is the great equalizer for players of all builds and sizes.

That’s a good reason to love the game. It respects effort and rewards the discipline of drills and practices. 

There is no one ideal body type for hitting a pickleball. I see that everyday when I’m running drills for Play To Win students. Athletic types can be humbled while they run around the court in frantic motion while slow and steady can win the day when it comes to the discipline of hitting the perfect 3rd shot drop. 

Slow the swing, bend your knees, lift with the large muscles of the leg, low to high, contact in front of body, lifting the ball high over net.

While it’s true some players are “naturally gifted” with attributes such as excellent hand to eye coordination, I’ve learned most of these super powers are imagined. Behind every excellent player, is a backroom of disciplined practice accompanied by a love of repetition.

There are outliers, but very few, something I’ve learned from training competitive players over the years. Some are naturally gifted, most are not and have been forced to compensate with repetition and hard work.Which should be encouraging for anyone new to pickleball.

It’s important information that bears repeating…repetition. We all have it within ourselves to become really good players if we leave our self-doubts at the table (“I’m too slow, I’m too short, “I don’t have a good backhand”) and focus on the things that have the potential to becoming really good at the game — repetition through practice and drills.

This is possibly the most important information I give to new students when they join Play To Win Pickleball lessons.

I love the lesson scenario when we start on the forehand and I’m at the Kitchen Line with a bucket of balls, hitting underhands to the player at the baseline.

“Ok, let’s begin.” 

Hit, hit, hit. Observation. Hit, hit, hit. Correction. Hit, hit, hit. Compliment. Hit, hit, hit. Switch to backhands. And over again.

The challenge for developing pickleball players is finding the opportunity for practising using Repetition Drills. That fact is, players want to play. And they do, often at the expense of practice.

Game play, either recreational or competitive, with its “Chaos of the Courts”, doesn’t easily allow for skill development in basic technique. That requires repetition in a controlled environment and a patient partner, perhaps a instructor who can feed 50, 100, 200 balls over the net.

Hit, hit, hit, back and forth. Correction. Hit, hit, hit. Over again. And again, and again. Five, 10, 15 sessions, working on groundstrokes, serves, service returns, drop shots, dinks, slices, topspins. 

You don’t have to love Repetition Drills to have the discipline to find the opportunity to actually do them, but it sure helps. 

I, for one, find Joy in the discipline of repetition. I like work that challenges, but can gradually be perfected over time, like a fine wine. The best things in life, like the reward you get from playing a challenging pickleball game, and performing at your best level, take effort and practise, and patience. 

It’s fair. To buckle down and get really good at something by doing the same thing, over and over again until it’s perfect. The perfect forehand or an exquisite one handed backhand from the baseline. That’s what I think about when I close my eyes and think about pickleball play. 

Not winning or losing a game. Over, done, time to move on, not dwell on the results of a competitive endeavour. 

But savour the joy of a job well done. Because of all the repetition, the preparation of building my game, one ball, one stroke, one drill at a time. 

Repetition Drills. Try them the next time you're out on the court with a partner or instructor. You have my promise they work, and they’re worth it.

See you on the courts.