Fun Pickleball Drills: Coach AJ’s Favorite Drill Games
The pickleball drills I enjoy most do not feel like repetitive practice. They have a score, a challenge, a little pressure, and enough freedom to make you read the ball instead of mindlessly repeating the same shot.
If I’m being honest, I used to think drilling was about as fun as watching paint dry. Open play was my thing. But I also reached a point where playing more games was not fixing the same mistakes that kept showing up.
What changed my mind was discovering that practice could feel like a game. Give me a target, a score to chase, an opponent trying to stop me, or a ridiculous challenge that gets harder every time I miss, and suddenly drilling becomes competitive, frustrating, funny, and addictive.
These are not the only drills worth playing. They are the ones I keep coming back to when I want practice to feel less like homework: fun pickleball drills and drill games for partners, small groups, competitive scoring, and game-like pressure.
Need Help Deciding What to Practice?
Before choosing a drill, you need to know what is actually breaking down in your game. Coach Sid’s complete guide to pickleball drills explains how to diagnose the mistake, choose the right exercise, progress it, and test whether the correction transfers into real points.
Use that guide when you need a practice plan. Use this page when you already know what you want to work on and want a drill that feels more like playing.
My Favorite Fun Pickleball Drills
The most fun pickleball drills usually include scoring, pressure, movement, shot choices, or a challenge that gives the rally a clear purpose. My favorites include:
- Dink Game to 7 for touch and patience
- Mini Skinny for placement, angles, and court control
- Cat and Mouse for soft hands and kitchen movement
- One-Up One-Back for earning your way through transition
- 7–11 for drops, drives, resets, and game-like decisions
- Drive and Counter for attacking and defending pace
- Chaos Box for reactions, communication, and controlled panic
- 60 in a Row for consistency and self-imposed pressure
Most of these are partner drills, but several can be adjusted for three or four players. You still get the repetitions, but now a lazy ball costs something.
What Makes a Pickleball Drill Fun?
A drill does not become fun just because someone calls it a game. The best drill games usually contain at least a few of these elements:
- A clear objective: Win the kitchen, reach a target, survive a streak, or force a specific type of ball.
- A score: Even cooperative practice feels different when something is being counted.
- Real choices: You have to decide whether to dink, drive, drop, reset, speed up, or defend.
- Movement: The drill makes you solve the shot while moving rather than standing in one spot.
- Consequences: A miss ends the rally, resets the count, costs a point, or gives your partner an advantage.
- Escalation: The game can become harder when it starts feeling too comfortable.
That does not mean every repetition should become a full competition. Sometimes you need slow, cooperative reps to clean up contact. But once the basic movement is stable, adding a score or live decision can make the practice more useful and much easier to stay engaged with.
My rule: Score the behavior, not just the rally. If players can win while avoiding the shot they came to practice, the scoring system is rewarding the wrong thing.
Dinking Games That Punish Lazy Touch
1. Dink Game to 7
This is one of the easiest ways to turn basic dinking into a competitive pickleball drill game. Both players start at the kitchen line and play points using only dinks.
How to Play
- Start straight ahead or cross-court.
- Every ball must bounce before it is returned.
- No speedups, volleys, or attacks.
- Play each rally out and award one point to the winner.
- First player to 7 wins.
The score changes the rally. One thing I notice quickly is that players who look perfectly patient during cooperative dinks start forcing balls once every miss costs a point. Because attacks are removed, the only way out is better touch, height, patience, and placement.
Best use: Play two games to 7—one straight ahead and one cross-court—then allow speedups in a final game to see whether the patience survives.
My variation: Award two points when a player wins by moving the opponent off the court and finishing into the open space. That rewards construction instead of waiting for a random miss.
Here is what the Dink Game to 7 looks like once the rally becomes competitive. Watch how the score changes shot selection and makes patience harder than it sounds.
2. Mini Skinny
Mini Skinny is played on one half of the court. The smaller space creates sharper angles, exposes poor footwork, and forces you to control the paddle face instead of escaping with power.
How to Play
- Use one half of the court, either straight ahead or cross-court.
- Start both players at the kitchen line.
- Play normal points inside the smaller court.
- Allow speedups and volleys after a set number of dinks, such as three or five.
- Play to 7 or 11.
This is one of my favorite partner drills because it moves naturally from cooperative touch into real shot selection. The smaller court also exposes a habit that full-court play can hide: getting pulled wide, admiring the shot, and failing to recover before the next ball arrives.
For newer players: Keep the first three balls cooperative before opening the point. Stronger players can require five dinks or make the first speedup land below the opponent’s waist.
3. Cat and Mouse
Cat and Mouse is sneaky hard and sneaky fun. Both players stay at the kitchen line, and every ball must land inside the opponent’s non-volley zone.
How to Play
- One player starts with a soft dink.
- Every return must land inside the opponent’s kitchen.
- A ball in the net, beyond the kitchen line, or outside the sideline loses the rally.
- Players may move each other straight ahead, wide, or toward the middle.
- Play to 7, or count the longest legal rally.
The target is so small that you cannot hide a stiff hand or a lazy first step. The real challenge is changing direction without lifting the ball high enough to attack. A dink that looks acceptable in an ordinary rally can miss this target completely.
Make it harder: After five legal dinks, either player may speed up—but only if the ball still lands inside the kitchen. That turns a touch game into a reaction challenge without abandoning control.
4. One-Up One-Back
One player starts at the kitchen line and the other starts deeper in the court. The back player has to earn the kitchen instead of being allowed to walk forward after one soft ball.
How to Play
- The kitchen player begins at the NVZ line.
- The other player begins at the baseline or transition zone.
- Start the rally with a cooperative feed.
- The deeper player tries to reach the kitchen safely using drops, resets, drives, or combinations.
- The kitchen player tries to keep the opponent back without ending every rally immediately.
- Play to 7, then switch positions.
The two players are solving completely different problems. One has to earn space instead of drifting forward behind a ball that did not deserve movement. The other has to defend the advantage without turning every ball into an attempted winner.
Use this instead of 7–11 when you want to isolate transition movement and repeat the same positional problem without the rest of a full point taking over.
5. Drop and Roll Challenge
Drop and Roll can become repetitive when it is treated as an endless cooperative exchange. Adding targets and scoring turns it into a more engaging partner challenge.
Setup
- Baseline player: Hits drops into the kitchen.
- Kitchen player: Lets the ball bounce and rolls it deep.
Scoring Variation
- The baseline player earns one point for a drop that lands in the kitchen and cannot be attacked.
- The kitchen player earns one point for a roll that lands beyond a marked depth target.
- A ball in the net or outside the target area earns nothing.
- First player to 10 wins, then switch roles.
The score keeps both players honest. The dropper cannot simply float the ball into the court, and the kitchen player cannot slap a roll without controlling its depth.
Define the target before starting: A successful drop should land in the kitchen low enough that the kitchen player cannot attack it comfortably. A roll should clear the net with shape and still reach the marked depth.
6. The 7–11 Pickleball Drill
This is probably my favorite drill on the page. The 7–11 pickleball drill creates an uneven starting position, unequal scoring goals, and enough freedom to play real points.
Setup and Scoring
- Kitchen player: Starts at the NVZ line and plays to 11.
- Baseline player: Starts deep and plays to 7.
How the Drill Works
- Begin with a feed or serve-and-return sequence that places one player deep and one player at the kitchen.
- Play the point live.
- The baseline player may drop, drive, reset, or use a combination to work forward.
- The kitchen player tries to maintain the positional advantage, punish weak balls, and resist overattacking.
- The kitchen player wins at 11; the baseline player wins at 7.
- Switch positions after each game.
The uneven score reflects the positional advantage. The baseline player has the harder job, so that player needs fewer points. Unlike One-Up One-Back, which isolates the work of moving through transition, 7–11 keeps the same positional problem alive inside a full competitive point.
My favorite variation: The baseline player earns a bonus point for reaching the kitchen under control and then winning the rally. That rewards the entire transition instead of one lucky passing shot.
Hands Drills That Get Uncomfortable Fast
7. Cooperative Hands Challenge
Start with controlled volleys at the kitchen line, but give the rally a target instead of hitting endlessly.
- Begin at 50 percent speed.
- Count how many consecutive volleys both players can control.
- After reaching 20, increase the pace.
- After reaching 30, allow one player to change direction.
- After reaching 40, allow both players to counter when the ball rises above net height.
Starting slowly gives you time to see whether your paddle is actually ready and whether your contact stays in front. Once the pace rises, there is nowhere to hide either mistake. Increase the difficulty only after both players can stay balanced through the easier version.
Do not rush the count: If either player is reaching, backing away, or losing the ready position, stay at the current speed instead of pretending faster automatically means better.
8. Drive and Counter
Drive and Counter is a simple offense-versus-defense game. One player attacks from deeper in the court while the kitchen player blocks, resets, or counters.
How to Play
- The driver begins near the baseline or transition zone.
- The defender begins at the kitchen line.
- The driver attacks a controlled feed.
- The defender chooses to block, reset, or counter.
- Play the rally live after the first exchange.
- Switch roles after five or ten points.
Suggested Scoring
- The driver earns one point for forcing an error or weak pop-up.
- The defender earns one point for neutralizing the attack and gaining control of the rally.
- The defender earns two points for a clean counter winner.
This scoring keeps the defender from trying to counter every ball. Sometimes the correct win is simply taking the pace away and surviving. If every defensive ball becomes a counter attempt, the drill is rewarding aggression instead of judgment.
Start with a known location: Let the defender know where the first drive is going. Remove that restriction only after the block or reset stays controlled.
9. Chaos Box
Chaos Box is exactly what it sounds like. It is fast, unpredictable, exhausting, and usually funny—at least until you are the one trapped in the middle of it.
One of my favorite memories is my dad feeding balls to me and my sister so quickly that he looked like a cartoon character trying to keep up with his own drill.
Setup
- Two players begin at the kitchen line.
- A third player stands off the court with a basket of balls.
- The feeder sends balls to different speeds, heights, and locations.
Possible Feeds
- Hard balls toward the feet
- Body shots
- Wide dinks
- High attackable balls
- Balls through the middle
- Feeds that force both players to communicate
How to Score It
- The kitchen team earns one point for every five consecutive controlled returns.
- The feeder earns one point for every error or communication breakdown.
- Play for 45 seconds, then rotate.
- The player with the most points after all three rotations wins.
Chaos Box is not the place to perfect a new swing. It is where you find out whether your reactions, paddle preparation, movement, and partner communication survive when everything gets messy.
Keep it useful: Forty-five seconds is enough. Rotate before fatigue turns every return into a desperate swing, and require the two kitchen players to call middle balls out loud.
Consistency Drills With Something at Stake
10. The 60-in-a-Row Challenge
The concept is simple: choose one shot and do not stop until you complete 60 successful repetitions in a row. Miss number 59? Start over at zero.
That is what makes it brutal. The pressure does not come from an opponent. It comes from knowing that one careless ball can erase several minutes of work.
Skills You Can Use
- Cross-court dinks
- Straight-ahead dinks
- Third-shot drops
- Transition resets
- Controlled volleys
- Forehand and backhand groundstrokes
Make It More Interesting
- Complete 20 straight ahead, 20 cross-court, and 20 to the middle.
- Alternate forehand and backhand on every shot.
- Require the ball to land inside a marked target.
- Add movement after every fifth repetition.
- Finish the challenge with a live point.
Completing 60 cooperative shots does not automatically mean the skill will appear in a game. It does reveal whether your contact and concentration can survive a longer sequence without breaking down. Do not protect the count with unrealistic, harmless balls just to reach 60. If the quality disappears, the streak has stopped measuring the skill you came to practice.
How I Make Almost Any Pickleball Drill More Competitive
You usually do not need a new drill. You need a rule that makes the old one harder to cheat.
Add a Score
Count successful targets, rallies won, transitions completed, or consecutive controlled shots. A visible score gives both players something concrete to chase.
Score the Behavior, Not Just the Rally
If the goal is reaching the kitchen, award a bonus point for reaching it under control. If the goal is resetting, award points for neutralizing pace—not merely winning the rally. A player should not be able to avoid the target skill and still win the game.
Limit the Easy Escape
Remove the shortcut that lets a player dodge the problem. Require a certain number of dinks, begin every rally from transition, or limit where the first attack may go. The restriction should force the skill to appear without turning the drill into a scripted sequence.
Create Uneven Roles
Different starting positions create different problems. One player might begin at the kitchen while the other begins deep. One attacks while the other defends. One needs seven points while the advantaged player needs eleven.
Escalate Only After Success
Do not make the drill harder just because faster looks more advanced. Add movement, choices, pace, or scoring only after the players can control the simpler version.
End With Live Play
After working on the isolated situation, play several normal points and look for the same behavior. A drill proves you can execute the shot when you know it is coming. Live points show whether you recognize the moment without being told.
Choose the Drill That Matches the Problem
| Problem to Put Under Pressure | Drill Game to Try | Players | Main Challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dinks break down when the score gets tight | Dink Game to 7 | 2 | Patience and placement |
| Poor recovery after being pulled wide | Mini Skinny | 2 | Angles and court control |
| Changing direction without popping the ball up | Cat and Mouse | 2 | Soft hands and kitchen movement |
| Moving forward before the ball earns it | One-Up One-Back | 2 | Transition discipline |
| Drops or rolls lack usable quality | Drop and Roll Challenge | 2 | Height and depth control |
| Poor decisions from a positional disadvantage | 7–11 | 2 | Drops, drives, resets, and movement |
| Hands lose control as pace rises | Cooperative Hands Challenge | 2 | Paddle readiness and tracking |
| Every hard ball becomes a counter attempt | Drive and Counter | 2 | Defensive judgment |
| Communication disappears under pressure | Chaos Box | 3 | Reactions and teamwork |
| Contact breaks down late in a long sequence | 60 in a Row | 2 | Consistency and concentration |
Choose the drill based on the problem you want to put under pressure that day. Some sessions need patience. Some need transition work. Some days you just want to laugh while a feeder tries to overwhelm you with a basket of balls.
Fun Drill Games Still Need a Purpose
A fun drill is not automatically the right drill. You can become excellent at a game that has little connection to the mistake costing you points.
If you keep leaving returns short, another hands battle probably will not solve it. If you cannot reach the kitchen, spending the entire session playing dink games skips the problem that happens before the dink rally begins.
That is why this page and Coach Sid’s guide serve different purposes. My list gives you enjoyable ways to practice. Coach Sid’s DRILL framework and complete practice guide walks you through diagnosing the problem, choosing the right exercise, increasing the difficulty, linking the skill to real situations, and testing whether it transfers into points.
Frequently Asked Questions About Fun Pickleball Drills
Fun two-player pickleball drills include Dink Game to 7, Mini Skinny, Cat and Mouse, One-Up One-Back, 7–11, Drive and Counter, and the 60-in-a-Row Challenge. Each adds scoring, pressure, movement, or a clear objective to partner practice.
Add a score, define a target behavior, create consequences for mistakes, and give each player a clear objective. Bonus points can reward the skill you want to develop, such as reaching the kitchen under control or successfully resetting an attack.
In the 7–11 drill, one player begins at the kitchen and plays to 11 while the other begins near the baseline and plays to 7. The deeper player works on drops, drives, resets, and moving forward while the kitchen player tries to maintain the positional advantage.
Drive and Counter is a useful two-player drill for attacking, blocking, resetting, and countering pace. Chaos Box is a faster three-player option that adds unpredictable feeds, movement, communication, and reaction pressure.
Yes, but the rules and pace should match their control level. Begin cooperatively, use a larger target, limit attacks, and add scoring only after the basic rally can be maintained. Competition should increase focus without destroying the skill being practiced.
Adjust the starting positions, scoring targets, allowed shots, or bonus points. The stronger player can begin deeper, play to a higher score, use a smaller target, or earn points only by winning with the skill being practiced.
Most competitive drill games work well in short rounds: two games to 7, five to ten points per role, or 30 to 60 seconds for a fast feeding drill. Stop or change the drill when technique becomes sloppy, the scoring no longer rewards the target skill, or both players are simply surviving the count.
Yes. Two-player drills can rotate winners, use two courts, or become doubles games with the same scoring restriction. Chaos Box can use two kitchen players, one feeder, and one resting player who rotates in after each timed round.
Use a controlled version of Dink Game to 7, Mini Skinny, or the Cooperative Hands Challenge before open play. Begin below full speed and focus on balance, contact, and movement. Chaos Box and 60 in a Row are better saved for a focused practice session.
Make Practice Feel Like Playing
I still love open play. I still enjoy competing more than standing in one spot and repeating the same shot forever. The difference is that I no longer think those are the only two choices.
The best drill games do not disguise repetition. They give each repetition a consequence. Dink Game to 7, Mini Skinny, Cat and Mouse, 7–11, Drive and Counter, Chaos Box, and 60 in a Row each put a different mistake under pressure.
Choose the game that matches the problem, compete honestly, and adjust the rules when the challenge becomes too easy. When you are not sure what your game actually needs, use Coach Sid’s DRILL framework to diagnose the problem before choosing your next session.
See you on the court.
