A partner practice session for newer players, built from drills published by coaches Sarah Ansboury and Mark Renneson: dinks, contact point, and how to make practice carry over to real games.
Read the guideThis is a structured partner drill session for beginner-to-intermediate pickleball players who want to build real skills — better dink control, sharper serving targets, and a cleaner understanding of court position. You will walk away with a repeatable framework for running focused practice and a simple way to track whether you are actually improving.
The session draws on drills and principles published by coach Sarah Ansboury of the Sarah Ansboury Pickleball Academy and coach Mark Renneson, covering dinking, serving targets, the two-bounce rule, and how to adjust difficulty as you improve. You only need one partner and a court. Optional cones or chalk help mark targets.
This partner practice session works well for beginner-to-intermediate players who want structured improvement rather than casual rallying. It is designed around specific shots and court control tasks.
Essential equipment is just paddles and balls. For marking drill areas, optional practice cones or schoolyard chalk do the job. Sarah Ansboury, coach and founder of the Sarah Ansboury Pickleball Academy, prefers cones because you can easily tell when you step on one, and they collapse rather than trip you. Whatever you use, check with your venue before setting up markers on the court.
Start with cooperative drills that build touch and control around the non-volley zone (NVZ). The NVZ extends seven feet from the net on each side of the court, (USA Pickleball rule 3.A.4.c), and every volley — hitting the ball before it bounces — has to start from outside it (rule 11.A).
If dinking is brand new to you, Ansboury starts new players without a paddle at all: toss the ball over the net with the same body rotation and weight shift you would use to throw, then make exactly the same movement with the paddle from the kitchen line.
Next, her position drill. Ansboury says dinking is so important she has considered writing an entire book about it. Place cones about 18 inches behind the NVZ line (she is clear: 18 inches from the line, not from your heels). Your goal is to always hit the ball in front of you without giving up your position at the line.
Many newer players step back to let the ball bounce, but this drill helps you stay aggressive and hold your ground. As your skill improves, move the cones closer and closer to the NVZ line to raise the standard.
Good practice sessions are focused, as coach Mark Renneson writes — they identify a particular situation or skill and work on it repeatedly. That principle applies directly to serving and returning. Set up a target area for your serves or returns within the opposing court and stick to it.
Renneson offers a useful focus check: of the last 20 balls you hit, how many were the exact shot you are supposed to be working on? If fewer than 10, the drill is not focused enough and you should simplify the setup or tighten the task. The separate question is how often you are succeeding at the shot itself — Renneson puts the sweet spot for challenge at between 60% and 70% success. Consistently above 70%, make your target smaller. Consistently below 60%, make it larger or simpler.
When a shot goes wrong, Renneson's first question is: where was my impact point? Ideally you want to hit the ball out in front of your body, between you and the net, as high as possible without overstretching or being too cramped.
The two-bounce rule (USA Pickleball Rule 10.A) is fundamental: the serve and the return of serve must each bounce once before being returned. It is a fault if the receiver volleys the serve before it bounces (Rule 10.A.1), and it is a fault if the serving side volleys the return before it bounces (Rule 10.A.2).
Practice this by running controlled rallies after the initial two bounces. Start a point, let the serve and return bounce, then focus on keeping the rally going with controlled dinks and groundstrokes.
For cooperative dink progression, try Ansboury's Drill to Create Patterns. Put one target about halfway between the net and the NVZ line (roughly 3.5 feet from the net) and another just inside the NVZ line. Your goal is to vary the depth of each dink, alternating from the midway target to the line target and back. Once that feels steady, Ansboury suggests letting your partner call the pattern, and placing targets that make them move side to side and up and back.
Throughout all of this, remember that all volleys must be initiated from outside the non-volley zone (USA Pickleball Rule 11.A). It is a fault when the volleying player, or anything in contact with the volleying player, touches the NVZ during the act of volleying (Rule 11.A.1).
Keep a simple note of each session: which drills you ran, your focus count, your success rate and what you changed.
Renneson gives four ways to adjust a drill that is too easy or too hard: change the target (bigger is easier, smaller is harder), change the feed (slower and friendlier, or harder to handle), add movement (standing still is easier than chasing the ball), and once you have the skill, add consequences for misses so you practice under a little pressure.
Keep drills realistic, too. In a dinking drill, a ball that sits up high is one you would hit hard in a game, so dinking it back trains a bad decision. Renneson's fix: catch the high ball and restart the drill.
And if a partner shows you a drill that works, write it down. As Renneson puts it, the best coaches he knows are excellent drill thieves.
Use Mark Renneson's focus check: out of the last 20 balls you hit, how many were the exact shot you meant to practice? Fewer than 10 means the drill is mostly something else and needs changing. Then check your success rate: he puts the sweet spot at 60 to 70%.
Below about 60% success, make it easier: a bigger target, a slower and friendlier feed, or less running. Renneson's point is that a drill that is too hard has you failing as often as you succeed, which is not practice anyone improves from.
No. Paddles, balls and a partner are enough. Cones or chalk help mark targets; Sarah Ansboury prefers cones because you can feel when you step on one and they collapse, so there is no risk of falling. Check with your venue before marking the court.
Yes, you can be in the non-volley zone any time, just not while volleying. Under USA Pickleball rule 11.A every volley has to start outside the zone, and touching the zone during the act of volleying is a fault (rule 11.A.1). Let the ball bounce first if you are in the kitchen.
I'm still building my own practice habits, and the simplest takeaway from both coaches is to pick one skill, keep most of your balls on it, and make it just hard enough that you miss about a third of the time. When you want a game to try it in, the Play near you section lists places to play, and the rules guide covers the two-bounce and kitchen rules in plain English.
Every rule, drill and fact on this page comes from these sources. We link to them so you can check anything yourself.
