The Figure 8 Dinking Drill

This drill from PrimeTime Pickleball will help you dink more consistently and with better control. One player works on controlled down the line dinks while the player on the opposite side works on cross court dinks. You have to hustle and move aside to side while controlling you dinks so it is fantastic practice. Once both players have had sufficient practice hitting their shots, they switch roles so the first player now works on cross court dinking while the other player works on their down the line dinks.

This drill can be quite challenging for novice players so there are several options shown above. You can start with a smaller area at first so that the distance that you’re running from side to side is shorter. Once you and your partner can execute a series of controlled and consistent dinks in the smaller area, you can increase the level of difficulty by lengthening the distance.

I like to start this drill by using only half of the pickleball court and using the outside line and the T in middle as my boundaries. I will only do full court figure 8 drills if I know that my partner and I can handle it. Otherwise, you might just spend more time chasing and picking up balls than actually drilling.

This drill is fantastic not just for improving your ability to control your dinks but it’s also great from a fitness perspective because the hustling from side to side offers great cardio. Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried this drill before and provide some thoughts on it. Were you able to execute the most challenging level successfully? If not, what were some of the modifications you made besides making the coverage area smaller?

Finally, thank you to Nicole Havlicek and Jordan Briones for sharing their knowledge through these helpful videos on YouTube. If you found this video helpful, you can subscribe to PrimeTime Pickleball videos here.

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