We Are Practicing Pickleball All Wrong

Most players spend their time improving what they already do well. The fastest improvement often comes from somewhere else. We are practicing pickleball wrong. Today's blog focuses on where the fastest improvements happen and a strategy for better hitting practice. 

The Strange Way Most Players Practice

Most pickleball players have a practice strategy, whether they realize it or not. They tend to spend most of their time on the shots they enjoy. Those shots feel comfortable, produce immediate success, and reinforce confidence. The problem is that the shots we enjoy practicing are usually the shots we already perform well.

What if that is exactly why improvement slows down?

What if most of us are practicing backward?

Imagine two pickleball players. The first player loves driving the ball. He spends most of his practice time hitting drives because they feel good, produce immediate results, and reinforce a skill he already performs well. The second player struggles with resets. She doesn't particularly enjoy practicing them. Progress is slower, mistakes are more common, and success is harder to measure. Yet she still spends a significant portion of her practice time working on them.

A few months later, which player is more likely to have improved?

Most people assume the player who practices more will improve more. But improvement is not determined solely by the amount of practice. It depends on where that practice is invested. One player reinforces a strength, while the other removes a limitation. Those may sound similar, but they often produce very different results.

The Problem With Practicing Strengths

There is nothing wrong with practicing your strengths. In fact, you should maintain and refine your strengths. They are often the reason you win points in the first place, "At Your Present Level". The problem occurs when strengths receive nearly all of your attention.

Most players naturally gravitate toward the parts of the game that feel rewarding. We enjoy practicing shots that make us look good. We enjoy reinforcing skills that already work. We enjoy seeing success. It is human nature to spend time where we feel competent.

The challenge is that strengths often produce diminishing returns. If your drives are already very good, making them slightly better may not significantly change your results. Meanwhile, a weakness in another area of your game may continue to cost you points in every match.

Improvement rarely stops because your strengths are not strong enough. More often than not, improvement stalls when a weakness becomes a bottleneck.

Pickleball Is a Weakest-Link Sport

Most players believe improvement comes from strengthening their strengths. That assumption seems logical because strengths often win points. Yet pickleball behaves less like a collection of independent skills and more like a system. Systems are rarely limited by their strongest component. They are usually limited by their weakest one.

Think of a chain. Its strength is not determined by its strongest link. It is determined by its weakest. Pickleball works in much the same way.

You may have outstanding drives, excellent hand speed, and powerful serves. But if your transition game breaks down under pressure, stronger opponents will eventually find that weakness and force you into it again and again. The same is true for resets, dinks, positioning, patience, shot selection, and decision-making.

At higher levels, opponents become remarkably skilled at identifying where your game is vulnerable. Once they find it, that weakness often becomes the match. This is why improvement often comes from reducing the cost of weaknesses rather than making strengths even stronger.

Where the Fastest Improvement Happens

The greatest opportunities for growth are often hidden inside the skills we avoid. Not because those skills are enjoyable or glamorous, but because they often drive the biggest gains in overall performance.

A player who improves a weakness from below average to above average often experiences a greater competitive benefit than a player who improves an existing strength from very good to excellent. The first player has removed a constraint. The second has merely refined an advantage.

This helps explain why some players improve rapidly while others remain at the same level for years. The fastest improvers are not always practicing more. They are often practicing more honestly. They identify the areas where their game breaks down and deliberately work there, even when the process feels uncomfortable and progress feels slow.

Improvement rarely happens by accident. It usually begins when we become willing to look directly at the parts of our game we would rather avoid.

A Better Formula

If your goal is long-term improvement, consider a different approach to practice.

As a general guideline, spend roughly 60 percent of your practice time developing weaknesses that limit your performance. Spend about 30 percent maintaining and sharpening your strengths. Reserve the remaining 10 percent for experimentation, exploration, and curiosity.

This approach keeps strengths strong while steadily removing the obstacles that prevent further growth. It creates a more complete player, not simply a more specialized one.

A player with fewer weaknesses is often far more dangerous than a player with one extraordinary strength. Extraordinary strengths can win points, but complete players tend to win more matches because opponents have fewer places to attack.

The Real Goal of Practice

Many players think practice is about repeating what works. In reality, practice is often about confronting what doesn't.

Growth rarely happens inside our comfort zone. It happens where frustration, uncertainty, and learning intersect. The shots you avoid practicing often point directly to your greatest opportunity for improvement.

The next time you step onto the court, ask yourself a simple question: Am I practicing what I enjoy, or what I need?

That question often leads to a deeper one: Do I want to win today's practice, or do I want to become a better player?

Those goals are often in conflict. Winning today's practice usually means doing what you already do well. Becoming a better player often means spending time in the areas where you struggle. One feels rewarded immediately. The other compounds over time.

The answer may reveal why your improvement has slowed—or why it is about to accelerate. Because sometimes the biggest breakthrough isn't learning a new shot. It's having the courage to practice the one you've been avoiding.

FLiK IQ

At FLiK Pickleball, we believe improvement starts with understanding. We want to help you see the game differently, think more clearly, and build the skills that make pickleball more rewarding for years to come.

Coach Fred Robinson - Founder
FLiK Pickleball