The Hidden Problem with Pickleball Practice: Why More Reps Don’t Always Mean Better Play

Too Many Balls, Too Few Scenarios: The Hidden Flaw in Rec Practice
Pickleball players love repetition. In every rec group and skills clinic, you’ll see baskets full of balls lined up for feeding. Players hit one drop after another, reset again and again, or fire off dozens of serves in a row. It feels productive. It looks focused. But there’s a growing problem in how recreational players train.

There are too many balls—and too few scenarios.

Repetition without context can lead to surface-level improvement that doesn’t carry over into matches. Players get better at hitting shots in isolation but fail to recognize or use them in the right game situations. Volume becomes the goal. Application gets ignored.

The Repetition Trap
The logic behind hitting 100 dinks or 30 third shot drops in a row is simple: more reps build consistency. And to a point, that’s true. Early in development, any exposure helps build comfort. But without variation, decision-making, or tactical purpose, those reps lose value.

Many players can hit clean, soft dinks for five minutes straight. But during an actual match, their dinks float too high, get rushed, or go into the net. Why? Because they never practiced under pressure or in a real decision-making context.

The Scenario Gap
A scenario is not just a shot. It's a situation—a combination of ball speed, spin, angle, opponent position, and your court position—that shapes how the shot should be used. In match play, scenarios change constantly.

Drills that only focus on executing a specific shot don’t teach players when to use that shot or how to adjust when the situation shifts. They’re missing the context.

Examples of the Scenario Gap:
The third shot drop feels automatic in drills but fails under pressure when an opponent rushes the net or adds spin.

The backhand reset looks clean in practice feeds but breaks down when taken off the run or after a hand battle.

The serve return is solid when fed from a basket, but players miss timing and placement when adjusting for spin and bounce off a real serve.

These breakdowns aren’t about mechanics. They’re about not training the situations those mechanics need to survive.

Why This Happens in Rec Play
There are a few common reasons rec players over-prioritize volume:

1. Ease of Setup
It’s much simpler to feed 20 balls from a basket than to recreate live-point scenarios. Clinics, group sessions, and solo practices often default to repetition because it’s more manageable.

2. Visible Progress
It feels good to improve during practice. Hitting 10 clean forehand drops in a row is satisfying. But this kind of progress is misleading if it doesn't transfer under stress.

3. Lack of Role-Specific Drills
Most players don’t design drills around situations—such as "you’re transitioning and your opponent is at the net." Instead, they isolate technique and assume it will hold up when inserted into a rally. Often, it doesn't.

4. Fear of Messy Practice
Scenario-based drills tend to be less tidy. They involve mistakes, adaptation, and less predictable outcomes. That’s exactly why they work. But it’s also why many players avoid them.

What Quality Practice Looks Like
Improving match performance requires drilling fewer isolated shots and more match-relevant situations. That means:

Practicing under conditions that resemble game play

Introducing pressure, time limits, or variable feeds

Creating scenarios that demand decision-making, not just execution

Examples of Scenario-Based Drills:
Transition Game: One team starts at the kitchen, the other at the baseline. Baseline team must drop and transition forward while the kitchen team applies pressure.

Dink and Attack: Dink crosscourt with a rule that you can attack only after your third dink. This forces setup and decision timing.

Serve + Return + Third Shot Game: Play only the first three shots of a point, then reset. It isolates the early structure of points without overextending into full rallies.

One-Shot Choice Drill: Feed a medium-paced ball and require the player to choose between drop, drive, or lob based on court position and body posture.

Each of these drills contains a scenario, not just a shot.

Less Is More (When It’s Specific)
Improvement doesn’t always come from more touches. It often comes from better ones. A player who hits 30 thoughtful, well-structured shots in varied scenarios will usually outperform someone who mindlessly drills 100.

Specificity builds awareness. Volume alone builds comfort—and sometimes complacency.

Conclusion
More balls don’t equal more improvement if they’re hit in a vacuum. Rec players who want real results need to shift their focus from quantity to context. Create drills that resemble the real challenges you face in matches. Make decisions. Practice pressure. Learn the shot and the situation.

Because in the end, pickleball is a game of scenarios—not repetitions.