Six Pickleball Drills That Feel Unfair Build Footwork And Touch

• The Dink details six training drills from an Aylex Pickleball Academy session in which a badminton pro trains with Coach Brandon.
• The drills cover lateral footwork, single-leg stability, hand-eye tracking, dink recovery, singles coverage, and composure against hard feeds.
• A focused session can run 60 to 90 minutes, including warm-up, and finishes with live point play.

Why Comfortable Practice Hides How Ready You Really Are

Practice that stays smooth and predictable can give players a false sense of how ready they are for a real match. The Dink makes that case in a training piece published October 13, 2026. Players rally well in practice, the article says, then fall apart when someone pulls them wide, jams them at their feet, or pops a ball up while they stand at the baseline.

The six drills in the article come from Aylex Pickleball Academy on YouTube, where a badminton pro goes through a professional training session with Coach Brandon. The big lesson, according to The Dink, is that the drills that feel unfair are the ones that prepare you for the game.

The article also answers a question many racket sport players ask. Is pickleball just a slower version of badminton? No, it says. The video starts with the badminton pro having heard that pickleball is easy, and within minutes basic hand-eye drills and low, sustained leg work showed otherwise. The sport asks for a mix of soft touch at the kitchen, lateral recovery, and the ability to stay low for long stretches.

Start With A Warm-Up Built Around Footwork

The Dink says a warm-up that targets lateral footwork and single-leg balance should come first, given the lunges and side-to-side recovery in pickleball. Coach Brandon builds his around two pieces: shuffles and single-leg work. Both prepare players for the awkward positions that show up in points.

The first drill is shuffle and cross-over footwork. Start on one side of the court and shuffle across, add a cross-over step in front, then shuffle back. The goal is comfort moving sideways while staying balanced and in control. The article says to keep going until your legs feel warm and your movement feels automatic.

The second drill is single-leg jumps. Jump from one leg to the other, forward and back, then repeat laterally. Players can also switch between landing on the same leg and the opposite leg. The article says to spend a few minutes on this before hitting a ball. It builds the single-leg stability needed when lunging for a wide dink, especially in singles.

Hand-Eye Work Trains The Brain As Much As The Hands

Hand-eye work trains the brain to track and receive the ball, which The Dink calls the foundation of every volley, block, and reset. The badminton pro, identified in the article as Alex, admitted this was the part he struggled with most, and a catch-based drill nearly beat him. Coach Brandon explained it is as much about stimulating the brain as it is about the hands.

The third drill is the two-ball toss and catch. Throw and catch two balls at the same time, one in each hand. The aim is to track both balls and stay calm while your attention splits.

Once that feels comfortable, the article offers progressions. In the through-the-legs version, pass the ball under one leg and catch it with the opposite hand. In the drop-and-catch version, release a ball from up top and catch it on the way down. The article also mentions juggling, noting that several pro players can juggle and calling it one of the best ways to build tracking skills.

The Dink admits it looks silly, and says that is fine. Hand-eye work is cheap, needs no court, and pays off at the kitchen line, where reaction time decides points. The article adds that a small version can be built at home with one ball.

The Cone-Tap Dink Builds Recovery

The fourth drill is the cone-tap dink. A continuous cross-court dink drill with a tap cone builds the lateral recovery that gets exposed when opponents pull a player out of position.

Set two cones across the net. One is a target to hit, and the other is a spot you tap with your foot before returning to position. Both players start in the same place and try to hit toward the target while focusing on lateral movement and recovery. The article describes it as a lot of squatting and a lot of legs.

Coach Brandon aims for at least five minutes per side, about 10 minutes of continuous work. The article says players who can go longer should.

Singles Coverage Shows Where You Run Out Of Gas

The fifth drill is two-sided singles coverage. A partner feeds a ball near a target on one side, then immediately feeds the other side. The player runs, hits, recovers, and repeats.

According to the article, Alex called the drill easy right up until the balls started coming. Five-minute sets get tiring fast, it says, and the pressure to make every shot is the point.

The Dink also answers whether singles practice helps a doubles game. Yes, it says, as singles forces a player to cover ground, chase balls, and make shots under pressure. Coach Brandon pointed out that doubles is less cardio, but the same skills apply, as a player still has to run down a lob or recover from a wide pull. His line, as the article puts it, was simple: if you feel calm in singles, doubles gets easier.

Seven-Eleven With Unfair Feeds

The sixth drill is the one The Dink calls the most valuable idea in the video. An unfair drill is one where the feed is deliberately harder than a normal game ball, so players practice composure and decision making in bad situations. Most 7-Eleven style games feed a nice, easy ball, the article says, which teaches very little.

In this version, one player stands at the baseline while the other stands at the non-volley line and hits balls down at them. Every point is live, so the player wants to win, but must start from the back.

Coach Brandon feeds hard, awkward balls instead of friendly ones. Alex said he did not even know how to hit the first one. After about four tries, he was already adjusting. The Dink calls that the benefit: players learn to handle a popup or a jammed ball without panic.

The emotional side counts as much as the technical side, the article says. When a feed feels unfair and you start counting points, you can spiral into thinking you did not deserve that. The advice is to drop that thought and focus on what you can do in the moment.

How To Build Your Own Session

The Dink recommends a simple order: warm up, hand-eye work, targeted drills, pressure games, then live points. Its template looks like this:

• Warm-up (5 to 10 minutes): shuffles, cross-overs, and single-leg jumps.
• Hand-eye work (5 minutes): two-ball toss, through the legs, and drop and catch.
• Cone-tap dinking (10 minutes): 5 minutes per side, continuous.
• Singles coverage (5 minutes): feed to both sides and recover.
• 7-Eleven with unfair feeds: live points from the baseline.
• Skinny singles: full points to close the session.

The article says players who want more structure for different levels can start there and adjust the clock to their fitness. A focused session can run 60 to 90 minutes, including warm-up, it says.

The Dink advises finishing with live point play, such as skinny singles on a half court, so every skill from the session gets tested together. Alex noticed right away that his legs were burning from staying low. The article says that is the part that breaks down late in tournaments: posture slumps and players stand up straighter when fatigue sets in. Practicing with intensity teaches the body to hold form when it is tired.

For beginners, the article’s answer to the best first drill is a lateral shuffle warm-up and a simple cross-court dink drill, which build balance and control without needing a partner who hits hard. Its closing point is that unfair feeds recreate the pressure of real matches, like popups and jammed shots, and train players to stay composed and focus on what they can control.

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