Confessions of a Recovering Drill-Hater

Let me set the scene. A few years ago, back when we first picked up paddles at Riverside Park, I was that player. You know the one. The player who rolled her eyes when my husband, Craig, suggested we spend a half-hour practicing before jumping into a match. I didn't want to stand there and work on my backhand. I was wildly impatient, and I just wanted to play.

Craig, I know you’re reading this, and I can already hear you laughing. Yes, you were right.

He used to drag me onto the court just to drill our dinks, rep our third shots, and dial in our serves. At the time, I thought it was a chore. And let’s be real, a lot of you reading this are exactly where I was. You show up to the courts, you see your friends, and you just want to get into "another game."

And hey, I’ll give you this: if you only ever play matches, your skill set will absolutely still improve. You will get better. But you are taking the scenic route. If you want to actually level up - and do it quickly - you have to carve out the time and space to drill.

Here is the hard truth about why just playing games leaves so many players stuck on a plateau: a live game is chaotic. Think about a standard 15-minute rec match. How many third-shot drops are you actually hitting? Maybe a handful? And if you pop one up and get smashed on, the rally is over. You don't get a do-over to correct your paddle angle.

Drilling takes the chaos out of the equation. It relies on the simple science of muscle memory and high-volume repetition. You can hit 50 offensive dinks in five minutes of drilling. It would take hours of rec play to get that same volume of focused practice. When you isolate a shot, you give your brain the time to actually process the mechanics, tweak the mistakes, and build the right habits without the pressure of a scorecard.

This exact realization is what drove us to create the Drill + Play Clinics at Paddle Up Solutions.

We designed these as 90-minute intensive coaching clinics, but here is the kicker: we focus on exactly two skills per session. Why just two? Because trying to fix your serve, your drop, your return of serve, and your overhead smash all in one afternoon is a one-way ticket to Overwhelm City. By isolating just two complementary skills - like offensive dinking and third-shot strategies - we can dive deep. We can give you the actual tools, tips, and mechanics to master them without frying your brain.

But we also know that hitting a perfect drop shot from a controlled feed is entirely different than executing it when the score is 9-9 and the pressure is on.

That’s why we don't just drill and send you home. We take those two focused skills and immediately interweave them into live play. We call the court "the lab." It’s where you take the new tools we just handed you and test them out in a real, messy game situation while we're right there to coach you through it. You get the high-volume repetition of drilling, followed immediately by the practical application of a match. It really is the best of both worlds.

So, to all my fellow players who just want to play "one more game" - I get it. I was you. But take it from someone who learned the hard way. Spend a little time in the lab, and watch how much faster you start winning those games.

Interested in learning more about Paddle Up Solutions' Drill + Play Clinics? Please check out our Events section of our website at www.paddleupsolutions.com/events

Embracing the G&G on and off the court,
Lisa