Disclaimer: The names in this blog post have been changed to protect the innocent – and the guilty :-)

The other day, we were talking about how we practice. As with everything else about pickleball, there were different opinions, but the most interesting discussion was about whether you should hit the ball toward your practice opponent or away from him or her.

Carrie said she recently practiced with a partner who believes that if you hit a ball to your opponent in practice, you are training your brain to always hit the ball to your opponents and it will become a habit. In matches, this partner said, you will be conditioned to hit to your opponents even when you want to hit the ball somewhere else.

This brought up a lot of controversy. Marie said it was nonsense. How were you supposed to learn to do something if your practice partner wouldn’t hit the ball to you? She said practice means repeating something until you can do it well. If your practice partner always hits the ball far away from you, how can you improve?

Jason said he usually hits toward his practice partner for the first two or three strokes of a rally. He said a good partner won’t return a winner on purpose but rather will send the ball back at you. He said a good practice session unfolds naturally. It's a rhythmic thing that develops by playing with the same person or with someone experienced enough to jump right in and "get it." But he agreed that there is no reason to not hit at your practice partner because that’s what builds consistency in your strokes.

Tom agreed with Jason. He said practice was no fun if all you’re doing is chasing balls you couldn’t hit. His feeling was that you should practice aiming at your opponent because if you get very good at that, and you can always place the ball exactly where you want it to go, you can place it anywhere. The key is to get very good at placement.

Gina said it’s no different from tennis in terms of practice. Watch how the pros do it. They don’t hit away from their practice partners. In fact, they hit practice balls so their partners don’t even have to move their feet to hit the ball.

Marie spoke up again, saying she had seen tennis pros and really good pickleball players who didn’t always hit to their practice partners. They practice lots of different kinds of shots: passing shots, crosscourt, even corner shots. It all depends on what the partners are trying to work on during that practice. Maybe one time it will be lobs or drop shots. She said one partner usually tried to feed balls to the other, and then they would reverse their roles.
Tom said he and his partner always open a rally hitting to each other, and then they pick on weaker sides. After that they hit hard and deep, then go for angles and down-the-line shots and spins.

The consensus was that practice means doing something over and over again until you get better at it. You’re training your body to react automatically and quickly; you’re working on whatever you don’t do well. That’s the real point of practice: to learn to play better. You’re training your mind to react, too, but I believe Marie’s right: not hitting to your partner because your mind will “get stuck that way” is nonsense.