If you are well into your pickleball journey, you may be wondering if you are still a beginner player or if have you graduated to an intermediate level. There is no one definition of what an intermediate pickleball player is, but here are some tips to help you determine your pickleball level.
How to improve your pickleball skills
Everyone who plays pickleball starts in the same place: as a 2.0-2.5 beginner player. From there, some players move up quickly, while others stay at a similar skill level for their entire pickleball journey. How quickly you move up is different for everyone and can depend on so many factors, including:
- Your sports background.
- Your athletic shape.
- Your hand-eye coordination.
- How often you play.
- How often you drill.
- How dedicated you are to learning the rules of pickleball.
- The other players you are playing with and competing against.
- Your age.
- And so much more!
Lower intermediate pickleball (3.0 to 3.4)
A lower intermediate pickleball player is going to be anywhere from a 3.0 to 3.5 rating level. When you reach a 3.0 level in pickleball, you should have these skills:
- You understand the basic rules of pickleball.
- You understand proper court positioning.
- You may not always be able to get yourself to that position yet.
- You understand the basics of what you should be doing, but you do not yet have the skill to do it. You are still learning your position, but you do know basic rules and can keep score. You may already be playing in tournaments.
- You understand the purpose of dinking and have started integrating dinking strategy into your pickleball game but you cannot yet control your dink consistently.
- You can hit a medium-paced forehand shot, but not with direction or consistency.
- You try not to use your backhand unless it’s absolutely necessary. But when you do, it does not have direction or consistency.
- You are able to integrate different levels of power into different shots, depending upon the situation.
- You can return a medium-paced shot serve and return, but you are not able to do so with any strategy.
- You can hit a medium-paced third shot, but not with any strategy behind it.
- You can hit a medium-paced volley, but not with any strategy, direction, or consistency.
Advanced intermediate pickleball (3.5 to 3.9)
The leap from lower intermediate pickleball player to advanced intermediate player is a big one. This growth in pickleball skill level (from a 3.5 to a 4.0) takes many players years to achieve. To be considered an advanced intermediate player, you should be able to do the following:
- You understand both the basic and advanced rules of pickleball.
- You understand court positions and are able to get to those positions fairly consistently.
- You can keep up with similarly-skilled players in a longer rally.
- You have a better understanding of your position, and when to stand on which area of the court.
- You have learned a lot about how to play in certain situations, including positioning, which shot to use, and how to interact with your partner.
- You now have some control over your forehand shot, and you are improving every time you play.
- You are learning your backhand form and are starting to improve. But you still defer to your forehand if possible.
- You can now serve and return the ball more regularly, and you are learning how to control both.
- You understand the need to move up to the kitchen line as soon as possible.
- You understand the importance of the 3rd shot.
- You may not always be able to execute this correctly yet.
Moving up
It may take you years to move from a lower intermediate player to an advanced intermediate level, and even more time to move to an advanced player. But the more you play and drill and learn about the game of pickleball, the more quickly you should be able to play alongside the best of them.