How to Create Custom Pickleball Machine Drills: Ideas from TENNIIX Players
Custom pickleball machine drills let you train specific shots, movements, and game situations instead of relying only on preset programs.
Across the TENNIIX community, players are finding their own ways to make training more personal. Some are creating and saving individual shots. Others are building practice sessions around specific skills they want to improve. And some are documenting what they learn so other players can test, adapt, and improve those ideas.
The approaches may be different, but the thinking behind them is similar:
Instead of starting with a drill, start with what you want to work on.
Here are three ways TENNIIX players are putting that idea into practice.
Creating and Saving Your Own Pickleball Shots
For TENNIIX player N.K, customization starts with a single shot.
He shared how he sets up his machine for a particular feed, adjusts the settings until the shot works the way he wants, gives it a name, and saves it for future practice.
That simple process changes the way a player can think about ball machine training.
Instead of choosing only from existing training patterns, you can start with a specific ball you want to practice and build from there.
Create the shot → adjust the feed → name it → save it.
Once a useful shot is saved, it becomes something you can return to whenever that part of your game needs attention.
But he was already thinking about what comes next.
In his post, he shared that his next step would be showing how to string multiple shots together into a ball path for a drill.
That opens up another level of customization.
One custom shot helps you practice a ball.
A sequence helps you practice what happens next.
A sequence can introduce changes in direction, movement, pace, and recovery within the same drill.
For example, a custom sequence might conceptually look like:
Dink → Wide Dink → Speed-Up → Reset
The exact sequence will depend on the player and the training goal. The important part is that individual shots can become reusable building blocks for more personalized practice.
That leads to useful questions when creating a drill:
Where should the first ball take me?
Where do I need to recover?
What kind of ball should come next?
What part of a real point am I trying to recreate?
Those questions turn customization into something more than changing machine settings. They turn it into designing a training situation.
See how the players creates and saves a custom shot →
Building Practice Around the Shots You Want to Improve
Creating a custom drill is one thing. The next step is putting in the repetitions and applying that training to your own game.
TENNIIX player T.M shared how he had been using the machine after it arrived in Hawaii.
Instead of treating a ball machine session as one general hitting workout, he was using repeated feeds to focus on several different skills:
Drives. Speed-ups. Dinking. Around-the-Post (ATP) shots.
He described TENNIIX as particularly useful for “dialing in specific shots.”
ATP practice is a good example of how custom ball machine training can move beyond basic forehand and backhand repetitions. With the right setup and repeated feed, a player can spend focused time working on a much more specific game situation.
More importantly, he felt those repetitions were beginning to carry over into actual play:
“After putting in reps with the machine, my playmates at open play have been complimenting my shots and noticing a clear improvement in my overall play.”
— TENNIIX player
T also highlighted the role of repetition in building the muscle memory needed to improve his game.
That is one of the most useful ways to think about custom pickleball ball machine training.
You do not have to practice everything every time.
If dinking needs attention, build the session around dinking.
If you want more confidence attacking a higher ball, spend time on speed-ups.
If you are working on drives, create the repetition you need there.
And if you are experimenting with a more specialized shot like an ATP, adjust the setup to create the ball you need to practice it.
The training goal comes first. The drill follows.
See His original training story and video →
Turning Pickleball Drills Into a Courtside Training Guide
As players create more drills, another challenge appears: how do you keep track of them all when you are actually on the court?
TENNIIX player P Ledbetter started working on his own solution.
While learning existing drills, experimenting with new ones, and planning goals for his court sessions, P began turning his notes into one-page “Drill Cards.”
The idea was to create an at-a-glance reference that could be printed, laminated, carried in a backpack, and placed courtside during practice.
His early concept brings together information such as:
- Drill instructions and order
- Machine settings
- Court setup and positioning
- Voice commands
- Practice formats and drill variations
Instead of stopping every time to remember a setting or navigate through a training plan, the goal is to make the information easier to reference while practicing.
But P’s idea goes beyond organizing his own sessions.
Someone proposed treating the Drill Cards as a shared community project—something other players could edit, test, improve, and contribute to over time.
And also acknowledged that the early information might not always be perfect. Machine settings, court setups, drill instructions, terminology, and layouts could all be refined as more players tested them.
That makes the project especially interesting.
Create a drill → document it → test it → improve it → share it.
A training idea that starts with one player can become a useful starting point for someone else.
See His original Drill Cards project →
From Custom Drills to Community Training
These three players started in different places.
He focused on creating and saving individual shots, with the next step of connecting those shots into custom ball paths.
He built practice around specific parts of his game, from drives and dinks to speed-ups and ATPs, and began seeing those repetitions carry over into open play.
P took another step by documenting drills and training information in a format designed to be tested, improved, and shared with other players.
Together, they show how pickleball ball machine training can become more than simply selecting a preset drill and pressing start.
Create. Practice. Adjust. Share.
One player can create a shot.
Another player can try a similar setup.
Someone else can adjust the drill around a different training goal.
And the idea can continue to evolve as more players experiment with it.
Not every community-created setup will work exactly the same way for every player. Ball type, court surface, machine settings, court positioning, skill level, and training goal can all change how a drill feels.
Community ideas are best treated as starting points to test and adapt rather than universal formulas.
That is part of the process.
A drill someone else creates can give you an idea.
You can try it, adjust it, save the parts that work, and eventually turn it into something that fits your own game.
Because there may not be one “best” pickleball ball machine drill for everyone.
There is the shot you want to improve.
The movement you want to repeat.
The situation you want to get more comfortable with.
And then there is the drill you build around it.
Start with one shot. See where it takes you.
Built by TENNIIX. Expanded by the Community.
Ready to Build Your Own Pickleball Training?
Start with recommended drills, experiment with your own shots and setups, and build pickleball practice around the parts of your game you want to improve.
Whether you are working on dinks, drives, speed-ups, resets, ATPs, or something completely different, your next drill can start with one simple question:
