So you want to become a 3.0 pickleball player? This skill level is super fun and highly competitive. At our club, the majority of our members are grouped at the 3.0 skill level. It is the first level of Intermediate play. How do you know if you are a 3.0 and tips on how to become a 3.0 pickleball player can be found in this article. Let’s go!
On the court, you should feel comfortable with various pickleball shots (serves, return of serves, groundstrokes and dinking) and with the basic rules of pickleball.
3.0 Pickleball Skill Level Overview
- Working to keep the serve and serve receive deep
- Moves quickly towards the non-volley zone when opportunity is there
- More aware of their partner’s position on the court and moving more as a team
- Developing more power in shots
- Beginning to attempt lobs and dinks with little success and doesn’t fully understand when and why they should be used
- Demonstrates improved skills with all the basic shot strokes and shot placement but lacks control when trying for direction, depth or power on shots
- Working on consistency
- Knows the fundamental rules and can keep score
- Regularly gets serves “in” to mid-court or deeper
- Dinks mostly in opponent’s kitchen and is dinking lower over the net
- Able to sustain dinking in the game
- Using both forehand and backhand on returns and forehands on overhead returns
- Moves quickly towards the non-volley zone when opportunity is there
- Somewhat a uni-dimensional player working at broadening their playing repertoire
For 2.0, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.0 pickleball skill level criteria, see our Blog article titled: Pickleball Skill Levels
5 Key Areas to Work On
- Reduce unforced areas
- Don’t try to kill the ball on every shot, learn to place the ball before you speed things up
- Hit to your opponent’s feet and backhand
- Move as a team with your partner (stay together as much as possible)
- Work on court position to cut off angles
For 3.0 Pickleball videos and articles, visit our dedicated webpage.