The Speed-Up & Counter Drill
The Speed-Up & Counter Drill
The drill that fixes the hardest exchange in doubles.
By Sam Morris · 2026-06-24 · 15 minutes
What it builds
- Primary skill: counter-punch at the kitchen line
- Secondary skill: composure under fire, recognition of incoming speed-ups
- Best for: Competing-bracket players (DUPR 3.5–4.5)
- Solo or partner: partner required
- Time commitment: 15 min, 2–3x/week
Why this drill
Most rec players can sustain a dink rally. Almost none of them have specifically trained what happens when that dink rally breaks open — when someone speeds it up at their body. The speed-up counter is the highest-leverage skill gap between 3.5 and 4.0: your 3.5 either blocks it into the net, goes for a hero counter they can't execute, or just freezes. None of those are a plan.
This is the drill that installs a plan.
The underlying exchange — one player speeds up, the other counters, both reset — is the most common high-stakes sequence in rec doubles. It decides more points than any other single skill at this level. And it's nearly never what people drill.
Setup
You need a partner and a kitchen line. That's it.
- Two players at the kitchen line, facing each other across the net
- Both paddles up, normal dinking position
- Bucket of balls on the side for restarts
- No special court setup required — Bauer Drive, Olney Manor, any NVZ works
The drill
- Player A feeds a slow dink to Player B's forehand. Not a setup — just a normal-paced dink that starts a two- or three-shot dink exchange. Player B dinks back.
- After 2–3 dinks, Player A fires a speed-up. Full pace, aimed at Player B's body or dominant shoulder. No warning — that's the point.
- Player B executes a compact counter-punch. Elbow slightly forward, wrist firm, short punch through the ball. Aim crosscourt. You're redirecting pace, not generating it.
- Player A resets the counter soft. Takes the pace off and returns the rally to dinking speed. This closes the loop.
- Repeat 10 reps per side, then switch roles. Run both forehand and backhand counters — most players are dramatically weaker on one side.
Reps: 10 per side per player, per session. That's 40 total exchanges — takes about 12–15 minutes.
Coach's tweak
Here's what most people miss when they run this drill: they start telegraphing the speed-up. Player A gets into a rhythm, dink-dink-speed-up, dink-dink-speed-up, and Player B starts anticipating it. After ten reps they look pretty good.
Then they play a real game and get lit up because the real opponent doesn't have a rhythm.
The fix: vary the timing. Give Player B a slow dink, then two more slow dinks, then fire. Or dink five times and never speed up at all. The rep that actually transfers to a game is the one where Player B has to read the incoming speed-up from a contact cue — not anticipate it from a pattern.
The cue to train: watch the feeding shoulder. When it opens and the contact point moves inside (toward their body midline), that's the tell. Speed-up is coming. Paddle goes center mass.
Train the recognition, not just the response.
Try it live
→ Open play at Bauer Drive Local Park (MoCo's most reliable outdoor courts) → Pot Night signup — test the counter under real match pressure → Tag @linkanddink when you run this drill — we repost the best clips
This is part of the Drill of the Week series — one drill, every Wednesday, that you can actually run before your next game. See all drills · Subscribe.
Tags: drill-of-the-week, kitchen-battle, counter-punch, speed-up, 3-5, 4-0, partner-drill