Most players begin their pickleball journey by hitting the ball back and forth as hard as they can. It's only when they start playing with more experienced opponents that they learn about a key shot of the game: The dink.
Dinking, a short, soft shot intended to pass just over the net and land in the non-volley zone, is a critical part of a successful pickleball game.
It allows players to transition from defense to offense, reestablish control, or dictate the pace of the game.
To develop this shot effectively, you need to understand eight essential components.
How to hold your paddle when dinking
The first step in executing a successful dink is to hold your paddle with a loose grip. When you are making soft shots, it’s essential to stay relaxed.
A tight grip can lead to hitting the ball too hard or too high, resulting in errors. On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is the tightest grip, aim for a 2-3.
Use your shoulder, not your wrist
When dinking, the motion should originate from your shoulder. Keep your wrist firm as you push from your shoulder to make contact with the ball.
Using your wrist or elbow can cause the ball to pop up. By pushing from your shoulder and keeping your elbow and wrist firm, you can keep the ball low.
Proper dinking stance
Keep your shoulders and hips square to the net. This position helps you make contact with the ball in front of your body and allows you to cover more of the court, reducing your opponent’s opportunities for attack.
When moving side to side, keep square to the net and shuffle your feet laterally. Crossing your feet over each other can turn your hips away from the kitchen line, making it harder to return to your ready stance.
Consider your dinking angles
When dinking, a lot of beginners find that dinking cross-court is easier than dinking straight ahead. This is because there is more room for error.
Straight-forward dinks require a high amount of touch because the ball is traveling a short distance. If you aren't comfortably able to hit a dink in front of you, try honing your cross-court shot before your straight-on shots.
When dinking, try to aim for your opponents' feet, particularly their backhand foot. This will force them into an awkward position, often leading to an error on their part.
Proper dinking footwork
No matter what angle you choose, you must be in the proper position to be consistent. This requires moving your feet to get yourself in the right position to take a high percentage shot.
Too many times, players fail to move to meet a ball and instead reach or lunge to make a dink. In doing so, they limit their options for angles and successful execution.
By sliding your feet to the ball, you will open higher percentage dinks, better angles, and more control.
When to take a dink out of the air
The ultimate goal of a dink battle is to force your opponent to make a mistake that you can capitalize on. The challenge can be knowing when to take a dink out of the air and when to let it bounce.
Knowing the right approach in this scenario is hard to describe and does require some experimentation.
While you do want to be reaching into the kitchen to take balls out of the air, you shouldn't be reaching so far that you lose control. Doing so will result in your opponent smashing it right back at you.
Conversely, you shouldn't back away from the kitchen line to take all shots on a bounce. This leaves your opponent more angles from which to attack.
Learning your limits will require you to practice. Drill your dinking game. In doing so, you will get the feel for when to take a shot out of the air and when to let it bounce.
Positioning of your opponent
When deciding where to place your dink, you should pay attention to where your opponent is positioned. However, this should only be a consideration after you understand angles, footwork, and when to take the ball out of the air.
Ideally, you want to give your opponent a difficult shot to force them out of a good playing position.
Hitting to their backhand, their center line, or near the sidelines can be good options, but only hit these shots if you have a high success probability.
If you don't have the shot, or your opponent has good movement, choose a more sure shot so you can keep the point going.
When to attack while dinking
The No. 1 tip that most beginners ignore: Be patient.
Dink battles are as much a battle of will as technique. Keep the mindset that you can dink all day if that's what your opponent wants to do. Then, sit back and wait.
Eventually, your opponent will make an error and give you a high shot. This is when you attack.
