Jul 7

Jul 7 The Best Pickleball Drills to Improve Your Dinking

No, you didn’t read that wrong; this article is all about dinking. If you thought there was an ‘r’ in that, you’ve come to the wrong blog!

Dinking is one of the really fun–and utterly frustrating to your opponents–shots in pickleball. It takes timing, finesse, and lots of practice. And, as we all know, practice makes perfect.

This article discusses dinking, the benefits of dinking, and the best drills to help you pull out this shot whenever you need it.

What Is Dinking

Dinking is a slow, high-arcing ball that sails just over your opponent’s net and lands in the kitchen. Its purpose is to slow down the game and extend a volley, in hopes of your opponent(s) making a mistake. Typically, dinks are made from your kitchen line (the edge of the non-volley zone) and may even begin a series of dinking between you and your opponent.

Basically, if you’ve seen a match where all the players are up at the kitchen, and it seems like they are just casually volleying the ball back and forth, this is dinking.

And it may look like the players aren’t doing anything special, but looks can be deceiving!

Benefits of Dinking

This innocent-looking shot is actually a catalyst for setting up a game-winning shot later in the match. Dinking is all about putting your opponent(s) in a compromising position and helping them make a mistake that leads to a win for you and your partner.

Here are some of the benefits of dinking:

It Slows Down the Game

There might be multiple reasons you want to slow a game down. Maybe your opponent plays fast and furiously and you want to throw them off. Maybe you are less mobile or can’t move to new positions quite as quickly as you need to. Also, you may just prefer a slower pickleball match. Dinking is a great way to slow down the game to a speed where you can take your time and wait for your moment.

If your opponent is impatient, this can be a masterful strategy. Similarly, if your opponent isn’t as good at dinking as you are, then it’s simply a matter of time before they make a mistake that you can capitalize on.

It Helps You Pick a Moment

One of the most common mistakes we see from beginners is that they try to score on every shot. Instead of playing the shot that’s provided to them, they make errors by trying to force low-percentage scoring opportunities. Players who deploy dinking strategies can take advantage of this pretty easily.

Dinking affords you the opportunity to pick your moment to score instead of forcing an awkward shot. By volleying back and forth, you’re essentially waiting for your opponent to hit it too high or at an angle that allows you to drive it into an open hole or at their feet for the score.

It’s a Defensive Gem

Another mistake beginning players make is not playing enough defense. Similar to trying to score on every shot, they may not even realize that defense exists in pickleball. But it certainly does, and dinking is a big part of playing defense. When you find yourself overwhelmed during a pickleball match, you can use dinking as a defensive play to slow the game down and put your opponent in awkward positions on the court.

Dinking is rarely going to get you a point because your opponent can almost always get to the slow-moving ball. But, dinking can lead to mistakes from your opponents that then become points later in the match.

Let’s get into dinking drills.

Best Dinking Drills

You can’t perfect shots if you don’t practice. When you’re on the pickleball court, it’s difficult to get good at a specific shot or strategy. So, if you really want to master the dink, it’s time to find an empty court (and hopefully a partner) and start practicing your butt off.

Drill #1 - Maintain Your Position

Footwork is one of the keys to good dinking, and your feet should stay as close to the non-volley zone line as possible. This means you don’t want to step too far back or allow your opponent to drive you backward. To do this drill, grab some cones or schoolyard chalk and make a parallel line about 18 inches from the kitchen line toward the baseline.

Your goal, as your partner dinks back at you, is to maintain your position between the line you created and the kitchen line. If you find yourself inching closer to the created line, reset your feet by taking a step forward.

Drill #2 - Toss the Ball

Feel is a huge part of dinking. One of the best ways to get the feel of the amount of power and swing you need is by grabbing a bucket of balls and underhand tossing them over the net. Your goal is to land it short and softly into your opponent’s kitchen. Practice this for a while to really get the feel you need before grabbing your paddle.

Drill #3 - Target Practice

In this drill, you want to place different targets on the other side of the net. Put them all inside the kitchen, but put one very shallow, another one toward the centerline, and one more in the corner. Your goal is to aim at a different target with each dink shot. Get used to hitting those spots often because those are typically the areas you’ll want to hit during a game.

Drill #4 - Play a Dinking Match

Grab a friend or three and take opposite sides of the net together. With everyone at the kitchen line, simply practice dinking. Explain to everyone that the goal is not to score but just to practice dink shots. This is a great way to simulate a real match, but take some of the pressure off if you make a bad shot. Ideally, you’ll want to focus on just one facet of dinking (hitting it more shallow or hitting different spots) during the match. By honing in on this one area, you can improve that part of your game very quickly.

Drill #5 - Dink for Points

If your competitive side won’t let you just dink around for fun, then play the same match as above, but play for points. For example, you can establish different rules that force you and your partner (or opponent) to dink for a few shots but then open up the game to any shot you want. Perhaps you can say that the first three or five shots must be within the kitchen, but then it’s a free game. You would remove serves from the match and simply start with all players at the non-volley zone line.