If you are a beginner pickleball player or are just looking to improve your pickleball skills, this video will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the pickleball dink: What is a dink? How do you dink? What are the different types of dinks? Plus, Barrett and Danea Bass will teach you pickleball dinking strategy & drills to work on with a partner.
What is a pickleball dink?
A dink is a ball hit underhand from (or near) your non-volley zone into your opponent’s non-volley (or kitchen) zone. A dink isn't a very aggressive shot.
There are really only two shots in pickleball: You either hit up on the ball or you hit down on the ball. The goal of pickleball is to get the other team to hit up on the ball, so that you can hit down on the ball — because (typically) the team that hits down on the ball first wins.
A dink is a lift or a push into the pickleball kitchen, which is the area that is seven feet in front of the net. The reason people have to hit up on the dink is because they can't step into the kitchen and hit the ball out of the air. So when you’re dinking the ball, you should be trying to set up the point and cause your opponents to make an error.
Proper dinking form
When thinking about proper pickleball dinking form, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- A pickleball dink should be a push and a lift, rather than a swing. You do not need to take a big swing on the ball when you're dinking. This will keep your dink unattackable and keep you from hitting the ball completely out.
- Your contact point is going to always be in front of you. Your paddle should never be behind your body and you should always have a very short and compact swing.
- When you're dinking, you should avoid chopping at the ball or using too much wrist. You will want to be mainly using your shoulder and your legs to lift the ball.
- Pay attention to having good footwork. When it comes to dinking, you should always be taking a step into your shot, and not having stagnant feet.
- You should be hitting through two balls: Meaning, if there was a ball right behind the actual ball, you should act like you’re hitting both of them. Another way to think about it is keeping the ball on your paddle for as long as possible.
Dead dinks vs. pressurized dinks
As a dinker, you should learn the difference between a dead dink and a pressurized dinks.
Dead dink
A dead dink is a ball that doesn't have much spin or pace to it — it lands in the kitchen and then doesn't bounce very high or push you back or create much pressure.
A dead dink can be good or bad: If you’re keeping your dead dink really shallow, it’s going to be a difficult ball for your opponent to attack. The deeper the dink is, the more pressure it should cause. A dead dink is a good ball to use if you're playing against a really aggressive team, because it's going to be really hard for them to speed it up, and if they do, you're going to be ready for it.
To view an example of a dead dink, please watch the video above.
Pressurized dink
A pressurized dink is an offensive dink. When you are hitting a pressurized dink, you should remember a few things:
- You should be completely balanced: Meaning that if someone were to come up and try to push you, you wouldn't fall. If you are leaning one way or another, or you are out of position, it's going to affect your ability to hit a pressurized dink.
- Your contact point needs to be in front of your body, so you should have proper spatial awareness.
- Placement is key for offensive pressurized dinks. The kitchen line is a great place to aim, it gives your opponent a decision in the moment: “Do I take the ball out of the air or do I let it bounce?” A lot of players think power is the most important thing when it comes to offense, but it's actually more placement.
To view an example of a pressurized dink, please watch the video above.
Pickleball dinking strategies
There are some important pickleball dinking strategies to remember to perfect your dinking skills:
- Pickleball players, especially beginners, tend to dink to the same spot over and over — you should aim to move your opponent around. A good way to do this is to aim to their outside foot then their inside foot to try to get them off balance.
- If you're playing with a new partner or you don't have much chemistry with your partner, another dinking strategy is called “Respect the X.” To do this, imagine a big X on the court and you are receiving the ball diagonally. It will be much easier for you to receive a ball that's coming towards you than for your partner to come in and to try to handle that ball when it's moving away from them. If you respect the X you'll know whose ball is what. As you gain more chemistry with your partner, you can have discussions on who's going to take each ball, but this is a great place to start.
- Coming back to the ready position in between every dink is another important pickleball strategy to practice. One of the biggest mistakes that pickleball players can make is to hit your shot and keep your paddle down. Being in the ready position will keep you ready for an attack and an offensive ball.
- Learn the importance of the middle dink. Many players at the 4.0 level and below get married to the crosscourt dink — going for angle after angle after angle. But when you give an angle, you’re likely to get an angle back. If you stay to the middle and your opponent decides they want to speed the ball up, they have to speed the ball up right back to the middle, because if they try to speed up crosscourt, that ball's going out. When you start pounding the middle it's going to open up that fun aggressive dink to the sideline.
Pickleball Figure 8 dinking drill
An important dinking drill to practice your pickleball dinking is called the Figure 8 Drill, which will help you practice hitting dinks to different locations. As you get more advanced, you can increase your spin and your pace.
To practice the Figure 8 Drill:
- You will always be hitting diagonal, so you will aim at your partner’s outside foot, then her inside foot, then her outside foot, etc.
- Your partner will be hitting straight every time, and it's going to form a figure eight pattern. So you are always hitting diagonal and she's always hitting straight and it forms this nice figure eight.
- You can also practice this court crosscourt: so in the same way you’re going to be hitting diagonal and your partner is to be hitting straight, you will go diagonal and they come to the middle.
This drill is great for the person who is working on their middle dink. The person that's going to diagonal can then work on their middle and then pushing the ball out to the side. The pickleball Figure 8 drill will help you become a more well-rounded dinker.
To view the Figure 8 drill in action, please watch the video above.