Dinking 102: Practice

In the first installment of this series, Dinking 101, we talked about some of the fundamentals of good dinking; the reason we dink in pickleball (so we don't give opponents at the net balls they can attack) and the nuts and bolts of the mechanics of dinking. This article is about about ways to practice those mechanics and basic skills.

Build consistency

To develop your dinking skills, the first step is to increase  your consistency and comfort hitting unattackable shots. Work with a partner and try to sustain a dinking rally for 20 strokes (where you hit the ball 20 times without hitting into the net or out). Practice dinking to an opponent directly across from you on both sides of the court, and also practice dinking cross court from either side.

If you aren't able to hit 20 dinks in a row, work up to it. Set smaller goals and work up to the larger goal. Can you hit 5 dinks in a row? How about 10? Find your sweet spot and build up the skills from each of those positions (straight dinks and cross court). You and your practice partner should be working for control, not competitively on these drills. You win together when you reach your goal. If you don't have a partner, find an accommodating wall and mark a line to practice. Keep it slow and controlled.

Develop purpose and intention

Once you develop a bit of consistency in your dinking, you should begin to work on targeting and intention. Practice with a partner directly across from you to start and work on patterns.

These are not necessarily in any particular order, but here are examples of patterns you can work on when you practice dinking. For each of these drills, I recommend setting a goal that you can work toward.

Ooooo! Look at all these drills!

Parallel dinking

In this drill, partners are dinking directly across, but only hit one lane. This is an exercise where you are working to develop your ability to hit controlled shots with a particular target with your backhand on one side and your forehand on the other side. When you are dinking on the outside lanes, you want to keep in mind that the net is highest at that point, and trying to go too close to the line can be risky if your shot is off by a few inches.

You will want to practice this drill on both sides of the court as well. On one side, your forehand will be on the outside lane. On the other side, your backhand will be on the outside lane.

A note for players who switch hands; it might be tempting to develop your dinks using your non-dominant hand when you know it the ball will be repeatedly coming to that same side, but I would caution you against this. Develop your backhand. Switching hands involves the transfer of the paddle from one hand to the other. In that transfer, you can fumble the pass.  It also takes more time to execute because of the transfer.

Don't neglect your backhand.

Diagonal dinking

In this drill, you are still dinking with a partner directly across from you, but you are dinking on the diagonal. Again, set a goal for yourself and work up to that number of hits. 

When you reach your goal dinking diagonally in one direction, change directions.

When you reach both of those goals on that side of the court, change to the other side and do it again.

If these drills are too easy and you are hitting 20 or more dinks consistently, it's time to move to something more challenging.

Figure eight drill

In this drill, one player hits down the line and the other person hits on the diagonal. This is much more challenging than you may think at first, but this is an excellent drill and it will help you develop good footwork and placement of the ball while you are moving.

Even side shows far player hitting straight and near player hitting diagonal. Odd side shows near player hitting straight and far player hitting diagonal.

After one set of the figure eight pattern (let's say 10 hits by each player for example), change roles. The person who was hitting down the line should now hit diagonal and vice versa.

As with the other drills, practice this on both odd and even sides of the court.

Cross court drills

All things being equal, dinking cross court is preferable because the ball is traveling further on that long diagonal than it travels when you are dinking down the line to an opponent directly across from you. The greater distance means you have more margin for error and more time to recover after your shot. Get comfortable dinking cross court. Make cross court dinking your bread and butter. You don't want to exclusively dink cross court, but unless you are specifically targeting one opponent for strategic reasons, dinking cross court is the higher percentage choice.

As with the other set of drills shown above, your first priority should be simple repetition. For players who don't feel confident with their backhands, it can be tempting to slide over to the corner and stay there when you practice dinking cross court, but don't do it! Keep yourself more or less in the middle of your lane. Move to hit the ball, and if it is going to your backhand, hit the dink with your backhand. The whole point of practice is to strengthen your weaknesses.

Set some goals and build up until you are consistent with those goals.

When you reach a point of consistency just hitting back and forth with no particular targets, but generally hitting cross court to cross court, then you can begin to introduce targets with your drill partner. In principle, you can work on all of the same patterns on a cross court basis that you worked on while dinking down the line. However, hitting with that precision takes time. One way to help build up to those skills is by having one player hit to one location while the other drill partner moves.

This pattern still allows players to work on hitting targets, but because only one player is moving, it reduces the difficulty and makes the pattern more manageable.

As with the other drill patterns, drill partners should change roles and change directions.

Competitive dinking practice

Once you have developed some consistency and ability to place the ball, it's time to introduce some competitive pressure into your drills. Play out short dinking games with a partner where you keep score. I like to play out short games to 5, win by 1, dinking down the line and cross court. Keeping score adds competitive pressure. It can also make practice a little more fun.

There are many other drills that you can do to help you improve your dinking, but these are foundational drills. In the next installment of this series, we will talk about strategies you can employ to help you build a point by stressing your opponents and creating opportunities to score.

Thanks for stopping by,

No Fun David