Dinking 201: Beginning Strategic Principles

We have discussed theory and mechanics of dinking in Dinking 101, and in Dinking 102, I shared some drills to practice dinking and to hone your skills. Now we're ready to talk about strategies you can employ to help you stress your opponents so they make more errors and pop ups that you can put away.

As an aside, this is the stuff I really enjoy. If you find dinking boring, it is likely because you have not yet discovered the subtleties and strategies that bring to mind the game of chess for many players.

Keep it over the net and in play

You have better odds of winning the rally hitting high balls than hitting balls out or into the net, because at least if your opponents are forced to deal with the ball, they could make an unforced error. Don't do their job for them. Don't get beat by the net. Don't get beat by hitting the ball out. Make your opponents beat you.

This is fundamental and more important than anything else. But if you have practiced your dinking, this concern will fade into the background. That is why it is so important to get your repetitions, your practice with placement, your practice with placement while you are moving, and practice with a competitive element in.

Keep low balls slow

If you are forced to take the ball below the level of the net, respond with a slow controlled dink. Resist the urge to speed up with low balls.

Keep it slow when you get pulled out of position

Players who get stressed often try to surprise opponents at the net. This is ill advised. When you are out of position, there are significant gaps on the court behind you. All your opponents need to do is put a paddle on the ball and send it in the general direction of the hole between you and your partner or between you and the outside lane.

Instead of trying to hit a winner, send a slow ball, recover your position on the court, and get ready for the next ball.

Hit high balls down into the dirt

If you get a high ball from your opponents, DO attack it. Try to hit down and out into your opponents' court. The higher the ball, the better the angle. The closer the ball is to the height of the net, the more careful you have to be. If you can't hit down on a straight angle, sometimes just putting a tiny bit of pace on the ball and hitting a little deeper can force an awkward hit that gives you a higher ball or possibly forces an error.

Do NOT flush your high ball opportunity by trying to do more with it than you should. Don't be the one to make the error when you have an advantage in the rally. A little pace and a little downward angle can yield dividends. If the next ball is higher, you are in a better place. If you hit your ball into the net, you get nothing.

Make them move

In Dinking 102, we discussed drills to help you place the ball. Once you have developed some of those skills, you can begin to incorporate those skills into your rallies in games. Move your opponents around the kitchen. If you get them to move one direction, hit the next ball into the open space they moved from. The more you make them move, the more you will stress them and the more likely it will become that they make an error or send you an attackable ball.

Making them move doesn't just mean from side to side either. Think about hitting shallow dinks and deep dinks too. If your opponent scrambles to dig out a shallow dink and they are proud of themselves to have hit it back over but they failed to get out of the kitchen, hit the next ball right at them. If your opponent doesn't get all the way out of the kitchen and both feet are established outside the NVZ before they make contact with a ball in the air, it's a fault. You don't have to hit it hard. Just hit it hard enough that they would have to volley the ball. You can hit it as if you were hitting a gentle ball into the transition zone behind them as if they aren't there at all. If they touch the volley, you win. If they dodge the ball, as long as it finds the court somewhere behind them, you also win (unless their partner's name is Rob Cassidy, Riley Newman, or Ben Johns).

Making your opponents move will create gaps and holes. The shot you hit into the gap doesn't have to be an outright winner. Your goal is to put pressure on your opponents to stress them. This will create unforced errors and pop ups you can attack to win the rally.

Variation and pattern disruption

In order to disrupt a pattern, there has to be a patter to disrupt. A pattern has to have at least two beats. For example, a dink to the forehand, a dink to their backhand, forehand, backhand. You might go with two dinks to one side and one dink to the other side. If patterns become too complex, your opponents won't likely recognize there is a pattern, and probably more than you can keep track of while you are moving and hitting balls. You will need to repeat these shots for your opponents to begin to anticipate where the next ball is going. 

The purpose of establishing a pattern is so you can set an expectation and then change it. Maybe that means hitting to the player across from you instead of to the cross court player. Maybe hitting with a different spin. Maybe a shallow dink when you have been dinking near their feet. There are many options. Can you force an opponent to shift their position by dinking to the outside line two or three times in a row? If that player who is engaged in the dinking rally has set up camp on the outside corner, look for a gap in the middle. If their partner has shifted to cover the middle, can you target the outside lane on the opposite side?

You can also change the speed of your shot, but **CAUTION**. What I am talking about here is still a dink. Your shot should still be descending. Your dink should still force your opponent to hit up from below the level of the net. If your pace sends the ball on a level trajectory across the net and your opponents can hit from above the net, you have just challenged your opponents to a fire fight. If they manage to angle the ball down and you are hitting up, that's a losing scenario for you. In a fire fight, you need to 

1. Hope you have quicker hands than your opponent
2. Try to curl the ball on a downward angle or target their dominant side (hip or shoulder are good targets) or
3. Take pace off the ball and reset (angle cross court if you can)

Pattern disruption can also mean inserting yourself when dinks have been hit repeatedly to your partner. Intercept attackable balls in the middle if you can reach them and hit down. But even taking a low ball that doesn't pull you too far out of position (more toward the middle) that your opponent intended for your partner can give your partner a break and change the dynamic. Don't try to do too much with that low ball. The point is not to win the rally with a low ball, just to break up the pattern. Put the ball somewhere it hasn't been for a while and see if that changes things. If the dink rally continues and resets back on your partner's side, you have given them a break for at least one shot. 

Be ready for a speed up

Your opponents may flick a ball at you any time they are hitting it. You need to be ready. If it is low, you will need to be ready to block it. If it comes to you on the rise, your best option is probably to dodge it. Speed ups by your opponents either allow you to hit down or they will sail out. In either case, you have an opportunity. What your opponents intend as an attack can turn out to be an opportunity for you, if you are prepared. The ball they send from below the net to high is your chance to hit from high to low.

How do you stay ready? Keep your knees bent, be moving and tracking the ball, have your paddle ready, and in you mind be thinking "hit it to me" (see Staying Engaged When You are Not Hitting for more). If you expect the speed up with every ball, you will be ready whether the ball is slow or fast.

When is a speed up a good option?

If the ball is low, keep it slow. However, there are scenarios where this may not hold.

• If your hand speed is faster than your opponents' hand speed.
• If one of your opponents has their paddle down or they have become a spectator
• Any ball that is high enough for you to hit down
• If you have moved your opponents around enough to open a gap and a slightly faster ball will get past them

If you don't have one of those scenarios, odds are against you when you try to speed things up. Keep it slow unless you think you have a better than 60% chance of winning.

One more thing. Like lobs, speed ups are most effective when they are unexpected. If you teach your opponents that you are going to speed up balls every time, they will learn to be ready (if they are students of the game).

It is great seeing improvements in the larger community of players. I see you guys all working to improve. I hope this content helps some of you. When you get better and challenge me on the courts, that helps my game too!

Thanks for stopping by,

No Fun David