David Zapatka
The dink is pickleball’s most nuanced shot, deceptively simple to learn, endlessly deep to master. While beginners treat it as a stopgap between rallies, advanced players weaponize it. Here’s how to transform your dinking game from passive to dominant.
Elite dinks share three qualities. They land in the kitchen, stay low over the net, and force your opponent into a difficult position. The goal isn’t just to keep the ball in play; it’s to create opportunities. Every dink should have a purpose, whether pulling your opponent wide, testing their backhand, or setting up an attack.
Grip pressure is the foundation. Most players grip too tightly under pressure, killing touch and producing pop-up balls. Aim for a firmness of 3–4 out of 10. A relaxed hand absorbs pace and allows precise placement.
The cross-court dink is the bread and butter of advanced play. The net is lower at the center. The diagonal gives you more margin and pulls your opponent laterally, opening the sideline or tiring a weak-moving opponent. Straight-ahead dinks are riskier but tactically sharp, reducing reaction time and disrupting a player settled into a cross-court rhythm.
Once comfortable with the basics, attack the corners of the kitchen. A sharp-angle dink lands near the sideline-kitchen intersection, pulling your opponent completely off the court. Contact the ball slightly outside your body and open your paddle face toward the target. This shot wins points outright or forces a weak pop-up return.
The dink-to-speed-up transition separates good players from elite ones. When your opponent’s dink rises above net height, attack. Punch the ball at their hip or shoulder with a compact, wrist-stable stroke. Aim for the body where it’s harder to reset.
One of the most underused weapons in a dinking exchange is the lob. After several soft dinks have lulled your opponent into a forward-leaning stance, a well-disguised lob resets the dynamic of the point. Use the same body position and paddle preparation as a standard dink, then at the last moment, open your paddle face and drive upward smoothly. The ball should arc high and deep, landing within a foot or two of the baseline.
Lob when your opponent has crept close to the kitchen line with their weight moving forward. In singles, it forces your opponent to sprint back, opening the court for a put-away. A lob loses its effectiveness the moment your opponent anticipates it. Don’t overuse it.
Most dinking errors come from the feet, not the hands. Stay low, keep weight on the balls of your feet. Move into the ball rather than reaching. Make your opponent hit one more ball, move one more step and wait one more second. The error comes if you’re disciplined enough to wait for it.
Have a question about pickleball? Want to know more about the sport, the rules, equipment or have some pickilicious news you would like to share with our pickleball community? Email David Zapatka at dzapatka@wbhsi.net.