Dinking can win you a lot of games in pickleball.
When you are just starting to play pickleball, it feels natural to hit the ball with a lot of power, and try to drive the ball down your opponent’s throat.
Early in their playing career, a lot of players will rely heavily on the power game, but as they run into more advanced players, they realize that they can’t just overpower them.
If they want to be successful in the unique sport of pickleball, they have to develop their dink, which is a finesse shot.
This seems counterintuitive.
But the reality is, in pickleball, you will win more games by using a consistent dink than you will by aggressively driving every shot at your opponent.
What is a dink shot?
Dinking is a positive term in the pickleball universe, but in other sports, it often has a negative connotation.
In tennis, a dinker is a player who doesn’t have much power on their shot–it’s typically not a flattering title for tennis players.
But in pickleball, the dink is the creme de la creme of shots.
If you can dink consistently, you have a good chance of winning a lot of matches.
What is dinking in pickleball?
A dink is a finesse shot near the net.
As you are standing near your non-volley zone line, you hit a soft shot that flies with an upward trajectory, peaking at its highest point on your side of the net and landing softly on your opponent’s side of the pickleball court.
Congratulations! You’ve just hit a pickleball dink.
What is the purpose of a dink shot?
The purpose of dinking in pickleball is to counteract your opponent’s power game.
If you are playing with an opponent that likes to attack with volleys (a power shot made by hitting the ball out of the air), you don’t want to get into a battle of power.
The best method is to control the pace of the game.
How do you accomplish this?
You can slow the game down by hitting a dink shot back across the net that lands in your opponent’s no volley zone (also known as the NVZ or Kitchen).
If the dink lands softly, it will be nearly impossible for your opponent to hit a power shot back at you a second time.
They will have to hit a softer shot back across the net, hoping that you pop a ball up that they can smash.
When they hit a return of the dink, you should dink again, and keep doing that until they make a mistake that you can put away.
When you are facing a power player, it’s a good strategy to get into a full-fledged dink rally.
And, if you are consistent, dink battles will win you games.
How do you dink in pickleball?
Your dink should have a quality arc that peaks on your side of the net and starts its downward trajectory as it crosses the net.
You want it to land softly in your opponent’s Kitchen.
The dink is not easy to execute. In fact, a perfect dink is a technique of the pros.
But you can do it, too.
It’ll just take some practice and the right form.
So you may be wondering: how do you hit a dink?
There are 4 basic steps that will produce a consistent dink shot:
- Start with your feet in a balanced, athletic position.
You want to be in an athletic stance. This is ready position.
In a dink battle, you may have to step or reach to hit your dink shot, but you should start from a place of balance.
If you are off-balance before you step, you will have a hard time controlling your shot from the get-go.
Get in “ready” position with your feet shoulder-width apart and your paddle up.
- Hit the ball out in front of your body.
You want to make contact with the ball with your paddle out in front of your body.
This will help you better control the trajectory of the shot, which is an important thing as you try to keep it low.
If you hit the ball behind your body, it has a greater chance of popping up and allowing your opponent to smash the ball back at you.
- Use a push motion more than a full swing.
The dink shot should not have much energy behind it.
It is a controlled, finesse shot.
As you hit the ball, you don’t want to swing. Instead, you should push from your shoulder through your elbow and lift the ball into a soft, upward trajectory.
- Keep your paddle face open and slightly angled upward.
If you close your pickleball paddle off too much, you will hit the ball right into the net.
But if you angle your paddle face straight up to the sky, you will pop the ball up in the air for your opponent to kill it.
You want the face of your paddle slightly open and angled at about 45 degrees, depending on the angle of the shot, so that you can connect with the sweet spot of the paddle.
In order to get the right paddle angle, you should use the continental grip on the handle.
Why is the dink effective in pickleball? Taking advantage of pickleball rules.
When Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum created the game of pickleball in 1965, they developed rules that would make it an even playing field for people of all sizes and players of all levels.
They wanted their kids to be able to play with them and have success.
One of the rules they developed was the Kitchen or NVZ rule.
The Kitchen is a 7-foot area right by the net on both sides of the net.
The Kitchen rule states that a player is not permitted to step into the Kitchen and hit volley shots out of the air while standing in that area.
A player must first let the ball bounce and then they can return the shot out of the Kitchen zone.
This rule prevents a player from standing at the net and smashing the return shot straight down.
With the Kitchen rule in place, a player can’t control the game from the net.
But in every sport, if there is a rule, players search for ways to take advantage of that rule.
Over time, players began to see an opportunity in the Kitchen.
Bangers (players who love to hit the ball hard) would still stand at the Kitchen line, and they would smash shots back at their opponent.
So softer hitters got smart.
What if we returned their hard shot with a soft and low shot into their Kitchen?
Then they wouldn’t be able to hit a hard shot out of the air back at us.
With a dink, you force the power player to wait outside the Kitchen and play the ball off the bounce–creating a slower pace.
If the dink is hit correctly, your opponent has to hit their shot from a low point, preventing a smash.
Their power is negated by these unattackable dinks.
Thus, the dink shot was created.
Hitting the Perfect Pickleball Dink
Earlier in this post, we covered the basics of dinking technique.
But those fundamentals are just the beginning.
How do you hit better dinks?
If you want to hit an effective dink, you can’t just get the ball over the net. To improve your dinking skill, you have to be accurate and strategic to have a better chance at winning the point.
- Don’t hit your dink to the same spot all of the time.
You should change up where you place your dink in the Kitchen.
Predictability can kill your dink game.
Mix it up. Hit your dink short in the Kitchen, near the net, and then hit it closer to the NVZ line next time.
If your opponent knows where you are going before you hit it, you’ve given them a distinct advantage.
Hit a cross-court dink. Then, on the next shot, hit your dink at your opponent’s feet before going back cross court.
Use the whole area of the Kitchen.
Force your opponent to think (play mind games with them) and get them moving a little bit.
- Hit your dink out of the air, if possible.
Most of the time, you will probably have to play your dink after the bounce.
If your opponent hits a shot into the Kitchen, you will need to let it bounce–following the NVZ rule.
But there are times where the ball will reach you in the air while you stand just outside the NVZ area at the non-volley line.
If you can comfortably dink the ball out of the air without losing your balance and falling into the Kitchen, you should hit your dink out of the air.
This gives your opponent less time to prepare for your shot.
- Land your dink as close to the pickleball net as you can.
As you dink, you want the arc of your shot to be going downward as it crosses over to your opponent’s side.
And you want to land the ball in their Kitchen, as close to the net as possible.
This short dink will force your opponent to have to step and reach further into their Kitchen.
If the ball is closer to the net, your opponent will be forced to hit it at a steeper angle to get it over the net–and there is a higher chance that your opponent will hit the ball into the net or pop it up to you.
But you want to be careful. This is a difficult shot.
In your desire to hit it close to the net, you could hit it into the net on your side.
Give yourself net clearance and some margin for error.
- Be patient.
You don’t have to win the point with the dink.
Your goal with the dink should be to hit soft, consistent shots that keep your opponent off-balance and unable to use their power game.
While dinks may not seem like much, these are great shots.
Play with patience.
Keep hitting accurate dinks over and over until your opponent makes an unforced error.
Then, you should smash the shot.
- Keep your feet at the Kitchen line.
If you are in a dinking battle, be sure to stay close to the NVZ line.
You don’t want to be right on the line because it is considered to be a part of the Kitchen. So if you are on it, and you volley the ball out of the air, you will be called for a fault.
But you should keep your feet within a few inches of the line.
This will allow you to cover the Kitchen if the ball bounces in there.
And it will protect your feet from being exposed to a hard volley.
How do you get better at dinking in pickleball?
Dinking is like any other skill in sports.
You get better at dinking by practicing dinking.
Repetition, repetition, repetition.
Practice, practice, practice.
How to practice dinks?
The best way to take your dinking to a higher level is through drills.
You can certainly practice dinking during a pickleball game, but it is harder to work on placement or touch of different shots when you are under the pressure of a game.
So drills are the best way to improve quickly for all types of shots.
Here are 2 drills that will jumpstart your dinking game:
1. Hit Your Target
An important part of successful dinking is to hit the ball low and accurately.
You have to be able to place your dink where you want it.
In this drill, place cones at varying spots throughout your opponent’s NVZ.
Pick one of the targets in your mind that you want to hit.
Bounce the ball in front of you and hit a dink to the other side, aiming for the target that you chose.
The goal: to hit a low and accurate dink that strikes the cone.
Repeat this drill for all of the targets, practicing hitting from different angles so that you are adept at hitting shots to all corners and portions of the NVZ.
2. Dink 100
Go to the pickleball court with a partner.
In this drill, you and your partner will be opponents.
You will line up at the NVZ line on your side of the court and your partner will line up at the NVZ line on the other side.
You are going to have a dink battle with a slight twist.
In this game, you are only permitted to dink, and if you hit it beyond the Kitchen, it will be considered out of bounds.
At the beginning of the game, one player should bounce the ball and then hit a dink, counting “1” at the first shot.
Your opponent should dink the ball back across the court and say “2.”
With each successful shot, you continue to count upward (i.e. 3, 4, 5, etc.).
Your goal is to hit quality dinks that force your opponent into an error.
Once someone commits a fault by hitting it out of bounds or into the net, you stop the count where it is.
For example, if you hit 14 combined shots before a fault, you would have counted to 14.
Here is where things get fun: if you hit 14 shots, there were 14 points on the board. So the winner of the dink battle would get 14 points.
Then you start the next round.
The winner should start another dink battle by bouncing the ball and hitting a dink across the net. The other player should return the dink with a dink.
Again, you should count with every shot.
So let’s imagine that, in this round, you hit 22 shots before someone made a mistake.
That means that there are 22 points on the board.
If the winner of the last round won this one, they would add 22 points to their 14 point total.
The game would be 36 to 0.
If the other player won this round, they would get the 22 points, and the game score would be 22 to 14.
The first player to get to 100 points wins the game.
This drill allows you to practice hitting quality dinks with the pressure of competition and scoring.
When should you dink in pickleball?
It’s important to know when you should dink during a game.
You want to develop a good dinking strategy to know when it will be an advantage to slow the game down.
This will take your game to the next level.
An advanced player can consistently execute a strategic dink.
- Keep your opponent at the baseline as long as possible.
At the start of a rally, you don’t want to get into a dinking rally first thing.
Both teams must let the ball bounce once on their side in order to follow the double bounce rule.
That means that the serving team and receiving team will stay near the baseline in order to play the ball off the bounce.
You want to keep your opponent in the back half of the court for as long as you can.
The first team to reach the NVZ line gains the advantage.
As long as your opponent is back at the baseline, you should hit deep shots to keep them at the back of the court.
If you hit a dink early, it will allow them to move up to the NVZ to play it.
And they will stay there.
- You should dink often if you are playing a power opponent.
If your opponent is a banger (a player who likes to hit the ball hard), you should hit a plethora of dinks to slow the game down once you are both at the NVZ line.
It will be hard for them to hit hard shots on low, well-placed dinks.
For many hard-hitters, they have relied on their power to win games.
So when they are forced to play a soft game, they are prone to commit errors.
- Use the dink against tall or lanky players.
Some players have long arms and length.
It’s tough to beat them by making them reach for shots.
They can cover a lot of court.
By hitting at your opponents feet, you can use the dink to make them bend and hit shots from a low spot.
This can be difficult for taller players because they have further to go to get to low balls.
- Dink to set up a better shot.
Dinking is a bit like chess.
You can dink in order to set up a later shot in the rally.
For example, you can dink very close to the net in the hopes that your opponent will pop the ball up so you can hit a hard smash.
In instances like that, you are using aggressive dinks to provoke a certain shot from your opponent and set yourself up with the winning shot.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dinking
What is the first rule of dinking in pickleball?
The first rule of dinking in pickleball is to hit it with a high arc and land it softly in your opponent’s non-volley zone.
If you can do this consistently, you will win a lot of points.
Why is dinking important?
Dinking is a very important shot in pickleball because it slows the game down.
A power player can be negated by a good dink player.
Every player should be able to execute a dink consistently–even the power player.
You will win many of your points by dinking consistently.
What is the difference between a dink shot and a drop shot in pickleball?
A drop shot and dink shot are very similar in nature.
The main difference between the shots is where they are hit from on the court.
A drop shot is often hit from the baseline and dropped into the opponent’s no-volley zone.
Similar to the dink, a drop shot is hit with a high arc that peaks on your side and lands softly in the NVZ.
Many players will hit a drop shot on their third shot of the game in order to have time to move from the baseline to your no-volley zone line in order to gain that advantage.
A dink shot is hit while already standing at the NVZ line.
What is a dead dink in pickleball?
A dead dink is a shot that lands in your opponent’s NVZ with no spin and bounces too high, allowing your opponent to attack it with a power shot.
It’s sort of like a dead duck.
In order to avoid a dead dink, hit your shot with more touch, landing it low and soft, or add some spin to make it more difficult to play.
Why should I learn to dink?
Learning to dink in pickleball is like learning to shoot a layup in basketball.
You’re going to get layups in basketball, and if you make them consistently, you’ll be successful.
In the same way, you are going to need to dink in pickleball–even if you prefer the power game.
Professional pickleball players are master dinkers.
Get consistent with your dinks, and you will be a consistent winner at the pickleball court.
If you are wanting to learn How To Play Pickleball Better, we have a guide packed with tips to take your game to next level. Check out our post with 10 tips to skyrocket your game.