The State of Dinking in 2024: What’s Working Now

things in pickleball are evolving at a crazy Pace things are very different from what they were just a few short years ago and it keeps changing rapidly the caliber of players has certainly grown and the skills many of them are bringing in are staggering the Equipment Technology has certainly improved by Leaps and Bounds as well the combination of the arrival of these changes has taken the game to new levels most notably the use of strategic power has skyrocketed there's no question that power has arrived it's here to stay and will likely just keep getting bigger

and better so it begs the question is dinking dead as much as many would like to think it's true and yes I'm looking at you bangers and those that just love to hit hard all the time it simply isn't true and likely will never be dinking is still and will likely always be an important part of the game for the simple reason that when all four players are up at the non-volley zone line a dink is often strategically the wisest option because of that non-volley zone if you can get the ball to bounce then it's

significantly limits your opponent's options and the non-volley Zone certainly helps with that because it forces a bounce because you can't stand in there and volley that's what it was designed for so in this all four players up at the line formation when an attack with a high likelihood of success is not available to you a dink is an order and an effective dinking game is very useful to help you set up your next attack and that leads to the next big question of how to strategize an effective aggressive dinking game to set up that next

attack and how do you build the skills to do it that's exactly what we're going to unpack in today's video I'm Nicole Havlicek this is primetime pickleball we've helped thousands of players play better pickleball and we can help you play your best game too so please subscribe to this channel it'll help you to get notified as new videos come out and it really helps with the YouTube algorithm to help get this information out more broadly to more people we really appreciate it alright let's dive into today's important lesson foreign so we're going to build our

dinking skills in stages we'll work through these levels of skill from beginner all the way up to the most advanced level of dinking capabilities for each of these dinking levels be sure that you check the box for the level on the forehand as well as on the backhand side before moving on don't skimp on that backhand side please I beg you level one consistency so for consistency you're going to hit in a narrow range straight back and forth to one another just like this both of you are hitting a dink in such a way that

it bounces comfortably in a Range about here so that it has some time to rise before it gets to your training partner and they can have a comfortable contact point after a rise that's all we're doing here this is beginner level truthfully these are what we would call dead dinks in pickleball and they're not desirable in the long run a dead dink is a dink that is not pressing the opponent in any way they could easily hit a dink that presses you or they could possibly attack strategically it's not wise but at first don't worry

about that set that aside other upcoming levels will take care of that at first the only question that you must be able to answer yes to before moving on is can you consistently hit a basic dink even if it's considered a dead Dink and can you hit the dink consistently on both the forehand and backhand side if you can comfortably hit it to the range I mentioned and do 40 so that's 20 touches each with total command as if you can do it in your sleep then you're qualified to move on to the next level

level two lateral accuracy can you move it across the kitchen so they're going to hit it right back to you and you're going to move it from side to side approximately two feet at a time first in One Direction and then back the other way it should take you about five dings to get it across the half of the kitchen you should be able to get there and back comfortably in control full command you can say that you have successfully completed this level if you can get there and back twice comfortably can you do that

with just your forehand can you do that with just your backhand can you do that alternating forehands and backhands you don't pass unless it's a confident yes to each of those questions then work on mixing it around laterally ad hoc at any Target that you choose on the Fly But be sure to decide and then hit don't be fuzzy about what your target is because you can only know if you're accurate if you hit that Target pick the Target in your mind and then be sure that you're hitting that Target before moving on to the

next level level three add depth accuracy once you clearly have control over your lateral movement keep the lateral movement and add depth movement good dinking targets are quite specific and systematic when you're trying to work the player across from you and get them out of position so that you can create openings for more aggressive dinks and put them in even more trouble and ultimately get shots that you can attack though to be clear we're not attacking in these dinking exercises is right now it's dinks only good targets are to press them at one of their

feet or even right between their feet the backhand side foot is usually a great option to hammer regularly because it's a low contact point backhanding for them and that is the shakiest dink for a lot of people but generally if you're hitting it in their Direction you want to aim for it to of course always remain low so pretty tight crossing the net with a landing Target in this range here so that you're jamming them up in their feet low dinks at the feet are tough when you're dinking in a direction to the side of

them you can pull them short and then push it deep and behind them in the other direction that works on both sides so short here and then deep over there or short here and then deep there I love the pull in and then push back dinking play whenever I can create it if they defend it well that's totally fine you just do it again eventually oppress them into a tough enough spot to do more damage you can also push it deep first and then pull it in short or you can do a push pull or

a pull push on the same side so generally you just want to be yanking them around the box laterally as well as with different depths and if you're going at them then mostly Jam them up in the feet that's the strategy in a nutshell so at this level they've been hitting it basically right back to you as you work on your patterns on them so your goal is to apply pressure with location variety at this level while you're receiving a dink that's not stressing you too much right now level four is withstanding pressure so now

they can do the same lateral and depth variety to you that you have been doing to them at this stage you can make a game out of it you can play games to Five Points and you're both hitting pressing dinks that like we just discussed in those patterns if you can and if you're in trouble then you just bump it over and do what we would call a reset dink that just keeps you in the point and from there work on finding ways to apply pressure again but first order of business is to get yourself

out of trouble if you are quite pressed in a particular dink as at some point you will be so reset dinks are a key skill level five is applying and withstanding even more pressure at this level you're going to be doing everything you did in level four with the lateral and depth pressure and now you're going to be adding spins as you mix those locations this adds another layer of complexity for them to deal with mix in slice dinks with your forehand and backhand and also so top spend inks which are likely to do mostly

off the forehand side you can use topspin on the backhand if you have a two-handed backhand dink I'd recommend considering adding this dink to Your Arsenal over time if it's not something you have right now you might be asking well why not topspin on a one-handed backhand dink on a one-handed backhand topspin shot in general dinks included you need to have your contact Point well out in front because you're hitting side shoulder is in front and not in the back like it is on your forehand so late contacts are more forgiving on that side on

that forehand side and you're just not going to get super out in front contacts on dinks against good teams that know how to hit pressing dinks unless you're reaching in for a dink volley and if you get one that's high enough to do Top Spin on since you have to get under it quite a bit then it's probably high enough to attack so you'd be doing that you wouldn't be dinking on all other dinks that are coming to the backhand side they'll most likely be most well suited for a slice dink in response once you're

working at this level of dinking which is the highest level you should be doing dinking games like this regularly to sharpen and deepen your skills once your dinks are quite developed at this level you'll want to add the option to attack so you don't get lulled into a false sense of complacency when you know that only another dink is coming once your dinking skills are at this level where you can laterally move at will move the depth round at will and add spins at will all kinds and then also be able to hit reset dinks

you're going to want to revisit this game again and again regularly basically for as long as you play the game with ultimately the option to attack as well so that you can keep sharpening your dinking skills over time and this type of drilling and gaming will serve you for as long as you play the game of pickleball so be sure to come back to it again and again and again as helpful as we think the tips we're sharing in today's video are there's more to achieving success on the doubles chord want a complete A to

Z step-by-step blueprint for playing winning doubles pickleball check out our dominating double system today go to doublesystem.com to learn all about it if you enjoyed this video please like comment and share for more Pro Player pickleball tips techniques strategies and more on how to take your game to the next level please visit primetimepickleball.com you'll find a clickable direct link in the video description below thanks for watching we'll see you in the next one and until then Happy pickling much of this footage was captured at the Oakland Hills tennis club in Oakland California a big thank

you to them for the use of their amazing facility