How to Dink and Why It’s Important For Your Success in Pickleball

The dink is arguably the most fundamental shot in pickleball, which plays on pickleball’s defining characteristic: the inability to run right up to the net and smash the ball because of the non-volley zone rules.

A dink is a shot that is hit from the kitchen line that bounces in the opposing kitchen. Because your opponent has to let it come to them rather than running into the kitchen and hitting it before it bounces, dinks usually are unattackable shots.

The most important thing to remember when hitting a dink is that less is more. Our swing should be small and compact. Your biggest focuses should be:

1. Keeping your paddle face angled up to lift the ball over the net.
2. Keeping your grip loose so that you don’t over hit the ball. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being holding the paddle as tight as you can and 1 being holding the paddle so loose that it would nearly fall out of your hand, you should be at about a 2.
3. Keeping your arm straight through the swing.
4. Keeping your paddle in front of your body at all times.

Just remember, the lighter you hit your dinks, the more that will land in the kitchen, the less likely it'll be that your opponents will be able to attack you with more powerful shots!