Your left foot is one of your biggest vulnerabilities on the court. A ball down there is impossible to attack and easy to make a mistake with. If you watch the pro game you will see dink after dink hit to the left foot of the right-sided player. It is one of the safer and more effective spots to hit a dink.
In tennis, an overhead from the frontcourt is a point-ender. In pickleball, not so much. It may take 5, 6, 7 overheads to win a point. Sometimes that’s not even enough, and you’re left with a ball in the net and a really sore shoulder.
Tennis players have an inherent advantage when it comes to playing pickleball for the first time. But not every racquet skill is applicable on the short court.
The biggest key when returning a serve is to keep it deep. Keep the other team back to maintain your positional advantage.
1. One of the most popular spots on the court to send the return is down the middle. Not exactly on the ‘T’, however, it’s a good idea to aim just to the left of the ‘T’, (assuming both opponents are right-handed).
One of the biggest gaps in strategy and technique between 4.0- and 5.0-level players is that 5.0s can execute strong fourth (and sixth) shots that keep their opponents back off the kitchen line.
We all have blind spots in our games and sometimes make mistakes we don’t even know we’re making. That’s why you subscribe to The Dink.
Here are five huge mistakes you’re making on the courts without even knowing it:
The pro pickleball game is becoming faster and faster, and third-shot drops are becoming less common. On the PicklePod, pro Zane Navratil admitted that he drops the ball about “zero percent” of the time.
Instead, he focuses on hybrid drop/drives (about 40 percent of the time) and drives (about 60 percent of the time).
If you are an avid pickleball player, odds are you have played a competitive game of some sort, whether it’s a local moneyball, a charity event, or even a PPA or APP-sanctioned tournament.
If you haven’t, maybe you are starting to consider it.
PicklePod co-host Zane Navratil has hit a million dinks in practice so you don’t have to. He provides a shortcut to the lessons learned on his journey here:
1. Ready Position
When training, Zane suggests holding a ball in your off-hand to make sure you come back to ready position between shots.
A paddle eraser a handy tool to help you keep your pickleball paddle clean of debris, ensuring better contact between the ball and the paddle during your games. We'll unravel the mystery of the pickleball paddle eraser, explaining how to use it, how it is made, and whether it's safe to use repeatedly on your pickleball paddles.
Kitchen violations happen constantly in pickleball. Everyone steps on the line at one point or another, but somehow no one believes they’re ever guilty. It’s a weird phenomenon where by the time your eyes look down at your shoe, it’s magically slid backward off of the line and provided justification for your defense.
One of the most important and difficult shots in pickleball is resetting the ball from the midcourt. It must be executed to near perfection, otherwise your opponents will be able to continue to attack you and keep you from the kitchen. Being able to hit consistent resetting drops from the midcourt is a crucial skill to have when progressing up the pickleball ratings ladder.
Pickleball partnerships commonly lead to friendships, unless you’re the player constantly responsible for getting your partner bodybagged. Once or twice in a game is alright but three, four, or five is a good way to make sure you two never partner up again. The most common scenario for this pickle faux pas is while cross-court dinking.
By this point in your pickleball journey landing a successful dink should be quite easy. An area where you might still be having trouble is landing third shots with the same consistency as pros. Ultimately, a drop from the baseline is theoretically the same as a dink. Your stroke should look the same for a drop.
Chemistry plays a major part in the success of a doubles team. Two less-skilled players who work together can beat two highly-skilled players who don’t mesh on the court.
There are plenty of things you can do to help build chemistry with another player.
You're in a dink war. The temptation to up the ante on each shot is great. You push yourself to the brink of the dink (pace, spin, angles), hoping your opponent will fold. It's a matter of pride. A battle of ego. The message: 'I can out-dink you all - day - long buddy.' But every time you up the ante, you up the risk. Your pride left the back door open, and in comes unforced errors.
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