Coach Mary’s Tip of the Week
Back to dinking, but this time, we are making them aggressive! Catherine Parenteau demonstrates four ways to weaponize your dinks to create errors or weak responses from your opponents. Check out this great video!
Aggressive dink No. 1: Slice dink
Catherine emphasizes comfortable and balanced body position. Contact from high to low, on the side of the ball, with a firm grip. Lead with the shoulder and bend down on your paddle side leg to create more control and balance. Finish with your paddle under the ball. You should see the ball spin backwards, and it will stay low. Don’t forget to use your off arm to help you rotate and follow-through. After contact, recover to a ready position for the next shot.
Aggressive dink No. 2: Topspin dink
This stroke is low to high, so unlock your wrist to point your paddle toward the ground, below your wrist. Brush up on the ball and follow-through. Use your off shoulder/arm to create depth and control. This ball will kick forward after contact on the ground, putting your opponent on defense. You can do this easier on the backhand side with a two-hander.
Aggressive dink No. 3: Hit deeper to your opponent’s feet
If you see that your opponent likes to back up or does not like to take dinks out of the air, move to keep them deep, placing your dinks deeper and to their feet. A bit more hips and shoulders to get the ball deeper, with a bit more follow-through. You are aiming to land the ball at their ankles (Ankle-biters!) This may force pop-ups or weak dink returns. FYI: to defend against this, use a short hop technique.
Aggressive dink No. 4: Mix up your locations – make them move
Keep your opponents off balance. Move your dinks from crosscourt, down-the-line, middle, inside foot, outside foot, right at them, etc. Vary your depth, spin, and height. Use a two-handed topspin dink, then maybe a one-handed slice dink. This forces them to move, to communicate, and to keep them from anticipating.
Upcoming events
NEXT INDOOR ROUND ROBIN: Aug. 24 at the Palm Desert Civic Center Park gym. Email me with questions or to enter at mgbarsaleau@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Pickleball: How to weaponize your dinks to dominate your opponent
Reporting by Mary Barsaleau / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
