Your opponent's just hit the perfect drop shot. What do you do?
Hey everybody its CJ Johnson. If you answered dink you win a prize. But
do you know why you answered dink? We talk about it, we practice it and my
goodness it is on a variety of t-shirts but what is the dink and why exactly do
we use it?
A dink is a higher and softer shot that's typically hit from the non-volley
zone or the kitchen line. It lifts over the net and drops quickly. Forcing our
opponents to hit up on the next shot in order to return it. As you watch this
exchange in slow-mo be aware of two things. Tne first one is the trajectory
of the ball. You can see how it drops quickly but also be aware of the apex of
the bounce. It's low and below the net which again requires us to hit up on the
shot to return it. The next thing to watch is the paddle angle. You'll notice
that the paddle angle is up and as the ladies hit the shot they simply lift the
ball up and over the net.
The dink is a high percentage response to a well hit drop shot. As you'll see in
this next series the returner is forced to hit a ball that's traveling below the
net and hit up on the shot. Therefore the dink is a pretty logical
shot to stay in the point.
Not only is the dink a great answer to a well hit drop shot it's also the start
of an offensive strategy. I think of it a little like chess. You move the pieces
around in order to expose one of your opponent's weaknesses and eventually get
checkmate. The same thing happens in a good dink rall. You're trying to either
get your opponent to miss the corresponding dink shot. To hit a ball a
little higher than they should because after all the paddle angle is already
traveling up or to create an opening between your opponents and hit a shot
through that opening. As you watch this dink exchange pay special attention to
the trajectory of the ball and the shot choice that the players are making . When
the ball is low they're hitting the higher softer dink. If it comes up a
little bit above the net they're being a bit more aggressive with this shot.
This great rally finally ends when Gigi sends the ball just a little bit high
and her opponent sends it right back to her body.
This dink rally is from the 55-plus gold medal match at the USAPA nationals.
What we're going to see are the teams use the dink to try and move each other
around the non-volley zone and to either create a missed shot or an opening
between the teams. You'll notice that each and every dink they're
strategically using it to either land at somebody's feet or to make them move to
hit it because after all if we're moving we're much more likely to make a miss
than if we're simply standing still. We're gonna notice here on this next
shot is the dink comes up just a little high over the net and Glen is able to
step in and start an exchange which eventually ends the point.
This last clip is one of my favorites because we don't often see an aerial view.
We've got Gigi Lemaster on the left and Cookie Drake on the right. You'll notice
a well hit drop shot gets Bill up to the line and a dinking game ensues with Gigi,
who's one of the best 5.0 dinker's in the game. Now every time a dink is hit to
her you'll notice Cookie Drake will move to cover the middle when she sees where
the shot goes and when it comes back to Bill she starts to cover the line. So
Bill is trying to move Gigi around so that he can take advantage of perhaps an
out of position Cookie (Drake) to try to hit a winner. So she moved to the center now
she moves back to the line. He thinks he sees an opening and he
tries the shot down the line.
Now that you know what a dink is and why we use it make sure you come back next
week when we show you how to hit it. If you found value in this video if you
want mine leaving a comment down below, perhaps you can talk about how the
dinking part of your game has evolved as you've been playing pickleball or like
it or maybe even share it with your pickleball playing friends. You can also
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I post a new video. Cause together we can Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well