Why You Lose Dink Rallies: Seven Fixable Habits
Seven habits that lose dink rallies, how to correct each one and a quick practice routine.
Dinking sounds easy: trade soft shots over the net into the kitchen. Yet most points there end in errors, not winners. Clean up the seven habits below and you win more of these exchanges with no new shots to learn.
1. Standing too upright
A dink is a low ball. Stay tall and you must stab down with your arm, which makes the paddle face unsteady. Sink into bent knees, keep your back reasonably straight and put your eyes nearer the ball.
2. Flicking the wrist
Wrist action shifts the face angle a little each time. Lock the wrist and swing from the shoulder like a pendulum, small and smooth.
3. Popping it up
A dink that bounces higher than the net invites an attack. The ball should peak on your side and settle low in the kitchen. Trouble comes from height, not pace.
4. Skimming the tape
Netting a dink ends the point on the spot. Add a margin by aiming slightly higher than feels necessary, and let the ball fall in.
5. Drifting backward
Long rallies tempt you to retreat. Each step back opens angles for your opponent and lengthens your shots. Keep toes near the line and slide sideways.
6. Always going straight
Crosscourt dinks cross the lowest part of the net and give you more kitchen to work with. Make them your default, and go straight only to change direction.
7. Attacking a low ball
Speeding up a ball that sits below the net normally pops it up for an easy put-away. Wait, and only accelerate balls above net height.
A fifteen-minute practice plan
- Five minutes of crosscourt dinks, counting how many in a row stay low
- Five minutes of straight dinks
- Five minutes of dink-and-wait, where attacking is only allowed on balls above the net
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