3 Tips to Improve Your Dink Practice

Don’t Just Dink

The biggest challenge I see with players who practice dinking is knowing what they are trying to accomplish in the first place.  You don’t want to go out and dink, just to dink.  You won’t get any better, and in fact, will simply be ingraining your current (perhaps faulty) technique. You need to have specific goals and targets.  How hard is too hard?  How high is too high?  Are you aiming for a target or just trying to get it over?

So today, let me offer you three tips which will make your precious dink practice time more effective.

Dink Practice Tip #1: Plan & Purpose

I know I have suggested this many times before but is critical that you practice with a purpose. Rather than just mindlessly dinking back and forth, give yourself some targets.  Try to identify when you are dinking offensively rather than defensively.  Are you watching the ball?  Are you relaxed, or are you holding your breath as the rally continues?  Set a goal for each time you practice.  Perhaps this week you want to just focus on staying relaxed and breathing.  Next week, you might focus on extending and pushing from your shoulder.  As you master this motion, see how long you can keep the ball on your paddle face.  Focus on carrying the ball over the net.

Most people think that dinking effectively is all about the correct arm movement….but in fact, everything starts with your lower body.  Often we overdo everything…swinging our bodies and moving our feet far too much.  When you practice dinking you want your feet to be quiet.

We have talked before about the difficulty with shuffling too much.  I want you to listen carefully.  If you are sliding your feet, you are NOT picking up your feet and shifting your weight.  Even on a small dink, you want your weight under you and moving into the ball.