Every 5.0 Knows This Pickleball Strategy

Author

Shea Underwood
April 12, 2024

WEEK 10

Welcome back to the Road to Pro!

Each week, I’ll be sharing one tip, one drill, and answering one question. BUT, that’s not all! The question I answer each week will be chosen from questions that YOU submit. The person who submitted the chosen question will receive a FREE paddle from me. Heather, who provided last week’s question, won a $250 Selkirk Luxx!

To submit your question(s), click on the button below to be taken to a Google submission form:

There is no limit to how many questions you can submit!

Tip of the Week

Lift vs Push

I learned this tip from Tyson McGuffin when I started playing pickleball three years ago. Dinking was a new concept for me since it is specific to pickleball and unlike the skills in any sport I had played before. Tyson broke down dinking into two simple components: a lift and a push. It’s taken me three years to really learn it for myself, and it is the most important dinking concept everyone should know.

There are really only three possible types of dinks: lift dinks, push dinks, and dead dinks. Out of these three, you should only be hitting two of them. Let’s break it down…

Lift dinks: These should be your default option when you are being attacked. If your opponent hits a dink to you when you are feeling off-balance, or if their ball is super low to the ground, you should focus on lifting the ball. A lift is more of a softer, slower, safer dink. It should have plenty of margin over the net and land in the front half of the kitchen.

Push dinks: You should look for opportunities to hit a push dink when you are not being attacked in a dinking rally. This type is more of a lower and faster dink used for an offensive play. Tyson uses the acronym S.L.Y. (Stable, Location, Yellow). If you are stable and balanced, the location of the ball is in a comfortable spot in front of your body, and the ball is around hip height, you should use a push dink to place the ball near your opponent’s feet at the kitchen line. Players will often add topspin or backspin to these shots.

Long story short, if you are being attacked, hit a lift dink to play defensively. If you aren’t being attacked and you have time, hit a push dink to play offensively.

The third and last type of dink is the dead dink. AVOID these dinks. This is a lift dink that goes into the back half of the kitchen, allowing your opponent to hit an attacking push dink or speed-up at you. It will put you back on defense, which is not where you want to be.

Drill Highlight

Dink like a Pro

Our drill this week is directly aligned with the tip. Start a dinking rally with your drilling. Before each dink, either say the word, “lift,” or “push” to signal which type of dink you are going to hit. You’ll find that when your partner hits a push dink to you, it’s incredibly difficult to send a push dink back. Most often, the response to a push dink should be a lift. All the top pros could do this with ease because they are very aware of what types of dinks they are hitting in all situations. You can do it too, and this drill will help you get there.

Q&A Spotlight

This week’s question comes from Patrick. Time to win a paddle!

Why should I start dinking when I have had no problem not doing it?

Answer: The truth is that you don’t ever have to start dinking if you don’t want to. It’s perfectly acceptable to hit every ball hard and never approach the kitchen line. In fact, you’ll probably win a lot of games by doing this! From 2.5 all the way to 4.5, a strong “banger” game is often the best strategy, simply because your opponents will have difficulty responding with control to hard hit drives.

That being said, there are two reasons you should consider starting to dink:

  1. In recreational play, you will be playing with people who don’t want to deal with fast balls flying at their body. Pickleball is fun! So, keep it fun. If your opponent in a rec game can’t handle the pace, then it’s good practice to slow your game down and get into some dinking rallies where they can get more involved.

  2. You finally run into a player on the other side of the court who has the ability to control the point with great drops and dinks. There are certain ball placements that can’t be sped up without making a mistake. If you get a third shot drop to your feet and the ball stays low, speeding it up will likely either hit the ball out of bounds or right into the net. The most reliable way to beat players with good dinks is to have even better dinks.

Click the video below to see what paddle Patrick won this week for his question!

If you have a question you’d like for me to answer, please click the button below to fill out the question submission form.

If your question is chosen for next week’s newsletter, you’ll win a free paddle!

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