lesson 5 of 7
Dink patience
Why the dink rally is a waiting game, which ball is worth attacking, and how to stop being the one who blinks first.
Forty dinks
A dinkDinkA soft shot, usually from the kitchen line, that drops into the opponents' kitchen. It stays low, so it is hard to attack.Glossary is a soft ball hit from around the kitchenKitchen also non-volley zone, NVZThe 7-foot zone on each side of the net. You cannot volley while standing in it or on its line, and your momentum from a volley cannot carry you into it. You can step in to play a ball that has bounced.Glossary line that lands in their kitchen. Hitting one is easy. Hitting forty of them without doing something stupid is the skill.
Nobody wins by dinking
This is the part that takes people a season to accept: the dink is not trying to win the point. It is trying to not lose it, for as long as it takes.
You dink, they dink, you dink. Somewhere in there one of them lifts a ball slightly too high — off balance, stretched wide, or just bored. That ball is the point. Everything before it was rent.
Dinking is not a shot you are playing. It is a question you are asking, over and over, until they answer it wrong.
The ball you are waiting for
The line is the top of the net, not your waist and not your comfort.
If the ball has come up above the net, you can hit down on it, and a ball hit downward is very hard to defend. If it has not, you are hitting up — and a good player at the line will take your speed-up and redirect it into the space you just left.
Attacking a ball that is not there is the single most expensive habit at 3.5. It feels decisive. It loses the point about two times in three.
Where to put them
Where the dink lands
Cross-court, mostly. The court is longer that way and the net is lower — 34 inches in the middle, 36 at the posts. More room for error on every single ball, and you will hit a lot of them.
At their feet, not at the line. A dink that lands two feet inside the kitchen is just as unattackable as one that kisses the line, and it does not go out when you miss by an inch.
Occasionally at their paddle hand, which is the awkward spot people are slowest to move away from. Occasionally — the moment it becomes your plan, it stops working.
How patience actually fails
It is rarely one bad decision. It is a small pressure that builds:
- You have been down there a while and it feels like nothing is happening.
- Someone on the other court is watching.
- Your partner has hit four in a row and you want to contribute.
- The last one was a little high and you nearly had it.
Then you hit up at a ball around your knees, and they put it away, and it is over. The rally did not beat you.
Count instead of feeling
The fix is mechanical, not emotional. Give yourself something to do that is not deciding:
Count the dinks. Out loud in your head, one per ball. It occupies the part of you that gets bored.
Name the ball before you hit it. “Low” means dink. “Up” means go. If you cannot say the word before contact, it is low.
Play skinny singles. Half a court takes away the space to hit a winner, so the only way to get through a game is to wait. Ten minutes of that teaches patience faster than deciding to be patient.
check yourself
Quick quiz
4 questions on this lesson. Pick an answer to see if you're right, and why.
Nobody wins a dink rally by dinking. You dink until one of them lifts one, and that ball is the point. Everything before it is waiting.
The net is the line, not your waist. If you have to hit up at all, a good opponent takes your speed-up and redirects it. Above the net, you can hit down.
Cross-court gives you the longest court and the lowest part of the net — 34 inches in the middle against 36 at the posts. More margin on every ball, which matters when you are hitting a hundred of them.
Twelve is not a long rally. Impatience is the most common way 3.5 players lose a point they were not losing. If nothing is up, nothing is up.
your score
– / 4
Answer the questions to see your score.
take it to the court
Drills
- Skinny singlesSingles on half the court: all of the shot-making, none of the sprinting. The narrow lane takes pace and width away, so the only way to win is placement.
- The wall rallyDink against a wall with a tape line at net height. Count your longest run of soft, controlled hits, switching forehand and backhand every ten.
- Dink to 25Cross-court dinks, counting out loud to 25. A pop-up or a miss sends you both back to zero.
- Odd one outThree players, two against one at the kitchen line. The pair may only hit into the single player's half; the single player can hit anywhere. Everyone keeps their own score.