Guides · Pickleball

How to dink in pickleball

A dink is a soft shot from the kitchen line that lands in your opponent's kitchen. Because nobody can volley from inside that zone, a ball that bounces there has to be hit up, and a player hitting up struggles to attack you. The one thing that separates a good dink from a bad one is height at the other end: a dink that bounces below the top of the net is safe, and one that bounces up to waist height is a gift.

Updated 19 September 2026 · 7 minute read

Why the dink works

The kitchen, or non-volley zone, is the seven-foot (2.13 m) strip on each side of the net. You cannot volley while standing in it or touching its line, and that includes momentum carrying you in after a volley. So the players at the line stand just behind it, and a ball that lands inside it has to be played after the bounce, from below the net, upward.

That is the whole logic of the dink. You make your opponent lift the ball, and you wait for the one that lifts too much. The dink itself rarely wins the point. It creates the ball that does.

What a good dink looks like

Ready. Toes a few centimetres behind the kitchen line, feet wider than the shoulders, knees bent, paddle out in front at about waist height.
Preparation. A small shuffle to get the ball in front of you, and the paddle drops below the ball with the face slightly open. The backswing is tiny: a few centimetres, not a loop.
Contact. Out in front of the body, between knee and hip height. The shoulder swings the arm forward and up; the wrist and elbow hardly move.
Finish. Short and toward the target, the paddle stopping around waist or chest height.
Recovery. Paddle back up in front, weight on the balls of the feet, ready for a dink back or a speed-up.

Grip for dinking

Use the continental grip: hold the paddle as if you were hammering a nail, with the index knuckle on the upper right bevel for a right-hander. It lets you dink forehand and backhand without a grip change, and at the kitchen there is no time for one. Some players dink forehands with an eastern grip, which is fine if the backhand is continental and you can switch quickly.

Grip pressure is the bigger variable. Three out of ten on a scale where ten is white knuckles. A tight grip sends the ball off the paddle faster and higher than you meant.

How to dink, step by step

Stay at the line. Backing off the kitchen line turns every dink into a longer, higher shot. Hold your ground and move sideways.
Get low with the legs. Bend at the knees, not at the waist. Bending at the waist drops your head and changes the face angle on every ball.
Paddle below the ball, face slightly open. Most dinks are struck below net height, so you have to lift. The open face does the lifting; you do not need to add wrist.
Swing from the shoulder, like a pendulum. The arm and paddle move as one unit. The movement is about thirty centimetres forward and up.
Keep the wrist firm. Not rigid, but the angle between forearm and paddle stays the same from start to finish. Every change in that angle is a change in height.
Peak on your side. The ball should reach its highest point before it crosses the net, then fall into the kitchen. Clear the net by roughly 15 to 30 cm.
Land it a foot or two inside the kitchen line. Not at the net. Too short and it hits the tape; the deeper part of the kitchen gives you margin and still keeps the bounce low.

Cue: lift with the legs, carry with the shoulder, nothing from the wrist.

If the ball has bounced short, you can step into the kitchen to play it. Just get both feet back outside before you volley anything.

The cross-court dink

Most dinks at club level should go cross-court, diagonally to the player opposite. Three reasons:

The net is lower in the middle. 34 inches (86 cm) at the centre against 36 inches (91 cm) at the posts. A cross-court dink crosses near the low part.
The ball has further to travel. The diagonal is longer, so you can hit it with a little more margin and it still lands in the kitchen.
It moves the opponent wide. A good cross-court dink pulls them toward the sideline and opens the middle for your partner.

The straight dink, at the player in front of you, is the change-up. It is shorter and crosses a higher part of the net, so it needs more care. The dink to the middle, between the two opponents, is useful when you want to create confusion over who takes it.

Patience: the dink is not the winner

Club players lose dink rallies in two ways. They dink one too high and get attacked, or they lose patience and speed up a ball that was below net height. A ball struck from below the net has to travel upward to clear it, so an attack from there tends to arrive at a comfortable height for the opponent, who counters it.

The rule most coaches give: attack the ball that is above net height, dink the one that is below. That can mean ten dinks. It can mean twenty. The player who is still dinking calmly at twenty usually gets the ball they want. Count your dinks in practice games; most people find they attack far earlier than they think.

Common dink mistakes and the fix for each

Flicking the wrist

The most common one, and the reason dinks vary in height. Fix: hold the wrist angle and swing from the shoulder. If the elbow is bending and straightening, you are flicking.

Bending at the waist

The head drops, the paddle face changes, the back complains. Fix: bend the knees until your thighs feel it, and keep your chest up.

Dinking too high

Usually a face that is too open or a swing that is too long. Fix: shorten the swing, close the face a touch, and aim for the ball to peak on your side.

Hitting from beside the body

Letting the ball get level with your hip means the paddle meets it late and the direction is a guess. Fix: shuffle so contact is in front of you, even for a dink that is only a step away.

Backing off the line

Every step back makes the next dink longer and higher. Fix: stay with the toes just behind the line and move sideways.

Going for the sideline

A dink that clips the sideline wins a point. Five that miss it lose five. Fix: aim half a metre inside the sideline.

Dink drills without a court

The dink is the shot that suits home practice best: small, slow and entirely a matter of shape. The full home routine is in pickleball practice at home, and the method for good shadow reps is in shadow swing drills.

Shadow dinks, 20 each side. Tape a line on the floor for the kitchen. Ready position, small shuffle, dink, recover. Cue for the set: the wrist angle does not change.
Shuffle dinks, 20. One step sideways before each rep, as if the ball had been dinked to your hip. Contact still in front.
Wall dinks. Stand a metre from a wall with a line at 86 cm. Dink just above the line, let it bounce, dink again. Count consecutive hits; twenty is respectable.
Hold the low position. Thirty seconds in your dink stance, paddle out front, three times. Your legs will tell you why your dinks drift upward late in a session.

It counts swings; it does not see the ball or where it would land. The wall does that part.

Dink drills on court

Cross-court dink rally. You and a partner at the line, diagonal to each other, dinking only into the kitchen. Count consecutive dinks; restart at any ball that lands outside the kitchen or pops up above the net.
Target cones. A cone a foot inside the kitchen line near each sideline. Ten dinks at it; count the ones that land within a paddle's length.
Skinny singles dinking. Use half the court, straight or cross-court. First to eleven, and every ball must bounce in the kitchen. Teaches placement and patience at once.
Dink and wait. Dink rally where you may only attack a ball above net height. Your partner calls any speed-up from below the net. It is humbling.
Moving dinks. Your partner dinks alternately left and right of you; shuffle, dink back cross-court, recover to the middle of your half.

Questions

What is a dink in pickleball?

A soft shot, usually hit from the kitchen line, that clears the net low and lands in the opponent's kitchen. Because it bounces low and close to the net, the opponent has to hit up and cannot attack it.

Should you use your wrist when you dink?

Very little. The movement comes from the shoulder like a pendulum, with the wrist firm and the angle between forearm and paddle held constant. A wristy dink varies in height from one ball to the next.

Where should you aim a dink?

Into the kitchen, low over the net, and most often cross-court, where the net is lower and the ball has more room to land. Aim a foot or two inside the kitchen line rather than at the net.

Can you step into the kitchen to hit a dink?

Yes, if the ball has bounced. You can stand in the kitchen to play a bounced ball, but you cannot volley until both feet are back outside it.

How do you stop your dinks popping up?

Keep the paddle face only slightly open, lift with the legs and shoulder rather than the wrist, and let the arc peak on your side of the net so the ball is already falling as it crosses.