Dinking Strategy - Part 1

Several recent posts have addressed how to dink and how to defend the dink. But technique skills alone won't allow optimal play. Understanding how to use the dink through advanced strategies is just as important. As usual, the most comprehensive video that discusses strategies is by Joe Baker. This video is called Doubles Pickleball Strategy 201 - Dinking Strategy.

Beginning dinkers playing comparable opponents will have success using a dink that stays low and challenges players to hit a string of shots up and over the net. But as players advance, their goal should be to increase the stress on their opponents. One aspect of this is pushing the ball toward specific targets as described in Dink like the Pros. Another aspect is when to aim at these targets. That strategy, as well as how to defend against it, are the topics of this post.

USAPA Atlantic Regional Tournament

Not many NC mountain players venture to Maine for a pickleball tournament, but distance doesn't stop the intrepid Dee and Rick Ezrol as they made the trip. That effort alone deserves a post on their results.

Rick Ezrol of Crosswalk and Niles Newton in the Mens Doubles (50+)

- Defeated Jim LaBrosse and Matt Rowe 11-3, 11-3

- Lost to Glenn Jordan and Hans Gundersen 11-3, 11-0 

- Defeated Tim Milam and Neal Buiniskas 15-4 

- Defeated Jim LaBrosse and Matt Rowe 15-7 

- Defeated Guy Tetrault and Mario Laflamme 11-5, 15-13 

- Lost to Glenn Jordan and Hans Gundersen 11-3, 11-8

Dink like the Pros

We earlier discussed the beginner's basic dinking method in Basic Dink Technique. Then we learned about targeting the dink in The Dink Game. While the basic method and targeting is a great start, a more effective dink is "pushing" the ball toward the target low and with spin. Deb Harrison describes this technique in her video Dink Like the Pros.

Hendersonville Dinking Clinic

I will be holding a clinic for all pickleball players Wednesday, June 29 from noon until 2:00 pm. The clinic will be held at the Hendersonville Athletic/Activity Center at 708 South Grove Street, Hendersonville, NC. The facility has regular play scheduled at the same time on 2 courts. The clinic will be held on the third court. Players can rotate in and out play as they choose.

My plan is to focus on one topic - dinking. The dinking phase of a rally can easily represent well over 50% of the play. That statistic should reinforce the need for players to understand both how to dink and how to use the dink. The shot is so important that this will be my first clinic devoted to a single shot. As preparation for both me and attendees, there has been a series of posts over the past several days on dinking...and those will continue tomorrow. 

The clinic will be free. Please spread the word.

Offbeat Sunday: Who Sleeps in the Barn?

A badminton player, a squash player and a pickleball player decided to stay at a country inn, but when they arrived there, the innkeeper told them he only had 2 beds free, one of them would have to sleep in the barn.

“That’s OK”, said the badminton player, “I`ll sleep in the barn.” So off he went.

A few moments later there was a knock at the inn door. The innkeeper opened the door to see the badminton player who explained that he was unable to sleep in the barn as there was a pig in there, and he could not sleep with a pig.

“That’s OK,” said the squash player. “I’ll sleep there.”

So, off he went. A few moments later there was a knock at the inn door. The innkeeper opened the door to see the squash player there, who explained that he was unable to sleep in the barn as there was a cow in there, and he could not sleep with a cow.

“That’s OK,” said the pickleball player, “I`ll sleep there.” So, off he went. A few moments later there was a knock at the inn door. The innkeeper opened the door to see a cow and a pig standing there.

The Dink Game - Anything Goes

We introduced the dink game in the post Dinking Drills. Deb Harrison took the game to next level by identifying dinking targets in her video The Dink Game Pt 1. Now Deb takes the game to its natural conclusion - playing it out without limits - in the video The Dink Game Pt 2: Recognizing the High Ball.

The Dink Game

I have previously written about the dink game in the post Dinking Drills. A simple description of the dink game is that it is played just like a regular game except that all play occurs with players positioned at the non-volley zone line. All shots, including the serve, are dinks and scoring is identical to a regular game. Deb Harrison takes the game to the next level in her video The Dink Game Pt 1.

Triangulation in the Dinking Phase

Since dinking comprises such a large part of the game, it is essential that players understand where they should be positioned during the play. We talked about team movement while at the kitchen line in the post Moving as a Team Part 1 - At the Kitchen Line. In that post, I talked about forming a wall in order to cover the 2/3 of the court that opponents could most easily exploit. Deb Harrison talks about the same concept in her video Tipbit: Triangulation.

Basic Dink Technique

The dinking phase of a rally can easily represent well over 50% of the play. That statistic should reinforce the need for players to understand both how to dink and how to use the dink. The shot is so important that I will have a dinking clinic next week, my first clinic devoted to a single shot. As preparation for both me and attendees, there will be a series of posts over the next several days on dinking. Today, we will start with technique.

Since dinking is so important, we certainly have not ignored it until now. Previous posts about technique include It Should be Called Dinkball and Basic Dink -- Consistency. I recommend a review of those posts because very little will be repeated here. Instead, we will start with a Mark Renneson video called Pickleball Dink Technique.

Powerade State Games Results

The Powerade State Games were played on Friday-Saturday with several local players participating. The results are shown below. Photos are from the Pickleball in the Triangle Facebook page.

Bruce Birdsall and David Kelly, both of Crosswalk in the Mens Doubles (50+)

- Defeated Jim Hendren and Ricky Stephens 11-0, 11-4

- Lost to Sean Shull and Reuben Montoya 11-4, 11-4 

- Defeated Rick Allred and George Ball 15-5 

- Defeated Donn Hendrickson and Pat Ryan 15-3 

- Defeated Jim Hendren and Ricky Stephens 15-9 

- Defeated Glenn Wible and Les Massengale 11-13, 11-4, 11-8 

- Lost to Sean Shull and Reuben Montoya 11-3, 11-3

Bruce and David win the silver medal. Congratulations!

Lelia Patterson Pickleball Tournament

I recently received an email from a fellow player about a local tournament July 6-10. It is indoors. It is nearby. It is inexpensive. Sounds great and I've already sent my registration form. Yours is below along with the other documentation in the email.

Lelia Patterson Pickleball  Tournament

July 5, Open practice for registered teams. 5:30 PM to 9:30PM

July 6, Women’s doubles: doors open @5:00 PM

July 7, Men’ doubles: doors open @5:00 PM

July 10, Mixed Doubles: doors open@ 12:00 PM

July 6&7

Skill levels 3.5 and below will have pre- game instructions at 5:15 and start play at 5:30. Skill levels 4.0 and higher will have pre-game instructions at 7:15 and start as soon as courts are available after the first group finishes.

Offbeat Sunday: Mullet Mike talks about the Kitchen

Don't try this on your courts.  From Mullet Mike:

Sarah talks Serving

I have posted several times about the changing nature of the service game. Traditionally, the serve has been considered part of the "Formality Phase" of a game, i.e., the serve was intended to start the rally without any offensive intent. In Service Strategies, I posted:

At all levels of play, getting the serve in-bounds is critical to success. An in-bounds serve is not normally the shot that wins or loses a point. It is generally considered simply as the shot that starts the rally. Even the top players in the game rarely do anything special other than exhibit basic strategies that can help set up a winning rally.

In The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 1, I discussed a Joe Baker video in which he used the "formality phase" term and I posted the following:

Even at top levels of play, the serve is not used as a weapon (although that is changing as mentioned in A Different Third Shot Strategy). There are a couple of reasons for this. First, the serve is an underhanded motion that takes away most of the ability to hit it it hard. Second, there is only one serve allowed (as compared to a game like tennis which allows two serves).

Prem Carnot Webinar (Part 2)

Yesterday I started to present the slides from Prem Carnot's webinar 7 Steps to Playing Advanced Pickleball. The size of the presentation required splitting it into 2 parts. This is part 2.

Prem Carnot Webinar

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a webinar hosted by Prem Carnot and his wife, Wendy Garrido. I sat through the 90 minute presentation and later received a 94 page slide presentation that was the basis for the discussion. Because you likely weren't crazy enough to sit in front of your computer for 90 minutes, I will present the key parts of the presentation here.

The first 20 slides were generally establishing the bona fides of the couple as pickleball experts. Most readers will accept that as fact and I will not include those slides. The next 30+ slides were dedicated to the presentation of the 7 Steps to Playing Advanced Pickleball. These are the slides shown in this blog. The remainder of the presentation was an "infomercial" promoting their boot camp and are not included.

The size of the presentation requires splitting it into 2 posts. The relevant slides for the first post are presented below without comment. The strategies and tactics discussed are nothing new to readers of this blog. But it is worth a read because it links a lot of thoughts together into a structured format. Click on the image to make it larger.