Now that you have all of this dinking knowledge, it is time to put it to work. Whether you are a 2.0 player or a 5.0 player, you are never too good to work on your basic dink. Drilling is the key to mastering pickleball skills. A few drills to master your basic dinking skills include:

1. Basic Dinking Feeds – Set-up on the pickleball court with you and your partner directly across from one another at the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line. Have your partner simply toss pickleballs to you to work on consistently hitting dinks with (a) an apex that is on your side of the pickleball court; (b) an apex that is one to two feet over the top of the net; and (c) falls into the two-thirds portion of the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen on your partner’s side of the pickleball court that is closest to the net. Remember to stay compressed in Pickleball Ready while working on your dinking basics and dinking footwork.

2. Simple Straight-On Dinking – Set-up on the pickleball court with you and your partner directly across from one another at the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line (this time, with a paddle in your partner’s hand). Work on dinking to each other back and forth to consistently hit dinks with the proper apex and landing zone. Again, remember to stay compressed in Pickleball Ready while working on your dinking basics and dinking footwork.

3. Simple Crosscourt Dinking – Set-up on the pickleball court with you and your partner on opposite sides of the pickleball net and opposites sides of the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen. Work on dinking crosscourt to each other going back and forth to consistently hit crosscourt dinks with the proper apex and landing zone. Again, stay compressed in Pickleball Ready while working on your dinking basics and dinking footwork. Remember to slightly rotate your feet and hips in the direction that you want the dink to go—crosscourt. Also, remember to work on both forehand and backhand crosscourt dinks.

4. Side-Shuffle Dinking – Have your partner stand across from you at the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line on the opposite side of the pickleball court. Work on hitting dinks back and forth to each other using your paddles. Start stationary. Then, when you are ready, lead your partner with a dink so that you both are shuffling together across the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line, sideline to sideline, moving about three feet left or right in between each dink.

5. Pattern Dinking – Set-up on the pickleball court with you and your partner directly across from one another at the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line. Play in only half of the pickleball court and follow the pattern: (a) straight-on dink; (b) crosscourt dink; (c) straight-on dink; (d) crosscourt dink, and so on. In other words, continuously hit dinks between you and your partner, where you will always hit straight ahead and your partner will always hit crosscourt. When you are ready, switch so that you hit crosscourt dinks and your partner hits straight-on dinks. If you want a bit more of a challenge, consider expanding the drill space from only half of the pickleball court, to three-quarters of the pickleball court, and then, for a real challenge and cardio workout, the entire pickleball court.

6. Triangle Dinking – Set-up on the pickleball court with you and your partner directly across from one another at the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line. Play in only half of the pickleball court and follow the pattern: (a) dink by your partner to your backhand; (b) reset straight-on dink by you to your partner; (c) dink by your partner to your forehand; and (d) reset straight-on dink by you to your partner, and so on. In other words, you will continuously try to reset the dink straight out in front of your partner, while your partner will try to move you back and forth on your side of the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line. If you want a bit more of a challenge, consider expanding the drill space from only half of the pickleball court, to three-quarters of the pickleball court, and then, for a real challenge and cardio workout, the entire pickleball court.

7. The Dinking Game – Set-up on the pickleball court with you and your partner directly across from one another at the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line. Play a game of pickleball using only one-half of the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line. If the pickleball goes outside of the Non-Volley Zone or Kitchen Line, the pickleball is out of bounds and the receiving team will earn one point. Use rally scoring; first to eleven wins! You can also play The Dinking Game in doubles to work on the important crosscourt dink, communication with your partner, and your basic dinking strategy.

Drill, drill, drill and dink, dink, dink. You should practice these basic dinking drills for at least twenty minutes, twice a week. If you do this, you will be on your way to consistently hitting 100 dinks in a row and mastering your dinking skills.