INSTRUCTION
Advanced Dinking Technique — Rapid Recovery
By Morgan Evans
Are you younger than you used to be ? No ? In that case , take note of this instructional piece , as it will save you time and energy up at the kitchen line .
In pickleball , movement toward the ball usually gets the most attention , while the practice of covering the middle is routinely ignored by many . This leads me to the topic of this column — Rapid Recovery .
To achieve our goal of more effective recovery , we ’ re going to try to incorporate a recovery movement into the stroke . Let ’ s use the left side of the court and a crosscourt dink to the backhand as our example . In this scenario , you could use a normal sidestep or a cross step to meet the ball , then play the dink back wide crosscourt .
These shots may look fine on paper ; however , what if you accidently hit a little too high or hard , allowing your opponent to potentially attack the middle ? Should you always rely on your partner to protect the middle ? Please don ’ t ! Close the gap and protect the middle .
The reason not many players cover the middle adequately is that it takes real time and energy after you ’ ve played the shot , with no guarantee you ’ ll actually be needed in that position .
To help with this I want you to try to load even further onto your outside leg , allowing you to push off that leg during the shot . Your goal is to try to initiate the dink with your outside leg drive so that , as you ’ re contacting the ball , you ’ re already in motion toward your ideal recovery position — much closer to the center than you might think .
As you drive up with your leg and make contact with the ball , you may notice that the ball has a little extra power ; not to worry — you ’ ll get a feel for how to soften the shot . The best part about this is you ’ re not needing to move faster , because you will be moving earlier .
As you learn how to combine recovery steps with your dink technique , you ’ ll notice yourself never needing to camp out near the sideline , hoping for a gentle dink to come to you . You ’ ll feel faster around the court and your partner will never need to roll their eyes when you don ’ t cover the middle . Enjoy ! •
Morgan Evans is a Selkirk pro and team coach . He is also co-founder of coachmepickleball . com and head pro at Palm Desert Resort . For more information , visit coachmepickleball . com for a video on this topic .