ADVANCED
ADVANCED
DINKING
TECHNIQUE
A
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 professional pickleball player, coach, and commentator. In 2017, Morgan became the first professional tour pickleball coach in the history of the sport. A native of Perth, Western Australia, Morgan now serves as a Team Selkirk advisory member. For more player tips and tricks, visit coachmepickleball. com.
by MORGAN EVANS
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