Tip 1
Once you reach a point in your game where you can dink consistently and are ready to take your dinks to the next level, you can start adding topspin to make them more aggressive. Topspin makes the ball dip down and jump forward off the bounce, so you can hit with more pace and force your opponents into more uncomfortable positions. If you want to get topspin, make sure you get the paddle under the ball and swing up. Think of a windshield wiper’s motion across the front of your car and how fast it can move back and forth. We want to create a similar motion with our paddle face by brushing the ball and finishing over top of it. You won’t get topspin if you’re making contact on top of the ball to start. Your swing should be low to high to get the ball to spin forwards off your contact. When hitting topspin dinks, you should always make sure you’re well-balanced up at the kitchen line with the ball out in front. This isn’t a show that you’re able to hit if you’re off balance or on the run, so you should make sure that you’re only hitting topspin on “dead dinks”.
Tip 2
If you’re looking to be aggressive with your dinks at the kitchen line, look to take them out of the air when you can. Taking dinks out of the air gives you a couple key advantages:
- It takes time away from your opponent, meaning they have less time to recover from their previous shot and prepare for their next.
- Many players expect an attack when they see an opponent take the ball out of the air, which “freezes” them so they can prepare to counter, so they won’t be as prepared to move.
Remember, you’re allowed to reach over the kitchen line to hit a ball out of the air as long as your feet are positioned behind the line.
One thing that competitive players tend to struggle with is deciding when to take dinks out of the air. Here are three tips that will help you decide when to take the ball out of the air from the kitchen line.
- If your opponent is hitting a dink on the run. When you’re hitting in motion, you’re more likely to pop a dink up. It’s generally harder to control the ball on the move. So when you see your opponent moving, prepare to hit the next one out of the air.
- If your opponent prepares to slice a dink, get ready to lean further in and hit out of the air. Once your opponent commits to a slice, they can’t speed up at you anymore. Slice speedups are very low percentage, and usually go out or in the net. Knowing this will allow you to lean further into the court, because you don’t have to worry about counterattacking. Plus, backspin makes the ball hang in the air longer, carrying it deeper, giving you a better opportunity to hit out of the air.
- If you keep your paddle far out in front and lean in, it will help you judge the ball better. It’s very tough to judge whether or not a dink can be taken out of the air if your ready position is close to your body. You should have enough space to fit a grapefruit between your elbows and your body when you’re in your ready position.
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