🥒🏓 What To Do When They Dink To Your Shins

1️⃣ Split step, so you have a stable base. Stay 🏋️ down throughout the shot.

2️⃣ Hit the bottom right side of the ball with a slightly open 🏓 paddle face

3️⃣ Consider like you are turning the 📻 audio / radio down in your car - the forearm rotation for this stroke is tiny, as you are using the pace of the ball dinked / dropped to you. If you try to do more, you will hit the ball into the net or out.

4️⃣ 🎯 Aim about 1 foot inside the corner of the crosscourt kitchen. This will cause your opponent to abruptly stop their momentum going towards the middle to shift their weight towards the sideline to return your shot. Your shot may cause

✅ Missed dinks
✅ Flat, dead dinks, as your opponent may be off balanced attempting to return your shot
✅ Your opponents to be on ⛸️ ice skates, as this shot should open up a plethora of options for what you want to do with the next ball if they return this shot back to you 👍🏻

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When you get the perfect lob. #pickleball #pickleballislife #pickleballers #pickleballaddict #picklenparsmithtown #fail ...

🥒🏓 Tip To Stop Hitting Your Backhand Rolls & Flicks Out Of Bounds

⭐️Strike the ball from a steeper "down-up" incline. This will 👇🏻

✅ Allow you to lift the ball over the net
✅ While providing more topspin to prevent the ball from going out of bounds

🚨The backhand roll and flick are strokes that takes much practice and trial & error with. Discover the little tweaks that work best for you. I find for myself that thinking "down-up" more than forward helps me improve my consistency with those shots 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Tips For 2 Hand Backhand Dink Consistency

1️⃣ Cup your right wrist, so that the paddle tip is at 1 ⏰. Keep that right wrist stable throughout contact. Maintaining the paddle face`s angle will
allow the ball to slide off the paddle face consistently.

2️⃣ Develop rhythm & balance by doing a shuffle step, aligning your feet with the angle the ball is coming from, and squat down with the ball.

3️⃣ Hit the bottom left of the ball & follow through with the top of your left thumb hitting your right shoulder at the end. This will provide spin and fluency with your stroke

🚨 I would first practice hitting this shot cross court to the opponents backhand, as you have more space to work with. Once you become fluent, you should practice hitting this dink to the middle 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Lethal 2-Shot Speed Up Combo

1️⃣ Shuffle your feet to get behind the ball early, so you can move down with the ball, & hold your launching point for a split second.

2️⃣ Deceive your opponents that you will be speeding up down the line with your head, eyes, arms & paddle. This will increase your chances that your opponent is late with their counter, setting yourself up best for your 2nd shot.

3️⃣ Hit a 2 hand backhand topspin speed up, brushing up the bottom left of the ball. I would 🎯 aim just outside their left hip, so they have to reach outside of their left hip with a backhand while not hitting it too wide of their left hip, as that will be your cross court`s opponent`s forehand.

4️⃣ This speed up will lead to the ball being countered most likely to your forehand, which you will attack as your 2nd of the combo, aiming down the middle or at the cross court opponent. Practicing this combo, so you can synchronize your movements, balance, anticipation, and consistency with that forehand you hit the 2nd ball with is key, as that is the shot you will need to win rallies off of speed ups against 5.5+ opponents.

🚨 To clarify, Mikael hit this attack right inside the opponents right hip, not outside their left hip. Because the opponent was fooled and opened up their right side to hit a forehand counter initially before switching to their backhand, Mikael`s attack generated a similar🔻triangle pattern

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🥒🏓 How To Hit A Forehand Topspin Dink

1️⃣ Slightly rotate your forearm & elbow with your wrist serving as an axis. A lot of time I see people attempt this shot by rotating the wrist forward like they are flipping over their 🍳 egg omelette with a spatula. The problem with that is the paddle face then turns, which does not allow the ball to slide off the paddle face. Thus, maintaining the same paddle face angle throughout any shot involving spin is necessary.

2️⃣ 🎯 Aim for the right side of the ball. This will cause more spin, many time even a bit of side spin included, which will allow the ball to spin down and away from your opponents.

3️⃣ Always make micro adjustments with your feet to set yourself in a balanced position behind the ball before going for this shot. Too often I see people attempt this without moving their feet, thus causing them to be unbalanced when striking the ball leading to misses. I like to think of it as if someone rolled a ground ball to me in baseball. Because baseball infielders need to not only field the ball, but also throw the ball to first base. They must align their feet & balance to direct their momentum to first base or else they won`t be able to set themselves up to make a solid throw. Think of dinking like that. Yes, you can get a paddle on the ball without moving your feet many times on a sink, but you won`t be able to land it effectively if you do not align your feet and balance 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Pickleball Tips To Dink Consistently With Your Forehand

1️⃣ Keep your paddle face slightly open, so when you hit the ball, the trajectory will go up over the net while not going too high over the net.

2️⃣ Keep your wrist locked, so the trajectory set by your paddle face being slightly opened doesn`t alter. If you unlock your wrist and fling it up, the ball will fly up.

3️⃣ Face your palm towards you target, as your palm is your compass. Where your palm faces is where the ball will head toward.

4️⃣ Absorb / Use the pace of the incoming ball to control the depth of your dink. As you practice, you will develop an intuitive feel for how to handle various paces 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Pickleball Dink To Protect Your Inside Foot!

Before I committed to playing the right side and training on that side of the court, I used to struggle tremendously handling dinks that were hit at my inside foot. I felt awkward with my feet. I felt handcuffed attempting to hit 1 hand backhand dinks from that position. I would hope my opponents would move the ball to my forehand, UNTIL I studied how the top right side players handle this dink 👇🏻

1️⃣ Step left with your left foot

2️⃣ Then, slide your right foot in to be able to hit this dink with a forehand instead of a backhand

3️⃣ Aim 1 foot inside the crosscourt kitchen corner. This will push your opponent wide, which may cause them to become off balance, create space to attack, and ultimately gain the upper hand in the kitchen battle

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🥒🏓 The Safest Dink In Pickleball

⭐️ Width - dink to the inside (left) foot of the right side player (if they are a righty)

⭐️ Depth - 2 feet inside the kitchen line

⭐️ Why? - This is an uncomfortable spot to hit a backhand dink from. In addition, it is tough for the right side player to hit any aggressive dinks or angles. Finally, there are not any holes to speed up from that position.

⭐️ Application? - Seek to dink to this spot early in a match to see how the opponent responds. Stay there often if they struggle. If they are able to handle it OK, use it as a table setter to set up angled dinks to move your opponents. If they work around to their forehand, hit an angled dink first and then go back to this spot to catch their backhand. Finally, when in doubt or when you are a bit off balanced or uncomfortable, go to this spot as it will allow you restore balance 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 How To Hit The 🍌 ATP

⭐️ To increase your capabilities of hitting the ball around the post, hold the ball & strike the outside of the ball to get used to the feeling of hitting the ball very thin. Hitting the ball this way will cause the ball to curve into the court.

⭐️ In addition, this stroke allows you to stroke the ball fluently without over hitting the ball deep out of bounds.

⭐️ After you practice hitting ATP`s this way, this stroke will become the norm & I assure you will hit many more & from tougher angles than you were previously hitting them from 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Tip On Court Positioning After A ✅ Great 3rd Shot Drop

This is a crucial tip, as I see many players 3.0-4.5 either hanging at the baseline or running up to the kitchen without assessing their partners 3rd shot drop, which creates holes that can be exploited.

How should the serving team position themselves before & after a great 3rd shot drop is hit? 👇🏻

1️⃣ The player NOT hitting the 3rd shot should move up to the transition zone, stabilize their base, and assess the trajectory of their partner`s 3rd shot drop. This player should move up one more big step further and split step AFTER they assess their partner`s 3rd shot drop will be landing in a spot where the opponent will be striking the ball on their 4th shot beneath the net cord. This allows them to poach & attack any ball that is floating and in reach. Furthermore, this positioning now makes the opponents best 4th shot a cross court dink, as any ball hit to this player allows this player to take control of the rally.

2️⃣ AFTER the player hitting the 3rd shot drop assesses their 3rd shot will be landing in a spot where the opponent will be striking the ball on their 4th shot beneath the net cord, the player should take a big step forward and split step, anticipating they may need shuffle wide to get behind the ball to hit an effective 5th shot drop to then become settled at the kitchen line. IF the player who executes the 3rd shot drop shot does not anticipate the opponent hitting a crosscourt 4th shot dink (either out of the air or off the bounce), they will get beat out wide & miss a solid opportunity to get their team to the kitchen line. IF the opponent hits a ball down the middle, your partner should poach & take it! 👍🏻

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🥒🏓 Drill For ⚡️Quicker Backhand Volleys

1️⃣ Feeder feeds will hold 2 balls & 2 balls in a row rapidly. The first ball they strike off the bounce at their drilling partner`s chest, as more volleys in pickleball will come from the angle of the opponent striking the ball off of the bounce.

2️⃣ Once the feeder has hit the first ball, they will toss the 2nd ball at their hip level & hit the ball at their drilling partners chest.

⭐️ This drill will improve your technique, reload speed, & balance because you will get exposed if you are too long with your stroke, if you do not get set for the 2nd ball, and/or if you are off balanced after hitting the 1st ball 👍🏻

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