What is a dink in pickleball?

A soft shot, usually hit from the kitchen line, that arcs just over the net and lands in the opponents' non-volley zone. Because it lands in the kitchen it cannot be volleyed, and because it is low after the bounce it has to be hit upward, which makes it hard to attack.

Why do pickleball players dink instead of hitting hard?

At the kitchen line a hard ball at a ready opponent comes back harder. A dink is unattackable if it stays low, so players trade dinks until someone hits one too high, then attack that ball. The dink is how you earn the attackable ball.

Should you dink crosscourt or straight?

Crosscourt by default. The net is lower in the middle, the diagonal is longer so the ball has more room to drop, and the sharp angle pulls the opponent wide. Straight-ahead dinks are shorter and riskier but useful for changing the pattern or targeting a weak backhand.

When should you speed up a dink rally?

When the ball you are about to hit is above the net at contact, or when the opponent is off balance, leaning, or has their paddle down. Speeding up a low ball from below net height is the most common way to lose a dink rally.

Guides · Technique

How to dink

The shot that makes pickleball pickleball: what it is for, how to hit it, where to aim, and when to stop dinking and attack. Updated 21 September 2026.

Watch a good doubles match and most of it looks like nothing is happening. Four players at the kitchen line, tapping the ball back and forth over the net, softly, for ten or twenty shots. Then one ball sits up two inches higher than the others and the point is over in a second. That soft exchange is dinking, and the reason it dominates the sport is not politeness. It is the only shot that cannot be attacked, so it is the shot you hit until your opponent gives you one that can.

What a dink is and why it works

A dink is a soft shot hit from at or near the kitchen line that clears the net by a small margin and lands in the opponents’ non-volley zone. Two rules make it valuable. The kitchen rule means a ball landing in the zone cannot be hit out of the air by someone standing at the line; they have to let it bounce. And a ball that bounces in the kitchen comes up below net height, so the opponent has to hit upward to get it back over. Hitting upward is how balls pop up, and a popped-up ball is what gets smashed.

So a dink rally is a contest of who can keep the ball lowest for longest. Every dink is an offer: “here is an unattackable ball; give me one back.” The person who breaks first, by hitting one too high, too deep, or into the net, loses the rally. Patience is not a virtue here; it is the strategy.

Side view, not to scale vertically. A dink and a third-shot drop both die in the kitchen so they cannot be volleyed; a drive clears the net by inches and keeps going.

Technique

Grip and paddle position

Use a continental grip, the same one you would use for a volley, held loosely. A tight grip transmits pace; a loose grip absorbs it, and absorbing pace is the whole job. Between shots keep the paddle out in front of your body, around waist height, face slightly open. If your paddle is hanging by your knee you will be late.

The motion: push, do not swing

A dink is hit from the shoulder, not the wrist or the elbow. The arm moves as one unit in a short lift, like tossing a ball underhand to a child. There is no backswing worth the name and no wrist flick. The paddle face stays open and the ball is lifted, not struck. If you find yourself “hitting” a dink, you are already swinging too much.

Contact out in front, and low

Bend your knees and get down to the ball rather than reaching down with the paddle. Contact should happen in front of your body where you can see the ball and the paddle together. Let the ball drop to the height where you can lift it comfortably; hitting it early at the top of the bounce is what sends it high. Taking it late and low with a lift gives you a low, controlled arc.

Apex before the net

The highest point of the ball’s flight should be on your side of the net, so that it is already falling as it crosses. A ball that is still rising when it clears the net keeps rising on the other side, sits up, and gets attacked. Aim to clear the net by 6 to 12 inches. Less and you hit the tape; more and you have hit a gift.

Footwork

Stay just behind the kitchen line, feet shoulder-width, weight on the balls of the feet. Move sideways along the line with shuffle steps; do not cross your feet, and do not step into the kitchen unless a ball is dying in front of you, in which case step in, hit the bounced ball, and step straight back out. Remember the rule: you can be in the kitchen, you just cannot volley from it, and both feet must re-establish outside before you next volley.

Where to aim

The dink has targets, and they are not “over the net.”

Crosscourt, by default. The net is 2 inches lower in the middle, the diagonal path is longer so the ball has more room to fall, and a sharp crosscourt dink pulls the opponent off the court sideways. Most of a good dink rally is crosscourt.
At the feet. A dink that bounces at the opponent’s toes forces the most awkward upward hit. A dink that lands mid-kitchen and bounces to hip height is a free ball.
The backhand shoulder. If a straight dink is going to be hit, aim it at the opponent’s backhand hip. It is the hardest spot to generate a clean lift from.
Behind their movement. Once you have pulled someone wide crosscourt, a dink back the way they came makes them change direction. Two changes of direction in a row usually produce a pop-up.
The middle, sometimes. A dink between two opponents makes them decide who takes it. Best used after a couple of wide ones.

The mistakes that get you sped up on

Hitting it too high. The cardinal sin. Anything that crosses the net above net height and keeps rising is going to be attacked. Cause: taking the ball early, swinging instead of lifting, or standing too tall.
Hitting it too deep. A dink that lands past the kitchen line is not a dink; it is a slow ball at someone’s waist, and they will volley it out of the air. Landing inside the zone is the whole point.
Standing too far back. If you are two feet behind the line, every dink lands at your feet in no-man’s-land and you have to hit up from further away. Toes at the line.
Paddle down. Recover to the ready position after every dink. The speed-up comes when your paddle is by your knee.
Dinking with no purpose. A “dead dink” to the middle at comfortable height is not safe; it is a rest for your opponent and a chance to set up an attack. Every dink should be going somewhere.
Getting bored. The most common loss at intermediate level is someone deciding, on the ninth dink, that they cannot stand it anymore and driving a low ball into the net or the opponent’s paddle. The ball did not change; only their patience did.

When to stop dinking

Dinking is the setup; the speed-up is the payoff. The signal to attack is the ball, not your mood. Speed up when:

the ball you are about to hit is above net height at contact, so you can hit it flat or down instead of up;
the opponent is leaning, moving, or off balance, so they cannot get their paddle in the right place;
the opponent’s paddle is low or they have just reached wide and are recovering.

Aim the speed-up at a body, usually the dominant-side hip or the backhand shoulder, not at the open court. From 14 feet away, an opponent with a paddle up can block a ball hit to a space; a ball hit at their body has to be handled with awkward hands. If they block it back, you are now in a fast exchange (“hands”), and the person with the paddle in front wins it.

If you speed up a ball from below net height, you have to lift it to clear the tape, which means it arrives at the opponent rising and at chest height. That is the easiest ball in pickleball to counter-attack. Wait for the right one.

Dinking in the browser game

In the free online pickleball game here, a tap on the swing key is a dink and a held swing is a speed-up: the charge bar goes green (still soft) and then yellow (a drive). The AI opponents dink back until you give them something above net height, then they attack it, which is exactly the discipline described above. The fastest way to feel the difference is to play a few points tapping only, then try speeding up a ball that has bounced low, and watch what comes back. The Hands stat on the build screen governs your kitchen range and recovery, which is the in-game version of “paddle up, out in front.”

Drills

Crosscourt dink rally (two people): Both at the kitchen line, diagonally opposite. Dink crosscourt only, count consecutive dinks, try to beat your record. Then repeat with the rule that any ball above net height must be attacked, which teaches both players what a bad dink looks like.
Dink and move (two people): One player dinks anywhere in the kitchen, the other has to return every ball crosscourt while moving along the line. Swap after 20 balls. Trains footwork and hitting on the move.
Wall dinks (alone): Tape a line on a wall at 34 inches. Stand 7 feet back and dink against the wall, keeping every ball just above the line. Boring, effective, and possible in a garage.
Target dinks (alone or with a feeder): Put a towel or a hoop in the far kitchen near the sideline and dink into it from the line. Twenty balls, count hits, move the target.

Common questions

How high should a dink clear the net?: 6 to 12 inches, with the apex on your side of the net so it is falling as it crosses.
Forehand or backhand?: Both, and you need both. Most crosscourt dinks for a right-hander on the left side are backhands. Practise the one you avoid.
Should I add spin?: A little backspin (slice) keeps the ball low after the bounce and is worth learning. Heavy topspin on a dink is an advanced tool and easy to overhit.
Can I dink from the baseline?: A soft shot from the baseline into the kitchen is a drop, not a dink, and it is covered in the third-shot drop guide.
What if my opponent never dinks and just drives everything?: Block their drives softly into the kitchen and keep your paddle up. Bangers lose to patient blockers; they do not lose to people who try to out-hit them.

Keep going: the third-shot drop is how you get to the line to start dinking, and the kitchen rule is why any of this works.

Or play a few points tapping only, and see how long the AI lasts.