No, you have to pivot back on dinks at your feet if you can’t get them out of the air. That allows you the space to make contact out front and push the ball forward. When we step forward, we are bring our back foot up parallel with you other foot, right before the kitchen line.
I am referring to your position at almost feet behind the kitchen line, see around 2:18 time. If you stand closer you would be able to hit valley. Staying foot behind kitchen does make stepping back and forth safer but the price is too big. You stepping back and hitting dink down the line. Good players stay closer to kitchen line and dinking cross court but when ball is hard to valey they are stepping back only to allow bounce for attack, speedup down the line. So I wonder which strategy is better : staying foot behind kitchen and stepping back for the sake of slightly more aggressive dink or positioning for valleys and stepping back for very aggressive shots
@@yasim9435 Dom can't properly answer your question because he doesn't cover what Tanner covers on his channel: knowing when to be more offensive and when to be more defensive. Dom is defining a push dink differently than other commentators. Dom defines a push dink as any dink with your paddle off to the side where you aim to the kitchen line, or slightly beyond. On Tanner's channel, a push dink also has shape, usually a fair amount of top spin, and they tend to be angled cross court more aggressively. On Tanner's channel, a lift dink is not a dead dink if aimed at a good location, usually in the vicinity of the backhand foot. Cincola, on his channel, advises underspin on the full cross-court backhand dink exchanges to help float the ball safely over the net. Topspin is more valuable on shorter or faster dinks where the opponents are under more time pressure. Underspin slows the shot down and gives you more time to return to your ready position. When off balance and pressured by an aggressive push dink, Tanner and Cincola both recommend using shorter lift dinks to the backhand foot of the near-side opponent. When on balance and less pressured, they recommend an aggressive push dink to the far-side opponent's backhand foot. Obviously, if the situation allows you to attempt an aggressive push dink, you will place your toes right at the NVL, and you might also lean in. But if the situation clearly calls for a defensive lift dink to a safe target (not a dead dink to nowhere) you can make your life a bit easier by relaxing you toe position at the NVL. Unless you are training to be a pickleball robot, this is enough guidance for you to figure out what works for you. It's finally your job to know what is best for the situations you find yourself in. That's why we play the game. There are actually opponents out there who perform better on balls hit to their backhand foot rather than their forehand foot. You've got eyes. Figure this out for yourself. As a further comment, the most under-explained concept in pickleball is that time pressure cuts both ways. Who needs the time more? If you need the time more-usually because you or your partner are out of position or out of structure (or one of you has restricted mobility)-then chose the slower shot option. One play aspect that separates the players everyone wants to play with from those who are less favoured is the situation where you are perfectly positioned and you feel ready to lower the boom on the opponents with a high-pressure shot, but your partner is off balance, or out of position, or out of sync with the flow of the rally. If you pressure the opponents in this situation, there's a good chance you are doing more harm to your partner than to your opponents. A good example of this is an aggressively 5th shot drive from short transition while your partner is still in full stride. This applies tons of pressure on the opponents, but if it sprays wildly back to your partner's side, you better hope your partner was varsity volleyball or varsity ping pong in a previous life. If your partner doesn't know which option you will choose, your partner will hesitate further out of position, in case the ball comes back fast, rather than risk charging in all the way to the NVL, or making a full recovery of optimal positioning during a dink exchange. 80% of the time I'm going to hit the shot that buys my partner a full recovery. The other 20% of the time I'm going for the pressure shot that keeps my opponents honest. The theory of dinking is fundamentally a theory of time management. In doubles pickleball, time management cuts both ways. Edit: I just remembered that Cincola uses the frame of his leg to decide whether to dink defensively near-side or aggressively far-side. If you are reaching outside the frame of your leg, that's a clear sign the defensive shot is the better option. For precisely how he defines the frame of your leg, you'll have to hunt down the video on Cincola's channel. Your job, not mine.
My point is well illustrated by Ben’s tutorial. See where how stable his feet position right at the line and not moving . ruclips.net/video/pt3HWfs7YCs/видео.htmlsi=oW6V7JpLnt6BNAXP
Absolutely agree it’s the pace.
Great video. Actually watched it to the end which is rare for me.
That’s a huge compliment. Glad you enjoyed it.
Same!
Great video/great teacher. You are one of the reasons I like to watch APP tournaments - I learn alot from your commentary!
Thank you!
Great job Dom!! 🙌🙌
🙏 🎉
Wow! This is great information. I wish I had learned this a few years ago. Can’t thank you enough.
You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed the video.
This is great.
Thank you Sylvia!! 🙌
Pickle advice should always be framed in terms of skill and mobility.
#1 mistake I see in coaching right now. 100 percent in agreement here especially in the mobility aspect
Dom, what is the grip that you are using. Eastern, semi-eastern or continental?
I use a continental grip. Susannah uses Eastern.
“Dinking is dead” is just something tennis players say /s. Dinking is alive and well and is such an important part of the game.
Tennis players keep trying to change pickleball 😅
Look at your feet movement stepping back and forth. Would that create problems eventually your feet touch the kitchen line?
No, you have to pivot back on dinks at your feet if you can’t get them out of the air. That allows you the space to make contact out front and push the ball forward. When we step forward, we are bring our back foot up parallel with you other foot, right before the kitchen line.
I am referring to your position at almost feet behind the kitchen line, see around 2:18 time. If you stand closer you would be able to hit valley. Staying foot behind kitchen does make stepping back and forth safer but the price is too big. You stepping back and hitting dink down the line. Good players stay closer to kitchen line and dinking cross court but when ball is hard to valey they are stepping back only to allow bounce for attack, speedup down the line. So I wonder which strategy is better : staying foot behind kitchen and stepping back for the sake of slightly more aggressive dink or positioning for valleys and stepping back for very aggressive shots
@ You need to be flexible to do both based on your balance, opponents, and timing.
@@yasim9435 Dom can't properly answer your question because he doesn't cover what Tanner covers on his channel: knowing when to be more offensive and when to be more defensive.
Dom is defining a push dink differently than other commentators. Dom defines a push dink as any dink with your paddle off to the side where you aim to the kitchen line, or slightly beyond.
On Tanner's channel, a push dink also has shape, usually a fair amount of top spin, and they tend to be angled cross court more aggressively. On Tanner's channel, a lift dink is not a dead dink if aimed at a good location, usually in the vicinity of the backhand foot. Cincola, on his channel, advises underspin on the full cross-court backhand dink exchanges to help float the ball safely over the net. Topspin is more valuable on shorter or faster dinks where the opponents are under more time pressure. Underspin slows the shot down and gives you more time to return to your ready position.
When off balance and pressured by an aggressive push dink, Tanner and Cincola both recommend using shorter lift dinks to the backhand foot of the near-side opponent. When on balance and less pressured, they recommend an aggressive push dink to the far-side opponent's backhand foot. Obviously, if the situation allows you to attempt an aggressive push dink, you will place your toes right at the NVL, and you might also lean in. But if the situation clearly calls for a defensive lift dink to a safe target (not a dead dink to nowhere) you can make your life a bit easier by relaxing you toe position at the NVL.
Unless you are training to be a pickleball robot, this is enough guidance for you to figure out what works for you. It's finally your job to know what is best for the situations you find yourself in. That's why we play the game. There are actually opponents out there who perform better on balls hit to their backhand foot rather than their forehand foot. You've got eyes. Figure this out for yourself.
As a further comment, the most under-explained concept in pickleball is that time pressure cuts both ways. Who needs the time more? If you need the time more-usually because you or your partner are out of position or out of structure (or one of you has restricted mobility)-then chose the slower shot option.
One play aspect that separates the players everyone wants to play with from those who are less favoured is the situation where you are perfectly positioned and you feel ready to lower the boom on the opponents with a high-pressure shot, but your partner is off balance, or out of position, or out of sync with the flow of the rally. If you pressure the opponents in this situation, there's a good chance you are doing more harm to your partner than to your opponents. A good example of this is an aggressively 5th shot drive from short transition while your partner is still in full stride. This applies tons of pressure on the opponents, but if it sprays wildly back to your partner's side, you better hope your partner was varsity volleyball or varsity ping pong in a previous life.
If your partner doesn't know which option you will choose, your partner will hesitate further out of position, in case the ball comes back fast, rather than risk charging in all the way to the NVL, or making a full recovery of optimal positioning during a dink exchange. 80% of the time I'm going to hit the shot that buys my partner a full recovery. The other 20% of the time I'm going for the pressure shot that keeps my opponents honest.
The theory of dinking is fundamentally a theory of time management. In doubles pickleball, time management cuts both ways.
Edit: I just remembered that Cincola uses the frame of his leg to decide whether to dink defensively near-side or aggressively far-side. If you are reaching outside the frame of your leg, that's a clear sign the defensive shot is the better option. For precisely how he defines the frame of your leg, you'll have to hunt down the video on Cincola's channel. Your job, not mine.
My point is well illustrated by Ben’s tutorial. See where how stable his feet position right at the line and not moving . ruclips.net/video/pt3HWfs7YCs/видео.htmlsi=oW6V7JpLnt6BNAXP
Suzanne's paddle head is down, the opposite of what the instructor advised.
She drops her paddle for dinks but brings it back for ready position.
"burn me backside!" 🦜