The dink
Dink: what good form looks like, and the 7 faults you can see on your own video
What good form looks like
A dink is a push, not a swing. You stand at the kitchen line with your knees bent and your weight slightly forward, paddle out in front of you. The motion comes from your shoulder with a stable wrist, almost no takeaway and almost no shoulder turn, contacting the ball out in front and lifting it gently over the net. Your feet do the travelling with small shuffle steps, your opposite arm stays out for balance, and your grip stays soft. Nearly every coach names the same two errors: standing too tall, and using your wrist.
The fundamentals
- Knees bent and weight slightly forward, not standing tall at the line
- Paddle and contact both out in front of your body
- Push from your shoulder with your wrist quiet and stable
- Almost no takeaway and almost no shoulder turn
- Move your feet to the ball instead of reaching for it
- Relaxed grip, around three or four out of ten, opposite arm out for balance
The camera angle that shows the most
Film this shot from the front. Most of the faults below live in rotation, spacing and hand position, which read best when the camera is facing you. Each fault below is tagged with the angle that reveals it, so you know what a single clip can and cannot show.
The 7 common faults
Each fault is named by multiple independent coaching sources, tagged for whether it shows up in your body or in the paddle, and mapped to the camera angle that reveals it. Green means the skeleton can see it. Read how to spot it, the fix, and one drill.
Standing too tall
Visible in the skeletonFilm from the sideSpot it
Straight legs at the kitchen line, dinks that float up, and a feeling of being late on anything low.
The fix
Bend your knees, get your weight forward onto the balls of your feet, and push up gently from your legs into the shot.
Drill it
Fifty crosscourt dinks without letting your knees straighten. Hold the low position between shots, not just during them.
Wristy dink
Visible in the skeletonFilm from the sideSpot it
Your paddle flicks at contact, and balls sail high or drop into the net with no pattern you can predict.
The fix
Set your wrist and move the paddle from your shoulder instead. Your wrist is a small joint with a big effect on where the ball goes.
Drill it
Fifty dinks with your wrist deliberately set, feeling only your shoulder move. If you can feel your wrist working, slow down.
Chopping from the elbow
Visible in the skeletonFilm from the sideSpot it
Your dinks either shoot into the net or fly past the kitchen. Nothing lands in between.
The fix
Get under the ball and lift from your shoulder with a nearly straight arm and only a gentle bend at the elbow.
Drill it
Thirty dinks where the paddle starts below the ball every time and finishes higher than it started.
Reaching instead of moving
Visible in the skeletonFilm from the frontSpot it
Your arm is stretched out to the side, your weight is on your heels, and contact happens outside the frame of your body.
The fix
Take small shuffle steps so the ball stays in front of you and your contact point never changes.
Drill it
Crosscourt dinks where you have to take at least one step before every ball. Thirty reps.
Big turn and take back
Visible in the skeletonFilm from the frontSpot it
You coil up for a dink and the ball flies past the kitchen line.
The fix
Use almost no takeaway and almost no shoulder turn. Keep the paddle in front of you.
Drill it
Thirty dinks where the paddle never leaves your peripheral vision.
Squeezing the handle
In the paddle and handFilm from the frontSpot it
The ball jumps off your paddle and pops up, and soft shots feel impossible to feel.
The fix
Relax your grip to about three or four out of ten. Firm enough that the paddle will not slip, and nothing more.
Drill it
Thirty dinks where you check and say your grip number before each one.
Square shoulders on the backhand
Visible in the skeletonFilm from the frontSpot it
Weak, popped-up backhand dinks, worst of all when you are pulled crosscourt.
The fix
Turn your front shoulder toward the ball and your target, and get your outside leg behind you.
Drill it
Thirty crosscourt backhand dinks with a deliberate front-shoulder turn on every one.
Reading about it is not the same as seeing it
You can know every fault on this page and still not know which ones are yours. That is the whole problem with technique: it is invisible from inside your own swing. Dinklix draws a pose skeleton on a ten-second clip of your dink and names which of these your body is actually doing, in order, with one thing to start with.