The 4 Dinks Every Pickleball Player Needs In 2026

Restart, restart. Is it recording? Yeah. Come on, hurry up. I'm going to be late. Let's go for my lesson. I don't care about your lesson. Okay. Of course he doesn't care. Let's go. Right. These are the four dinks you need in 2026 if you're looking to take your pickleball game to new heights. The first dink we're going to cover should be your absolute baseline when you're at the kitchen. This is the backhand slice dink. This should be your default dink when you get into rallies. It's a more passive way to dink, meaning you're putting the ball in play and extending the rally. You're not being super aggressive going for so much. What's also great about this shot is since you're hitting that one-handed slice, it gives you the ability to lean in after it and potentially attack the next ball out of the air. The form to hitting the shot is extremely simple. I'm going to explain it to you in under 60 seconds right here. The number one thing is the footwork. This is what I see the majority of people do wrong. What I like to do is be able to draw a line with my feet to my target. So if I want to dink the ball that way, look how my feet are. They're this way. This allows me to get my shoulders and everything turned in unison. What amateur players do is they hit their backhand dinks like this. This is very bad. Look, my feet are pointed that way to the parking lot. This is bad because now look, I'm only using my arm for control as opposed to my entire body. Secondly, for how we put spin on the ball, we put spin on the ball from our paddle angle. So if I want to add more cut and knife to the ball, I simply lay my wrist back more and do the exact same motion. The mistake again amateurs make is they think spin comes from chopping with their wrist like this. That is not it. Simply lay your wrist back and catch the ball. This is a very soft, simple shot. The second dink we're going to cover is a more aggressive dink. This is to take charge and control in the rally. And that's the two-handed backhand dink. What's also great about this shot is if you're dinking and you're only slicing the ball, there's no threat of a speed up. This is virtually a safe zone for your opponent. The second you throw that second hand on, you're now a threat to maybe speed up the ball so your opponents have to think twice. For the form to this shot, it's super easy once I share with you this one secret that took my backhand dink from here to here. And that secret is this. You're probably struggling with this shot because you're trying to hit topspin. So look at me. If I try to do this and flick my wrist, that's never going to be consistent using my wrist for topspin. The key that changes it all for me is I actually use sidespin. So when I hit the ball, I think of cupping it like this and coming around the ball like this. This way, I'll never miss the ball high, giving my opponents a free attack. If anything, I'll miss it wide or give them an ATP, which is way better than giving them a free attack. So check this out. This is the way I hit it. Look. Cupping around. See that? Here as opposed to here. I'm going to show you a real-time example of that. Pay attention to my wrist. Okay? So this is the wrong way. This is inconsistent. Bad. Watch my wrist. Look. Look at me. I'm trying to flick it. See? Look. It popped up high. I'm trying to flick it. This is what everybody does when they try to learn. Okay? Now here's the right way. Now watch my wrist. I'm going to scoop around. Around. Look at the sidespin. Around. See how the ball's going? Sidespin. I'll never miss high. Look. I'm going to hit this thing like a missile. Watch how hard I hit it. Look. See that? Still didn't go high. If I try to hit it super hard with my wrist like that. Look. Goes over the fence. The second part to this shot is just like the last with the footwork. We want to have our feet sideways to the target. But the way I want to build upon that is you saw I was getting really low. The lower you get, the easier this shot is. This shot never works if you're upright trying to hit it. It's going to go into the net. You want to get low as you can and it makes the shot cake. The next dink we're going to cover is actually the newest addition I've made to my game and it's gave me big increases. And what that shot is is a chip volley out of the air. So you're taking balls out of the air by coming underneath of them like this. What this is great for is if you have an opponent who's hitting aggressive topspin dinks, you don't want them to bounce on your side or you're going to be in trouble. You're going to be off balance. So the second you see them hitting aggressive topspin, that's when you lean in and try to chip their ball out of the air to neutralize it. So the thought process behind this shot is the second I see Ridley trying to wind up and hit an aggressive shot, that's when I want to neutralize that and lean in and take it away from him. So check this out. So we're dinking. So look, I see him be aggressive right there. I would chip that. Look at that. I see that he's lining up, trying to hit topspin. That's what I'd want to do it. If I saw him slicing dinks, I wouldn't do it. So Ridley, slice a dink. Here we go. So if he slices, good, that's passive. Now let's see if he rolls one. Okay. Bam. So you see the difference? I want to cut that off. The form is super easy to the shot. The one thing I want you to watch out for is make sure that you're not leaning in so much that you lose balance. Make sure you have a nice wide base, bent with the knees. And look, my paddle's out here, nice loose grip, and I'm simply coming under the ball. I'm not trying to be aggressive with it. Taking a quick break from the video for one second. If you purchase anything from CarbonPickleball.com, make sure to use my discount code TANNERWAVES at checkout. The last dink we're going to cover is a volley roll out of the air. So it's the opposite of the shot we just hit. We just did this. Now we're doing this. We're applying pressure to our opponents. So if I see my opponent hit passive dinks, meaning like Ridley sliced it, that's when I want to look to lean in and try to roll that ball aggressively to take control in the rally. One of my favorite perks to this shot is you'll probably find yourself sometimes in matches attacking balls from really low and they just get crushed like this. Oh God. I didn't expect that. But yeah, so getting crushed like that. The advantage to this shot that's great is you can take a ball from that low and roll it aggressively to get a higher ball that you can attack. So this is what it would look like. Ridley, give me that same ball. So look. Bam. See? I'm rolling from down here and then that's going to eventually maybe give me a higher ball that I can do attack. So I'm still applying pressure from this low, but I'm not giving him a free shot. The form to this shot is extremely simple. There's just one main thing we want to focus on and that's when we're getting that ball out of the air, we don't want to break our wrist. So we shouldn't flick at it like this. My wrist is completely locked and I'm using my shoulder to catch the ball. Yes. That's correct. Right. And I think the best analogy that we want to use is just like a hummingbird. See how a hummingbird is posted on the tree trunk and he uses its beak, poking on the tree trunk, putting holes in it. Right? Just like that. Okay. Right. So give me a live example, Ridley. No, no. I'm posted. Right? I'm probably about halfway on the tree trunk. Right? And I'm here. You're turning lefty. Yes. Left. Right? Because that's right here. That's how I picture a hummingbird. Poking. Let me see one more. Here we go. Poking. Let me see the head. Like that, right? Right there. All right. Just like a hummingbird. Thanks for making it to the end of the video. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to leave a comment down below and we'll feature you in a video just like this one. I want to say a special shout out to Ridley. He's back in the videos, but he started his own content. That's why he's been MIA. Ridley, what is your page? Yes. Ridley is Pickleball. I'm on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. It's a blend of educational and entertainment. Please check it out. I think you'll love it. We'll see you next week. YouTube thinks you should watch this video next, and so do I. Keep getting better at Pickleball.