Excellent John! I’ve been suspecting something like this strategy, but was taught, at least initially, to always go cross court. Period. This confirms what I’d been thinking about but wasn’t sure. Thanks so much.
John, the thing about this video is that in the gym you show yourself in one position and talk about the ball being either inside or outside your left foot and then you show a clip of an actual game where you are on the other side of the court the ball is way outside your left foot and you hit the ball cross court so it seems inconsistent with what you’re saying. I get what you’re saying, but the video does not appear consistent with what you’re saying. Don’t mean to be negative, I think your PB are some of the very best, but this threw me off a bit.
My man! Was having issues At 4.5 levels of them taking my ball out of the air constantly… I was getting frustrated because I’m drilling aggressive dinks and they don’t seem to be working. I knew you had an answer for me. I need this structure and patterns for dinking. If you have any additional structured ding content, would love to see it. Thanks bro
FYI. If you hit middle you have even less time to cover middle. Couple other things I have different opinions on but lots of coaches out there teaching different things.
That's not accurate in a couple of ways. (1) This has now become the orthodox and preferred advanced dinking strategy at the pro level for anyone that is statistically a plus dinker among their peers. (2) It is not harder to cover the middle, because when you shuffled over to take the wide dink, your partner shuffled with you and is standing with a foot on the "T" covering the middle and when you hit a soft, middle dink, you both shuffle back together never leaving a gap. You can't beat good players down the pipe when they know its your only aggressive play and they are in position. But, if you hit the return dink back wide, instead of an unattackable dink in the middle, your partner has to immediately vacate the middle to cover the line and now you must get back to cover not just middle but probably a foot past middle since your partner is moving opposite the ball direction. You have now caused movement for both players on your team, created the possibility of a gap, optimized the angle to hit a ball through that gap and have increased your n own chances of either hitting the net or a ball that is attackable out of the air. You go on offense when you have position, and you reset through defense when your opponent opens up even a 5% advantage on you in the dink battle.
Why do you dink back to the middle 1/3 of the box and not the 1/3 that's closer to the center line? Seems like your opponents will have easier reach to the middle 1/3 right?
the middle 1/3 is typically the easiest shot and hopefully allow you to not make any errors. consistency is key so if you can keep the ball in play and alive, go for that option. great question! i appreciate it
Great video, John! Myself and a group of thirty players (3 to 3.5) are never dinking like the pros do. We are all still at the whack-a-mole stage of hitting everything hard. How can I/we stop this and what's the benefits of dinking versus striking all the time? This deserves a video?
yes, I played today after watching this video. Our group plays like yours because we had no extended dinking rallies (like the 4.5 or higher) Thinking back, I can't recall trying to use these rules in todays play. it's so hard to apply the myriad of video tips "in the field".
Cause as soon as you play someone (3.75+) who feels comfortable blocking/moving out of the way of balls that are obviously going out all your attacks from the kitchen won’t work anymore, and you’ll need to start dinking. But in the meantime, do what works!
every single one of these videos shows nothing but cross court dinking and in play I see about 80% cross court dinking but many teaching videos say dink at the player in front of them but in matches it never seems to happen
I find it a lot easier to hit an angled crosscourt dink from wide out on the backhand side (and I see from your video that it's common for pros as well). The forehand is where I struggle so I'll definitely be looking to hit to the middle from now on.
You are the #1 Pickleball coach on RU-vid! You spoke clearly, in the right speed, not rush, not slow; your analysis covered all situations. I really enjoyed watching it. Hopefully I can use them to my game. Thanks.
Am I the only one obsessed with the location?…full kitchen, nice island with beer tap, full fridge, arcade…AND a pickleball court!?!? Is this someone’s basement?
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:12 🏓 Hitting crosscourt in pickleball can create more angle and be more aggressive, pulling opponents off the court. 01:41 🤔 When hitting crosscourt, be cautious of the ball crossing in front of your opponent, which can lead to their attack opportunity. 03:30 🎾 Use the "golden rule" for deciding whether to go crosscourt or play in front: If the ball stays inside your outside foot, you have options; if it crosses outside, play in front or to the middle. 04:41 ⚠️ Going too wide for a crosscourt shot makes it difficult to execute, and your window to get the ball back crosscourt shrinks. 06:53 🏞️ The safest play when the ball goes outside your foot is to hit to the middle third of the box in front of you, making it hard to attack, or to go down the line if your opponent isn't positioned for an Ernie. Made with HARPA AI
haha, great spot 👀. I wish it was easy, 400 is my absolute max right now. I'm working on it though. I've only been playing seriously for a couple years. So fun though!
Super instruction on dinking. Thank you! Would you please consider making a video on different ways to transition into a dink rally? I’m finding it hard to slow down into dinking when coming in from a drop shot. Great players make it look easy to go from 3rd shot (or 5th shot ) into a dink rally.
Great video; good rule for cross-court dink decision! To be clear, does "outside the foot" apply after you have shuffled to position for the shot? I think that must be right, based on your shot at 6:34 of the video.
depending on where it lands and where you/opponents are. If it has enough pace on it and hits close to the line, you can go for the ATP. If it is closer to the middle of the court, choose your most aggressive shot that you can hit consistently. this vid i made about shot selection might be helpful for you. thank you again for asking a great question! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Pvqw2DwdX3s.html
Wow! This is what I was working on while playing this morning. What I learned was from another youtube. It helped. Yours is more detailed and will have to figure it out. Looking forward to it! Thank you in my journey!
The problem is players can either make the most comfortable shot they can at the expense of placement, or try for placement at the expense of error. Low level players should do the former but many videos only teach the latter.
Yeah, in game I would tell someone to do what’s comfortable and what you can make consistently. If you know what the correct shot is then you can practice outside of a game scenario so it’s more comfortable when you need it.
Wow, what a terrific video! Well organized, pedagogically sound, lots of supporting illustrations and situations. Many thanks! Also: fabulous faciility! Is this a private club, or someone's home?
@@johncincolapickleball This advice definitely helped. Before when I was trying to force a cross court, the player in front of me was poaching and putting the ball away down the middle, this advice cut down on that, thanks!!
I deeply appreciate your explanation of why cross court dinks are generally preferable. When I first started out I heard the advice and saw the action of cross court dinks, but nobody ever explained WHY they're the preferred shot. I wish I'd had someone explain the reasons to me back then!
John you made a very good ball machine drill vid using the Spinshot but that machine is too expensive for my budget. I bought a Slinger instead and was wondering if you could teach us some drills using a machine like mine that doesn't have all of the advanced features of the Spinshot?
Hey John, a video I’d really like to see is an informative video about the correct form for an overhead spike or smash. It’s not a shot that’s talked about much but is pretty important against lobbers. Thanks :)
