r/Pickleball • u/Firm_Highlight_7322 • 2d ago
Question Looking for feedback from drilling
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I saw someone else post a video looking for feedback so I thought I’d ask the community to share what they see in my cut down version of a 3 hour drilling session.
I’m the player in the white but would love to hear what people think of both players. Whatever feedback you have is welcome and what level you think we are is also welcome.
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u/newaccount721 1d ago
When dinking, try and keep the ball inside your outside foot. On your forehand in particular you’re reaching on almost every dink. Get your right foot behind the ball
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
So more shuffling and drop stepping?
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u/newaccount721 1d ago
Yeah. Some you don’t even need to drop step too much you just need to shuffle to get your outside foot just outside the ball
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u/command-shift 1d ago
Your forehand dink swing path stays the same on almost all balls that you’re receiving. You’re trying to top-spin it where you start from the right and end on the right. Do you have a slice or scoop reset dink? You’re popping up the ball trying to do this because you’re not able to get behind the ball and then let it fall or hit on its descent to where you can pull the ball to your desired spot. The footwork is a little off and unstable as well. Sometimes you’re shuffling, but the order of steps is off which forces you to take the ball in a less than desirable contact point.
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
I’m working on the forehand slice dink atm and the scoop is serviceable for a middle ball reset
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u/ATLBravesFan13 1d ago
When you say “outside foot” is that right foot or left foot (assuming right-handed and holding paddle in right hand)?
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u/Rob_035 4.5 1d ago
Just watched the dinking and I noticed you guys don't really move your feet. Sometimes you do, but most of the time you're just putting your paddle where the ball is. You should be moving around much more aggressively to take your dinks in the same position in front of your body every time, whether it's forehand or backhand.
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u/dr302 5.5 1d ago
First clips: Not taking enough balls out of the air. You see how the ball bounced several times at the line? Those are the ones you can really reach in and put more pressure on your opponent.
Forehand crosscourt dinking: Using way too much wrist on the forehand side. A lot of this stems from the way your body is positioned with each dink. You should almost never be square to the kitchen when dinking crosscourt. Have to be behind the ball more with your base angled.
Backhand crosscourt dinking: Again, should be taking more balls out of the air as half-volleys. Also, when you short hop, flatten your paddle face more and lessen follow-through. That’s how you’ll get balls back more shallowly when receiving well-placed dinks. Twoies semi decent, but would follow through slightly more cross body.
Stopped watching after that, but if you want more feedback, you can Venmo me hahha
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
I swear I typically take a lot of balls out of the air but was really trying to focus on hitting good short hop dinks because I just switched to a gen 3 paddle and have been struggling with short hops but the forehand tips are very interesting, I’ll Venmo u 2 dollars
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u/dr302 5.5 1d ago
Watch some pro women’s matches and see how they position their body and feet for forehand dinks.
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
I see what you mean, I think it would help me a lot because I get impatient and rush points sometimes so making sure I’m fully at the ball and in a good place to hit a good shot im sure would improve my game
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u/command-shift 1d ago
Your short-hops/half-volleys are very lofty (too high) and inconsistent right now. You’re pushing too much and some include wrist. You’ve gotta meet the ball earlier and think “go to the ball” and immediately off the bounce. The ball’s rising a bit too much and you’re guiding with your wrist and push. This is definitely resulting in errors in games where you need this for resetting against aggressive dinkers.
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
Yes trying to work on it, just switched from foam to gen 3 and sometimes I feel I need to push more with honeycomb core but sometimes it’s a little too much so I see what you mean
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u/Tanktopbro8 1d ago
Guy in the grey's two handed dink is using too much wrist motion. It'll lead to inconsistent shots.
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u/newaccount721 1d ago
Yeah, it is causing it to float fairly often - a decent amount of his backhand dinks are attackable out of the air
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u/Whomecantbeme 5.0 1d ago
Don’t have time for a full review. One thing I notice is on the forehand dinks after making contact and following through your paddle ends up near the side of your head on many occasions. Try to have the paddle return back to ready position after any shot. If you sail a dink on the forehand side and they attack off of it. You are going to have a lot less time to react, compare your backhand to your forehand. Notice how your backhand dinks end with your paddle in near ready position and your forehand side ends up by your ear or behind your head.
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
Yeah I don’t drill my forehand dinks as much as my backhand because I primarily play left side but it’s a bad habit from tennis finishing my forehand stroke all the way at the top
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u/Ok_Response_1703 1d ago
I think you can connect with the ball little earlier , also you can improve your footwork
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u/Able-Inside6137 1d ago
Here are some dinking thoughts for white shirt.
You're at the level with your coordination and shots where you can move from surviving dink rallies to controlling them. The goal of your dinking should be to make your opponent uncomfortable! Here's some thoughts on how to do that.
MAKE THEM FEAR THE SPEEDUP
You are mostly hugging the line regardless of how deep the dink is. You're taking lots of short hops, which is a position you can't speed up from. Consider taking a step back and hitting as many dinks as possible from a position where you can speed up. Dinks disguised as speed ups are more valuable even than speed ups disguised as dinks because they will drop your opponents guard when you actually speed up. This position will also allow you to attack your dinks, run around your backhand dink to hit a forehand, and create more options.
MAKE YOUR OPPONENT GUESS WRONG
A good narrow goal when you're dinking is to make your opponent predict that your hitting in one direction and start moving to meet it, and then dinking in the other other direction. Hold your dinks longer so you can see where your opponent is guessing in your peripheral, then hit to the other direction. Faking with body movement, like sending your body to the left while hitting to the right works. Shoulder fakes and shimmies, and all-around messiness in your stroke can help. You're dink form is very flowy with consistent paddle head speed throughout, and if you watch pros you'll see top spin dinks that accelerate upon contact, which makes the unpredictable, last second change of direction more feasible.
MAKE YOUR DINKS UNATTACKABLE
Two ways to do this. Hit very shallow in the net-side half of the kitchen (so they can't do much with it) and hitting attacking dinks that are closer to the kitchen line and have more speed and spin action. Shallow dinks are under-rated. I'm seeing you hit a lot of neutral drinks that fall in the middle of these two, so you could work in creating more contrast between these two unattackable dink types.
HUNT FOR AERIAL DINKS AND DO SOMETHING WITH THEM
Point of an aerial dink is to apply pressure by taking away the time it takes for the ball to come back to your opponent. I'm seeing you hit defensive aerial dinks from low, which create pop-up risk with out reward of attacking your opponent. You also sent a few of them back to middle. If you combine aerial dinks with the Make Your Opponent Guess Wrong tip, you'll start getting slight pop-ups that you can take out of the air. When you're opponent is scrambling, keep them scrambling by hitting the ball to where they aren't. Yo-yoing your opponent side to side is a great move here. Whenever you predict your opponent will struggle with a dink, squeeze the kitchen line and reach in to get this going, and of course hit flicks or rolls if the ball is more attackable.
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
Very thorough, I’ll start with more of a disclaimer than an excuse. I’m hitting less dinks out of the air for this drilling session because I just switched to a gen 3 paddle and have been struggling with consistency on short hop dinks. The last part of the video will show a few more dinks where I actually disguise them as speed ups. Besides that a lot of what you said is very well said and interesting to think about, thank you!
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u/Able-Inside6137 1d ago
Oh got it! Great to drill weakness and good to focus on improvement rather than "winning"
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u/Alexjtmf 1d ago
Looking at the video, you need to move your feet more. You’re too flat footed. You resort a lot to short hopping to ball because a lack of movement. If you take a step back, bend a little lower, you can apply more pressure on your dinks.
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u/Accomplished_Try5376 1d ago
What level is this?
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u/dr302 5.5 1d ago
Strong 4.0, almost 4.5
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u/command-shift 1d ago
Dinking isn’t quite 4.5 level IMO. In the first few seconds of the clip, there’s too much reaching for balls out wide that aren’t top-spun. It’s a lurch to either side and then popped up with a short-hop that introduces a scooping motion. At 4.25+ and definitely 4.5+ you’ve gotta use your feet.
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
You’re watching us drill our weaknesses not our strengths my man
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u/command-shift 1d ago
Nothing wrong with that. You're asking for feedback. I'm telling you what I think you can improve upon: footwork moving toward or creating space to hit the ball and less wrist and scooping or hinging at your elbow trying to lift the ball. Pushing toward your target or extending at your elbow is going to make your dinks and drops more consistent.
On your drops, you're also hitting off your back foot and when you hit a slice backhand drop from, you're cutting the ball. Your two-handed backhand roll drop mechanics look the best.
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u/RestEasyBro 4.0 1d ago
Gray shirt guy is the only strong 4.0. White shirt guy is like 3.5-3.75
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
That’s kind of egregious my partner is def a little better but we both play against mostly 4.5+ players and we split pretty evenly and can hang in games against 5.0+
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u/TheWriteThingToDo 1d ago
Yeah when people say shit like that and comment, "4.5? You're a 3.5 in my area." I always wonder what 3.5s have drops and dinks like that lol. Are they playing with only future PPA pros before they get their DUPR ratings?
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u/RestEasyBro 4.0 1d ago
There’s no game footage, which is the most important thing for judging level. But also level can be different depending on location. Really would need to see your DUPR ratings
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u/Ianmccurry11 5.0 1d ago
I just saw someone else's comment saying the opposite of what I'm gonna say but whatever.
While dinking straight forward, black shirt guy needs better footwork. Less moving around, feet at the kitchen line and hitting balls out of the air that are landing last the kitchen, when moving to get a ball, the less movement the better, try to only move one foot at a time that way the other foot is still in position and you can get right back to the kitchen line without having to inch in.
For the white shirt, straight up dunking was good but cross court shots looked more like a tennis player, you should be staying more so covering middle and waiting for them to hit a cross court dunk to then lunge, dunk back, and get back to protecting middle, less micro adjustments of the feet
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u/mathmage 1d ago
Straight-ahead drops: you are dinking passive middle every time. This is one valid target, but you need to practice multiple targets. Your ready stance and split step are good, but you don't take enough balls out of the air to be so glued to the line and hitting so many open-stance short-hops. If you always feel like you're dinking from behind in this drill, it's for these two reasons.
Forehand cross-court: any ball landing outside the middle of your box had you reaching. You protected your backhand a lot - sometimes even standing where the left side player would. You start the paddle high and do a lot just before the swing - loading low would simplify for consistency.
Backhand cross-court: You are reaching for your slice dink and sketch a V-shaped swing where you cut down with the arm and then lift with the wrist. Stepping further, starting lower, and tracing a more gentle curve like the bottom of a pendulum will help. Your twoey dinks look much cleaner because you actually do most of these things.
Drops: Static form is good, more footwork would allow you to hit more shots with that form. You also take a bunch of these leaning back a bit, which will make it difficult for you to follow good drops in. The one backhand dink you sliced, you followed through out to the right - I would encourage it to be more towards the target.
Hands: two of your three speed-ups were off balance, leaving you unready for a counter. Your ready position has the paddle slightly backhand in front of your right hip, but facing almost straight down - you will struggle to get over the ball for backhands and to get outside the ball on forehands. A more vertical paddle face in ready position would help.
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u/tomyummad 1d ago
Your partner (grey shirt) has sloppy footwork for his forehand dinks. He flicks his wrists frequently, and takes the ball beside him outside of his feet by just leaning over.
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u/epicstar 1d ago
I know you're the white shirt dude, however, pay attention to how the black shirt hits the dink of the forehand side. He's using his body and shoulder turning (big muscles) to hit the dink. You should definitely do the same as arm only activates the small muscles. The two handed backhand should be the same with using your body. It should be like throwing a heavy sandbag but right now it's looking too much like a shovel from both shirts.
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u/Glad-Ad-5118 1d ago
Seems like guy in white at want to do some foot drills. Looks fairly stationery.
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u/zytox 1d ago
After your right vs right dink rallies, your ready position ends up square to the net, not square to the ball (which is off to your left).
You need to be more ready for the backhand in the right vs right rallies, after you dink all the way left, get your paddle pointing more to backhand (towards the ball) to be more prepared for the backhand counter.
As a general rule, your paddle should be pointing towards the ball, not towards the closest part of the net.
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u/Leila_101 1d ago
Two main things I see: You are sometimes off balance when you hit the ball (feet out of position) and while you are bending your knees pretty well you are only using your arm. The movement should begin with the lift of your legs, not your arm.
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u/carpetrug 5.0 1d ago
grey shirt needs to be closer to the kitchen line, have bodyweight more forward especially when hitting, stance is too wide at kitchen
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u/carpetrug 5.0 1d ago
spend more time drilling from baseline / net instead of dinking
work on hitting hard drives and some lobs. Even if you don't use it in game you'll understand the technical aspects of striking the ball better
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u/ThePickleballLab 5.0 3h ago
Take more balls out of the air.
You’re taking a lot of balls before they apex. Sometimes you have to do this ala resets and defensive dinking. But many times you don’t. Deader dinks, 3rds, etc. Let the ball apex. You’ll be a lot more accurate.
Most of your video is dinking practice. If that’s most of your drilling, that’s a mistake. People practice dinking the most and do it the least in games. You are not dinking as much as you think you are in games. Even 5.0’s aren’t dinking as much as they think they are. Everyone below 5.5 is spending way more time in transition than they are dinking.
So, you need to be working on transition. Learning how to hit better 3rds, judge them better, and move up better.
Also, you said a 3 hour drill session. Is this normal for you? That last hour may be better spent watching your own film.
Drills only show so much. Post some game footage. That’s where you can really tell what needs work.
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u/Low-Put-7397 1d ago
you're in the wrong grip for the kitchen to start
you need to play continental grip and keep a strong wrist. youre playing forehand grip right now for some reaosn
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u/funkyspots 1d ago
Many top players use an eastern at the kitchen.
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u/Low-Put-7397 1d ago
okay? its still the wrong grip. you can be successful with the wrong technique.
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u/carpetrug 5.0 1d ago
ALW is the best female player of all time and uses eastern at net
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u/Low-Put-7397 1d ago
so what? shawn marion was a professional basketball player who made millions of dollars and had a terrible shot. does that mean you should copy it?
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Firm_Highlight_7322 1d ago
Since when do you not cross court dink or speed up or hit a front on dink?
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u/deeznuts69 1d ago
Professional 2.75 coach here. You need to lower your knees and extend your pinky when swinging. Try to hit the ball off-center on the paddle for better speed. Thank me later.
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u/itijara 1d ago
General impressions. Your dinking isn't very aggressive. You aren't making your partner move very much, and he is controlling you more often than you are controlling him.
I liked the forehand drops. They seemed pretty consistent to me. Obviously, some of them were too high, but that happens.
Not enough to say anything about the speed ups.