What Is a Dink in Pickleball? The Soft Shot Explained

A dink is a soft, controlled shot hit from at or near the kitchen line that arcs just over the net and drops into the opponent’s non-volley zone. It is deliberately gentle, and that is the point: a ball landing that low in the kitchen is too low to smash back, so your opponent is forced to hit up softly too. Dinking is how the entire net game — the “soft game” — is built.

New players see pros patting the ball back and forth at the net and assume they are stalling. They are not. They are competing for the one mistake that ends the point.

Why the dink works

To attack a ball in pickleball you need it above the height of the net, so you can hit down on it. A well-placed dink lands in the kitchen and never rises above net height, which strips away the smash. The best your opponent can do is dink it back.

So a dink rally is really a waiting game. Two teams trade soft shots, each keeping the ball low, until someone gets impatient or misjudges and floats one a few inches too high. That ball gets attacked, and the point is won. The player who can dink calmly under pressure usually wins the exchange — which is why the soft game separates intermediate players from beginners more than any power shot does.

How to hit a dink, step by step

1. Get to the kitchen line. Dinks are hit from the non-volley-zone line, not the baseline. If you are not up at the net yet, you are not dinking — you are hitting a drop.
2. Relax your grip. Hold the paddle loosely, around a 3 or 4 out of 10. A tight grip sends the ball too hard and pops it up.
3. Contact the ball out in front, below the net’s height where you can. Reaching down to a low ball is better than letting it rise into an attackable zone.
4. Lift from the shoulder, not the wrist. Use a gentle, compact push with a stable wrist. Wristy flicks are inconsistent and add unwanted pace.
5. Aim for the opponent’s kitchen — near their feet or to an angle. The target is the zone, not the line. Landing near the feet is the hardest ball to answer.
6. Follow through low and short. Little swing, little follow-through. The paddle almost stops at contact.

Master the bounce dink (letting the ball land, then lifting it back) before you try taking dinks out of the air.

Where to place the dink

Placement beats power every time in a dink rally.

• Cross-court is the safest target: the ball crosses the lowest part of the net, in the middle, and has more court to land in. Most dink rallies live cross-court.
• At the feet forces an awkward reach and often produces the pop-up you are hunting for.
• Down the line is riskier — the net is higher on the sides and there is less court — but it changes the pattern and can catch an opponent leaning cross-court.

When to speed it up

Dinking is not the goal; the pop-up it produces is. Keep the ball low and patient, and the instant a dink bounces or floats above net height, change gears — drive it hard at the opponent’s body or into a gap. The whole soft game exists to manufacture that one attackable ball. Firing at a low dink is how you gift points away.

Dinking is the shot that lives at the kitchen line, but you have to get there first, and that is a different soft shot — the third-shot drop, which carries the whole court to set up the dink game. If you are still learning where you can and cannot volley, our guide to the kitchen and the non-volley zone covers the rule the entire dinking game is built around.