A slice dink doesn’t have to be defensive. If you watch Mari play, she can really aggressively slice dink it with a lot of backspin. And it has so much backspin that it’s really hard to return it back with topspin.
Technique Priority Checklist:
Just like with topspin dink, you want to pull people to the side and down middle. Like Mari Humberg says in the middle, she likes to go “cross, cross, and then middle”.
As you can see here, she looks the same on all her dinks. It’s almost robotic.
She is also not afraid to back off the line.
“I trust it so much, I can dink from back here and still get it to drop in the kitchen. Now obviously I lose my leverage of the [being able to reach in for the backhand] flick when I back off. So my objective when I back off is to come back [to the kitchen line] as soon as possible”.
You can see the slice dink gets really low and because it’s backspin, the ball stays low when it bounces.
“I’m trying to knife it to where you have to get so far under it, and then you freak out because if you hit the ball high, you know I’ll attack.” – Mari Humberg
Dinks are set up shots, as you get higher level, people don’t miss dinks into the net, but it’ll force them to pop the ball high up enough for you to attack.
Keep Wrist Locked:
Don’t break your wrist when slicing the dink. The slice isn’t created from wrist movement, use your elbow and arm instead of the wrist. The ones that pop up is from using the wrist.
Most common mistake: you use your wrist to overcompensate for being out of position with your feet. So you try to use your wrist to fix it. Instead keep it even more simple when you are out of position, and lock your wrist in.
Hit slow on the dinks
Common mistake: people try to swing and hit too fast.
Watch the ball all the way until contact.
If you look forward too fast, you can shank it.
My note: of course don’t stay looking at the ball for too long, because then if they suddenly jump and erne/speed it up at you, you won’t be able to react to their new position.
Slice dink is a variation, you want to have variations: don’t slice dink every time. have a slice dink, and also learn two-handed topspin dink. Imagine I have a heavy slice crosscourt, and people are recovering, then I heavy topspin over down the middle – Mari Humberg
Popularized by Colin Johns, it allows you to cover your chicken wing aka jam spot from a speed-up.
If you are a taller player, you have a larger jam spot, and a scorpion really helps cover that weakness. Very versatile and like a tomahawk, it can cover both sides fast and easily. Similar to the Erne, if you show it a few times, opponent will have to be wary of it and know they can’t just speed-up to your jam spot for free.
It’s weakness is that if opponent can hit down with a speed-up downwards, you’ll be late to flip your paddle in time to cover the ball at your feet.
Priority Checklist:
Situation: When opponent is reaching in and speeding up from low below the net out-of-the-air.
Turn your paddle face forward to a semi-western grip.
Note: I have done the backhand scorpion which is doing it with the backhand side. It’s more awkward and requires a lot more wrist flexibility backwards, but is doable.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me about the Hesacore so I will answer people’s questions here.
I got golfer’s elbow from playing Pickleball like 3 sessions in. Granted I was practicing hitting serves 100 times on day 1. I came from table tennis background where serves are a huge part of the game so naturally I wanted to get as much advantage as possible from serves early on.
But a big part of the reason I got golfer’s elbow was because my hands are big and regular default grip on the paddle was too small so I was gripping very tightly.
I learned that you are supposed to have a finger of space between your thumb and your other fingers when you are gripping the paddle. All my fingers were basically overlapping.
“Grip should be sized to fit your hand. I find the “finger test” to be easiest way to determine if grip is right. With a forehand grip, you should have a gap about an index finger wide.”
Photo courtesy of reddit
Hesacore helped me in shock absorption and also making the grip bigger.
After adding the Hesacore, I could play a lot longer without getting sore in the elbow tendon area. The vibration absorption really helps and is pretty noticeable.
My Hesacore (no overgrip) on my Vatic Prism Flash:
It’s recommended to put an overgrip over the Hesacore to protect it and make it last.
I put the Wilson Comfort Pro overgrip over it. Any overgrip will do, that’s just the one I bought:
I actually don’t mind playing with just the Hesacore without an overgrip over it, it’s a more frictiony, bumpy feel. If you want less of that hexagonal feel, get the smaller pink Hesacore and put two layers of overgrip.
If you want more of that feel, get the harder grey carbon Hesacore.
If you add Hesacore and a bunch of overgrips, it’ll weigh more at the bottom, so you might realize that you don’t need to add lead tape at the bottom of your paddle if you were thinking about doing that.
With just the Hesacore, it’s typically lighter than your paddle’s default grip.
One of the biggest advantage and least talked about advantages for hesacore is that you can use it over and over again. Once you are done with the paddle, you can take it off and put it on your next paddle.
Which makes the $24-$29 price not bad actually because it’s like a buy it for life situation.
Putting on Hesacore: Process
The old way of putting on with the plastic strips sucked. It would take anyone at least 30 mins to put on. That was my only hesitation when recommending Hesacore. Other comfort replacement grips for tennis elbow / gel grips simply were way easier to put on.
Good news is, Ed Ju found a super easy way to put on. It’s actually even easier to apply than a traditional replacement grip. You just need to put the Hesacore in warm water and then slide it on. Here is his video on it: https://youtu.be/hzImjWD78cg?t=213
Hesacore varieties
They all come in small or medium size. Except for pink which only comes in extra small.
White Hesacore – The original Hesacore. Comes in small and medium size.
Elongated Hesacore – This is the white hesacore with longer length for longer handle paddles.
Pink Hesacore – comes in extra small. For people who do not want thick grips. This is one of the more popular varieties I have seen on the court. For both men and women.
Carbon Hesacore aka Charcoal – Stiffer hesacore. Comes in small and medium.
Gel Hesacore aka Light Blue – made up of gel, designed to reduce vibrations even more. This is the softest version and best if you have tennis or golfer’s elbow. Comes in small and medium thickness sizes.
100% Made In Italy
If you are touching the handle all day and then touching your face to wipe off sweat, etc, you probably don’t want the material to be made in china by a sketchy manufacturer.
Some concerns people have on Hesacore:
They say it makes switching grips harder. Is this true?
I think it depends on the person, for me it didn’t affect me either way. For some people they say it made switching easier because they can feel and tell exactly where their fingers need to be.
You can try the Hesacore on other people’s paddles and see if it affects you one way or the other.
Takes 2 people approximately 5 mins to put together.
First time we put it together, it took about 10 mins to figure out and put it together.
The metal interlocking buttons on mine were easy to push in without much force at all which is great for 1 man assembling.
Easy assembly unlike other nets. I see some older reviews on amazon of other amazon nets that had problems where they had a maybe less smooth experience interlocking the metal pipes. A11N portable pickleball net does not have this problem at all.
Instructions were pretty clear and easy to follow. And this is coming from someone like me who is bad at following instructions.
A few instructions to clarify:
Place net on the taller side of the middle pole.
If you want to the middle to be lower (like 34 inch like regulation), don’t pull the net over the top of the middle pole. If you put it over like instructed, the middle part will be 36 inch.
You can also make the net shorter in width and make it a half-court mini net. For at home in garage/yard practicing.
Unboxing
This is what the box looks like:
Easy unboxing:
Net Stability and Tension
One thing I worried about before getting the net was the stability of it. Especially at around 20lbs, I worried if it would get blown around by the wind.
The net did not disappoint and was able to stay very stable on the floor.
The tension of the net is pretty good. I have not had it long enough to see if it’ll loosen up though.
Don’t expect the height tension to be perfect like tournament nets, but it’s basically almost as good as your local park’s rec nets. For less than $100, it’s a good deal. Most players below 4.5 level won’t be able to tell the difference.
With the advantage of portability, I have placed the net in between two handball court walls at an elementary school and the distance between the two walls is actually a little bigger than the size of a pickleball court. So it’s perfect for drilling. The wall makes it so we don’t have to run far to pick up balls.
Is It Worth It
With paddles costing anywhere from $100-$200, it’s worth it to get a net.
In fact for beginners, I would get one of the inexpensive but high quality carbon fiber paddles (link to clone guide__) and then used the saved the money to buy a portable net.
Way more worth it and improve your game faster.
Being able to drill when all the courts are taken up is key to improving.
Instead of spending that money on a slightly better paddle that the average person won’t be able to tell the difference anyway.
You don’t even need a partner, just drop feed the ball to yourself like what tennis players do, and you can practice your drives, drops, and even serves.
Pro Tips:
I would recommend carrying the net in a separate bag or put it into another bag then put it in the main bag. This way when you are carrying the bag around, your net doesn’t get caught with the metal poles and become a tangled mess or even rip.
ColdWaterSteve on reddit recommends replacing the top band ploypro cord with a steel cable “to make the nets closer to the $2,000 tournamnet nets”. He explains how he modified it here.
In “Game To Watch”, I post games that are interesting to watch in a strategy perspective. And I breakdown specific points and patterns that are interesting or lead the match wins.
Setting the stage: the Johns brothers have a negative win rate against Gabe Tardio for the past months. Tardio seemingly has their number.
Tardio and Daescu have beaten the Johns brother consistently (before Daescu was suspended earlier this year for paddle tampering). And now that Daescu is back, the duo are coming off 2 tournament wins in a row.
In the last tournament in Las Vegas, we could see the Johns brothers finally adapt their style to the modern game. Colin Johns kept serving bigger and bigger until the refs called him for faults. Whereas previously, Colin Johns had one of the softest serves on tour and only served the ball to get it in. We also saw the Johns brothers started driving and crashing the third more. Colin Johns being more aggressive on the right side.
In this tournament, Ben Johns is hobbled (he rolled his ankle at the tournament the day before and dropped out of singles).
So we know they are going to try to have Colin Johns play more of the court as opposed to the 30% he usually plays. And this is perfect timing as they are adapting their style to have Colin play bigger than usual anyway.
Let’s see what they do and if it works.
There will be spoilers. You have been warned.
Colin Johns Taking More Middle Dinks As The Right Side Player
In the very first dink rally, you can see Colin take more middle balls with his backhand. Whereas typically, Ben will come and take it.
We see this in the 2nd dink rally as well, Colin’s foot is very close to the middle line and he reaches in and takes the ball out of the air with his backhand:
And then Colin also comes over to the middle and takes it with his forehand in an inside-in dink whereas before, Ben would take it with his forehand.
We can tell Colin has been watching Gabe Tardio’s games a lot, this is what Gabe does more than anybody else on the tour.
Classic Gabe Tardio Off The Bounce Speed-Up
On a deep dink, Tardio takes a step back off the line. He winds up like he usually does when he has time. https://youtu.be/d5ks1SoB478?t=239
Off the Bounce Speed-up Key Lesson: when Tardio takes a step back, you can see he slides his front foot back as well.
If he only takes a step back and doesn’t slide his front foot, his body would be perpendicular to the kitchen line, which would limit the number of angles he can speed up to. Sliding his front foot back so his shoulders are open instead of closed is key.
Because Tardio winds up so often and because it’s off the bounce, the Johns Brothers don’t know it’s going to be a speed-up 100% of the time. So they still have to cover low if Tardio does an aggressive topspin dink instead.
Tardio speeds-up it up fast down the middle. The Johns brothers don’t have time to react and it flies past them and hits the baseline.
As you can see in the screenshot, because the ball had so much topspin, it dipped down, so even if Colin did block it, it would’ve likely resulted in a pop up that Tardio/Daescu could’ve put away.
Wind-Up Key Lesson: If you are an advanced player with good control of the ball, feel free to backswing and wind up. Just don’t speed-up every time you wind-up otherwise it’ll be too obvious.
The advantage of winding up is that it allows you to swing faster at a more consistent momentum instead of having to suddenly accelerate in a short stroke. If you accelerate fast in a short stroke on an off-the-bounce dink, a simple mistiming will send the ball flying off the court. Whereas a wind-up actually you makes you more consistent.
The “looser” you swing, the faster the ball will go and the topspin will keep the ball in.
This goes against what is taught to beginners. The reason beginners are taught to not wind-up is because they don’t have a consistent stroke yet and can’t “brush” up on the ball at the sweet spot on the paddle every time.
If you are coming from a lot of competitive Table Tennis experience, even if you are new to Pickleball, you’ll be able “brush up” on the ball and do this instinctively.
Tardio Inside-Out Out The Air Speed-Up Down The Line
High dink from Colin.
Gabe pulls his wrist back and threatens both line and middle.
Ben guesses wrong and covers middle. Gabe speeds it up down the line.
Key Lesson to Learn Here: Have a flexible wrist, it’ll allow you to speed-up to more areas an angles. Most people here would not be able to cock their wrist back far enough to speed-up down the line fast.
Self Drive and Crash by Colin
Colin Johns blasts a hard drive and crashes in. As the commentator Adam Stone points out here. Colin Johns (CJ), is crashing in whether it’s a drop or drive. And even that drive where it went way high, CJ crashes in as well. This is similar to Alshon/Duong’s play style. Whereas before, CJ would hang back and slowly move up.
CJ Third shot hybrid drive
he drives it dipping down the line as Daescu is running up. And Daescu misses it into the net for the game point.
CJ Self Shake and Bake
Another one: CJ drives the third and instantly crashes in and kills the pop-up with his backhand.
Colin speeds-up off-the-bounce
Something he never does. He is pushed back off the line on the dink. And he speeds it up. Before he would always dink it back middle.
He speeds it up right at Daescu’s right hip, jamming him up.
Daescu pops it up middle. Ben Johns finishes it with a putaway.
Colin Johns used to never do this, especially on a dink that pushes him both feet off the line. This is a Gabe Tardio move haha.
CJ speeds it up here as well off the bounce again. This time he gets countered by Daescu.
Colin Johns speeds it up off-the-bounce here to Daescu’s outstretched backhand. Daescu is late to it and blocks it out.
Beginners often don’t even realize 90% of their mistakes come from one thing: bad footwork.
I was trying to explain pickleball footwork succinctly to my cousin who has no racket sport experience. I couldn’t really get to him until I said think of footwork like “boxing”.
Just like Boxing:
Be on your toes.
Ever get caught “flat-footed”? That’s because you are on your heels. So you get stuck on the ground and can’t move your feet. You end up leaning and over reaching to one side with your arms and hitting a bad shot.
Bend your knees
Bend your knees and get low. Lower center of gravity gives you more control and helps you say balanced.
Lean forward.
In boxing when you want to throw a hard power punch, lean forward. In pickleball when driving and returning, lean forward.
In boxing of course, you don’t want to lean forward too too much because it’ll put your head in range.
But in pickleball you can lean forward even more than that. Lean like a Spartan holding a shield.
Lean forward, with your chest forward.
Power comes from hip and leg, not arm.
“A recent study found that only approximately 25% of power is generated from the arms while 35% is generated from pushing legs into the ground.
Plus the other 40% is generated by hip rotation which is another aspect of footwork as well
In boxing you want to throw a punch when you are in the pocket. You aren’t throwing punches trying to make contact when you are far away from your opponent. If opponents are out of range and you throw your punch trying to hit, the hit even if it connects won’t be hard.
Same in pickleball, move your feet to the ball FIRST and THEN swing. Don’t swing when the ball is not in the pocket.
Imagine every time you swing at the ball when you are out of position, you get countered and hit in the face.
Take extra small steps.
Don’t only take big steps. Especially as beginner, take lots of small steps to get to the right spot. Err on the side of taking too many steps. Look at Pickleball pro James Ignatowich.
If you take too big of step or don’t take the needed steps and are out of position? You miss hit the ball and lose.
If you take a ton of small steps, what’s the worse that can happen? You get tired. Good, you play pickleball to get exercise in anyway.
As paddle technology increases allow players to hit harder and keep the ball in with spin, there has been an increase in power added to the pickleball game.
This style of play is what is also called “modern pickleball”.
Previously, most players would flat drop or backspin drop to get to the kitchen. And then within the past 1-2 years, carbon fiber face with more grit allowed played to aggressively topspin drop or hybrid drive.
And now with newer faster paddles in addition to the grit, it allows players like Quang Duong and Alshon to drive more 3rd, and 5th, and in this tournament even 7th shot.
The old style of doing a drop, reset, get to the kitchen, and then that’s where the offense starts is no longer the only way to win.
If you can create a pop up with low, fast, dipping hybrid drives, it allows your partner to poach and attack in transition. The offense can be started in mid-court and no longer limited to just resetting to get to the kitchen.
*Note: it’s not like that never happened before, you can watch pickleball national finals from 8 years ago and they did attack in transition as well. They just couldn’t do it as often and was way riskier. This was because you couldn’t “pull up a ball” if it’s below net height with the old smooth paddles.
Colin Johns and Ben Johns have been sticking with the established way of pickleball.
Quang Duong and Christian Alshon have been spearheading the new way to play.
And this game was the one that will change the way Pickleball is played. Like Steph Curry’s Warriors first final versus the Lebron’s Cavs. Whoever won set the tone for how basketball was played the next decade.
If you cannot ATP, your opponent’s will continue to dink you out wide, pulling you out of position. Just being able to ATP and threatening it is huge in leveling the playing field.
The key with ATP is to get low and hit the ball right before the ball makes contact with the floor right before it bounces the second time.
Backhand ATP
Two-Handed vs One-Handed Backhand ATP
Two-Handed Backhand ATP – highly recommended to do this one.
Easier to get around the ball and apply sidespin to curve the ball in.
Is basically a forehand ATP but with your left-hand.
One-Handed backhand ATP
Slice ATP
You the ball to be wider out in order to hit this ATP because you can’t curve it in with the sidespin that goes around the post.
Connor Garnett 2 Handed Backhand ATP Examples:
video is timestamped to start at the ATP.
Connor Garnett ATP, he pulls his wrist all the way back, buttcap facing forward:
And he waits until the ball is very low to the ground at his ankle height to make contact with the ball.
And he gets it to bounce on the inside back corner:
Another Example:
This time it’s wide enough he aims it inside the court instead of at the corner.
You can see he pulls his paddle way back and applies side spin.
However because it’s inside the court, Augie gets his paddle on it and hits it back towards the other side.
If you don’t aim for the back corner it’s less risky, but also a lot easier to defend. Lower risk, lower reward.
It’s still a strong shot because Connor Garnett’s right side partner Pesa Teoni was able to come cover it and put the ball away.
Priority Checklist
Anticipate – recognize from ball trajectory as soon as it leaves opponent’s paddle that a dink is likely going too wide and is going to be ATP-able.
Move quickly – to where the ball will go before the ball even gets there.
If you start moving after the ball bounces, it will be too late.
Get balanced and low
Once you get to where the ball will be, get low and get balanced.
Point paddle head at the ground. Wrap your paddle around the outside of the ball.
This way you can generate the most amount of sidespin.
Wait until the ball is lower than your knee to contact it with your paddle.
This forces you to go low and wait longer until the ball is further out wide. The #1 mistake beginners make is not waiting long enough and waiting until the ball is almost touching the ground to hit it.
Because the ball will have lost most of it’s momentum, you’ll need to hit it harder than you expected for it to not fall short.
Keep the corner on their side of the court in your eye and aim for that.
That part is the hardest for the defender to defend.
It’s also the first part of the court that becomes hittable.
Learn to bail yourself out
If in the middle of it, you realize the shot was not ATP-able, learn how to dink the shot back to the middle to reset the point.
Drill Progression
Solo Drills:
Self-Feed: Drop the ball to yourself and ATP it.
Drop the ball and ATP it, but make it further and further back everytime until you are all the way back like this guy, who is basically one the other side of the court a little to the right of the line.
