Transform Your Forehand Dink: Three Essential Tips from Pro Connor Garnett
If you find yourself stuck in endless dink rallies at the kitchen line, simply hoping your opponent makes the first mistake, you’re not alone. Many pickleball players treat the dink as a holding pattern rather than what it should be: an offensive weapon. The difference between surviving at the non-volley zone and dominating it often comes down to understanding a few critical adjustments that can transform a flat, predictable shot into something that keeps opponents guessing.
Professional player Connor Garnett recently worked with Randy, an accomplished PPA tour veteran with over 40 medals, to address exactly this challenge. Despite her impressive tournament resume, Randy felt her forehand dink lacked the quality needed to set up attacking opportunities. What Garnett provided wasn’t a complete technical overhaul requiring months of practice, but rather three specific adjustments that produced immediate results in just minutes.
Understanding Why Most Dinks Fall Short
Before diving into the technical solutions, it’s worth examining why so many players struggle with their dinks in the first place. At recreational levels, players often consider any dink that lands in the kitchen a success. While keeping the ball in play is certainly better than hitting it into the net or out of bounds, this mindset severely limits what the dink can accomplish strategically.
A flat, spinless dink that simply arcs over the net and dies in the kitchen might keep you in the point, but it does nothing to create pressure or opportunities. These “dead” dinks actually give your opponent complete control of the rally. They can step into the ball comfortably, take it early, and either continue the neutral exchange or attack when they see an opening. You’re essentially playing defense while standing at the net, which defeats the entire purpose of advancing forward in the first place.
The problem becomes more pronounced as you face better competition. Higher-level players don’t just hit the ball back and forth waiting for an error. They’re constantly looking to create angles, add spin, vary pace, and manipulate depth to force weak returns or create attackable balls. Without these elements in your dink game, you’re bringing a basic tool to a sophisticated contest.
Many players recognize their dinks lack something but make the situation worse by trying to do too much. They take bigger swings, try to muscle the ball, or attempt complex wrist manipulations they’ve seen professionals use. These compensations typically result in balls sailing long, popping up too high, or becoming wildly inconsistent. The solution isn’t more effort or complexity but rather refining specific technical elements that naturally produce the desired ball characteristics.
The First Adjustment: Contacting Near the Paddle Tip
The first modification Garnett recommends seems counterintuitive to many players who’ve been taught to contact the ball in the paddle’s sweet spot. For dinks specifically, he suggests making contact slightly higher on the paddle face, closer to the tip rather than dead center. This adjustment fundamentally changes the physics of how you can manipulate the ball.
When you contact the ball near the paddle’s upper portion, you gain additional leverage that makes it easier to create the topspin necessary for an effective dink. Think of your paddle as a lever—the further from the fulcrum point (your hand) you make contact, the more you can influence the ball’s rotation and trajectory. This positioning allows you to “lift” the ball more naturally, creating that desirable arc over the net while ensuring the ball drops quickly once it crosses.
Hitting too low on the paddle face, conversely, produces a flatter trajectory because you lose that natural leverage advantage. The ball comes off the paddle without much rotation, creating the dead dinks that give opponents easy looks. Players who consistently hit low on the paddle face often compensate by adding wrist action or taking bigger swings, which introduces inconsistency.
This doesn’t mean you should intentionally mishit the ball. Rather, adjust your ready position and contact point so that when you’re executing a proper dink motion, the ball naturally meets the paddle in that slightly elevated position. It’s a subtle shift that produces dramatic results in terms of the spin and shape you can generate without any additional effort or complicated technique changes.
The Second Adjustment: Keeping Your Swing Compact
Walk onto any recreational court and you’ll see players taking massive backswings for their dinks, as if they’re preparing to hit a groundstroke from the baseline. This habit represents one of the most common and damaging technical flaws in the dinking game. Garnett’s second principle directly addresses this issue: keep your swing compact and controlled.
A large, looping swing creates unnecessary variables in your technique. The longer the motion, the more opportunities for something to go wrong with timing, paddle angle, or contact point. You’re essentially trying to coordinate a complex sequence of movements to accomplish something that requires minimal force—moving a ball approximately fourteen feet. It’s using a sledgehammer when you need a jeweler’s tool.
The compact swing Garnett advocates uses the shoulder as the primary hinge rather than the elbow or wrist. This creates a more stable, repeatable motion because you’re moving from a larger, stronger joint that’s easier to control. Think of it as a pendulum motion originating from the shoulder, with the rest of the arm maintaining its relative position throughout the stroke.
This approach offers multiple advantages beyond just consistency. First, it makes timing significantly easier because there are fewer moving parts to coordinate. Second, it makes it much simpler to control depth—a critical element of effective dinking. Third, it allows for quicker recovery because you’re not swinging through a large range of motion. You can get back to ready position almost immediately, prepared for whatever comes back.
Players often resist shortening their swings because it feels like they won’t be able to generate enough pace or spin. This perception is incorrect. The spin comes from the paddle path and angle, not from swing length. The depth control actually improves dramatically with a shorter swing because there’s less room for error in your contact point and follow-through. Once players experience how much more consistent and effective their dinks become with a compact motion, they typically never want to return to their old habits.
The Third Adjustment: Leading with the Tip and Moving Around the Ball
The most sophisticated of Garnett’s three adjustments involves changing not just where you contact the ball or how big your swing is, but the actual path your paddle travels. Instead of swinging through the ball in a linear fashion—which tends to push balls long or flat—he teaches students to lead with the paddle tip and move around the ball.
During the lesson, Garnett explains this concept by demonstrating how the paddle tip stays in front of his wrist throughout the motion, allowing him to “sculpt” around the ball rather than driving through it. This sculpting motion is what generates natural topspin and side-spin simultaneously, creating ball movement that’s difficult for opponents to read and handle.
When you move around the ball rather than through it, you’re essentially brushing or curling it rather than striking it. This creates rotation without requiring aggressive wrist snap or excessive swing speed. The ball comes off your paddle with a combination of forward motion, topspin, and often a slight side angle, all of which make it more challenging for your opponent to predict the bounce and return cleanly.
This technique also provides exceptional disguise. Because the motion is compact and the paddle path is curved rather than linear, your opponent cannot easily determine from your preparation whether you’re hitting a soft dink crosscourt, sharpening the angle to push them wide, or suddenly changing the pace. This unpredictability is what transforms the dink from a neutral shot into a genuine tactical weapon.
Mastering this “around the ball” motion requires some practice because it feels unnatural at first, especially for players accustomed to driving through the ball on most shots. The key is to focus on the paddle tip leading the motion and to think about brushing the outside edge of the ball rather than hitting through its center. With repetition, this motion becomes automatic and produces consistently effective dinks with minimal conscious effort.
Why Spin and Shape Matter More Than You Think
After applying these three adjustments for just a few minutes, Randy immediately noticed her dinks had more “shape,” were dipping faster, and were bouncing in ways that created problems for her practice partner. This improvement highlights something many players underestimate: the importance of spin and ball movement in the soft game.
Topspin serves multiple functions in pickleball dinking. First, it provides a margin for error—the spin creates a trajectory that clears the net safely but then drops quickly, allowing you to hit with more net clearance without balls sailing long. Second, it affects the bounce. A ball with heavy topspin kicks forward and stays low after bouncing, making it harder for opponents to lift cleanly. Third, it provides deception, as the ball appears to be floating one direction but then dips or curves slightly, disrupting opponent timing.
Side-spin, which naturally occurs when you move around the ball as Garnett teaches, adds another dimension. It causes the ball to curve slightly in flight and kick sideways after the bounce. Even small amounts of side-spin significantly impact how opponents must position themselves and adjust their paddle angles. Many players find side-spinning balls particularly challenging because they’re less common than pure topspin and require different timing.
The combination of forward pace, topspin, and side-spin creates what better players call “heavy” balls—shots that don’t look especially difficult but feel awkward and uncomfortable to handle. These balls seem to jump or skid unpredictably, making clean contact challenging even when opponents are in good position. This heaviness forces errors or weak returns, which is exactly what you want from your dinks.
Perhaps most importantly, developing spin and shape in your dinks provides options. You’re not locked into hitting the same flat dink every time. You can vary the amount of spin, adjust the angles, change the depths, and mix in different looks—all from the same basic ready position and preparation. This versatility is what makes high-level dinking so effective and so challenging to defend against.
For Those New to Dinking: What You Need to Know
If you’re relatively new to pickleball or haven’t spent much time working on your dinking game, some of this technical discussion might seem overwhelming. Let’s break down what dinking is, why it matters, and how these adjustments fit into the bigger picture of pickleball strategy.
A dink is essentially a soft shot hit from near the net that lands in your opponent’s non-volley zone (the kitchen). The shot is designed to be unattackable—too low and too soft for your opponent to speed up effectively. Dinking rallies occur when both teams are at the net, hitting these soft shots back and forth, waiting for someone to make a mistake or hit a ball that sits up high enough to attack.
Many beginners wonder why anyone would want to hit soft shots when they could just try to blast the ball past their opponents. The answer lies in pickleball geometry and strategy. When both teams are at the net, there’s very little open court to hit into, and the net is only 34 inches high at the center. Trying to hit hard from this position usually results in balls sailing out of bounds or popping up high enough for opponents to counter-attack. The dink keeps the ball low and forces opponents to hit up, maintaining the rally until someone creates an opportunity.
The three adjustments Garnett teaches—contacting near the paddle tip, keeping the swing compact, and moving around the ball—all work together to make your dinks more effective without requiring exceptional athleticism or complicated technique. You’re not trying to hit harder or do anything flashy. You’re simply adding spin and control that makes your soft shots more challenging to return.
Think of it this way: a basic dink is like tossing a ball underhand to someone standing close to you. It gets there, but it’s easy to catch. A dink with proper spin and shape is like tossing that same ball with a slight curve or knuckleball effect—not thrown harder, but moving in ways that make it trickier to handle cleanly. That subtle difference separates players who merely keep balls in play from those who control the kitchen line and create winning opportunities.
Implementing These Changes in Your Game
Understanding these concepts intellectually is one thing; incorporating them into your actual play is another. The good news is that these adjustments don’t require dramatically altering your existing technique or spending months drilling. Many players notice immediate improvement once they understand what they’re trying to accomplish and make a few key modifications.
Start by working on one element at a time rather than trying to change everything simultaneously. Begin with the compact swing, as this tends to be the easiest adjustment and provides immediate benefits in consistency. Focus on initiating the motion from your shoulder while keeping your elbow and wrist relatively quiet. The swing should feel more like a controlled push or lift than a stroke.
Once the compact swing feels natural, add the focus on contacting the ball closer to the paddle tip. You may need to adjust your ready position slightly, perhaps holding the paddle a bit lower or tilting it at a different angle. Experiment until you find what feels comfortable while consistently making contact in that upper portion of the paddle face.
The around-the-ball motion is typically the most challenging to master because it requires rewiring your muscle memory about how to approach contact. Practice the motion slowly at first, really exaggerating the feeling of brushing around the outside of the ball rather than hitting through its center. Many players find it helpful to practice this motion without a ball initially, just getting comfortable with the paddle path, before trying to execute it in actual dinking situations.
When you’re ready to practice these techniques in live play, consider setting up cooperative dinking drills with a partner rather than jumping straight into competitive games. Work on extended dinking rallies where both players are trying to execute clean technique rather than trying to win points. This removes pressure and allows you to focus on the mechanics without worrying about outcomes.
Pay attention to the feedback you receive from the ball. When you’re executing these techniques correctly, you should feel the ball almost grab the paddle face briefly rather than bouncing off immediately. You should see a visible arc on the ball with clear rotation. After the bounce, the ball should stay relatively low and move forward with some energy rather than dying completely. These indicators tell you you’re creating the spin and shape that make dinks effective.
The Bigger Picture: Why Small Adjustments Create Big Results
What makes Garnett’s approach particularly valuable is that it demonstrates a fundamental truth about pickleball improvement: dramatic gains often come from refining details rather than learning entirely new skills. Randy didn’t need to completely rebuild her dinking technique. She needed three specific adjustments that optimized what she was already doing.
This principle applies across all aspects of pickleball. Players frequently assume they need to add more power, learn exotic shots, or develop advanced tactics to reach the next level. While those elements certainly matter at the highest levels, most players have far more to gain from perfecting the fundamentals. A mediocre dink with proper spin and placement beats a perfect-looking dink that sits up flat every single time.
The emphasis on spin and ball movement rather than pace also reflects modern pickleball’s evolution. As the sport has matured and top players have become more skilled, the ability to hit hard matters less than the ability to control ball characteristics. The best players don’t win points by overpowering opponents; they win by manipulating ball movement to create awkward situations that lead to forced errors or attackable returns.
This shift toward finesse over power actually makes pickleball more accessible and enjoyable for players of all ages and athletic abilities. You don’t need to be young or exceptionally strong to develop an effective dinking game. You need good technique, understanding of ball physics, and practice applying these concepts. A 65-year-old player with excellent spin and placement will defeat a 25-year-old athlete with more power but less control nearly every time.
Moving Forward with Your Dinking Development
After understanding and beginning to implement these three adjustments, the next step is consistent, purposeful practice. Improvement in pickleball, as in any skill-based activity, comes from repetition with proper technique. Simply playing more without focusing on these specific elements won’t produce the same results as dedicated practice with clear technical goals.
Consider dedicating the first 10-15 minutes of your court time to pure dinking practice. Work with a partner on sustained rallies, focusing entirely on technique rather than trying to win the exchange. Count how many consecutive dinks you can complete while both players maintain good form. This cooperative approach builds muscle memory much more effectively than immediately jumping into competitive scenarios where technique tends to break down under pressure.
Video analysis can provide valuable feedback, even if you’re just using a smartphone propped up courtside. Watching yourself execute
