After Deep, Deep, Dink

Everyone will tell you that you have to learn to dink the third shot into the kitchen. That’s often called “Deep, Deep, Dink” and sometimes also referred to as “Long, Long, Short.” You know: You want the serve to go long toward the baseline. You want the return-of-serve also long, so you are eliminating your opponents’ chance to approach the kitchen and dink before you are ready, or to return an extreme diagonal.

But what people don’t tell you is to keep dinking. The fourth, fifth, sixth and subsequent shots should all be dinks, until someone suddenly exposes a weakness or faults.

In other words, don’t quit dinking until you have a clear opportunity. Many 4.0 players will tend to think they have an opportunity before they do, and try a smash, passing shot, or forehand topspin that isn’t going to work. Either they’ll fail in that power shot, or they’ll actually give the opponents an advantage. If that offensive move is too high or too long, the opponents will send it right back at you faster than you can react.