What every coach says about the dink rally.

The five sources

The five coaching videos this take pulls from:

• Jordan Briones on PrimeTime Pickleball: 5 Keys to Successful Dinking. Foundational mechanics, Continental grip, contact in front, return to ready.
• Nicole Havlicek on PrimeTime: 7 Ways to Keep the Ball Low. The pro-level keep-them-attacking-low playbook, including grip pressure, target selection, and spin choice.
• CJ Johnson at Better Pickleball: Dink Shot Consistency. The contrarian thesis that wrist-and-forearm dinking is the single biggest rec mistake, and how to dink with paddle plus arm plus body together.
• CJ Johnson again: Dinking Tips, Start at the Bottom. The footwork drills nobody else publishes for free. Three drills, no paddle, all about stopping the feet before contact.
• Jordan Briones at Briones Pickleball Academy: Topspin Dink Technique. The argument that 80%+ of your dinks should be topspin, with the swing path spelled out.

The consensus core

Five videos, seven points where every coach agrees. Internalize these and your dinks stop popping up:

1. Continental grip. Briones is direct: same grip for forehand and backhand dinks because the rally turns from slow to fast in a hurry, and you don't have time to switch. Every other coach assumes it.
2. Contact out in front. Briones, CJ Johnson, and PrimeTime all say it the same way: the paddle never goes behind the body, and contact is always in front. Late contact is what produces pop-ups.
3. Short backswing, short follow-through. The full motion is from in-front to in-front, not behind-to-overhead. Briones's framing: "From here to here, or here to here." A long swing means you cannot recover for the next ball.
4. Knee bend, not waist bend. CJ Johnson's whole consistency video pivots on this. Bending at the waist forces you to use the wrist and forearm to lift the ball. Bending at the knees uses the legs and lets the paddle stay quiet.
5. Loose grip. 3-4 out of 10. Tighter grip rockets the ball off the face and the dink becomes attackable. Same scale CJ and Dave Weinbach use for the third-shot drop.
6. Land in the kitchen, not past it. Briones's fifth key: a dink that lands past the kitchen line gives the opponent a chance to volley it down. The bigger the kitchen-side margin, the more likely you trap them in a low contact.
7. Return to the ready position. CJ flags this explicitly. Pros may carry the paddle low between dinks, but rec players don't have the reaction time to recover from a low paddle, so reset to ready every shot.

Where the coaches diverge

Two real differences across the five videos:

Topspin first vs. flat foundation first

Briones is unambiguous: "You should be hitting topspin on your dinks more than 80% of the time." The argument is that a topspin dink dips harder after crossing the net, lands closer to the opponent's feet, and is far less attackable than a flat dink. Briones teaches the swing path explicitly: paddle tip well below the ball, swing straight up vertically, finish on the same side of the shoulder.

CJ Johnson's foundational video does not introduce topspin. The basic dink CJ teaches is more lifted and softer, with margin over the net. The implicit argument: rec players who add spin before they have the basic mechanics will pop the ball into the net or send it sailing.

PrimeTime's "keep the ball low" video covers spin as one of seven tools, after grip pressure, target selection, and footwork. The framing: spin is advanced; do not rush it.

The honest synthesis: Briones is right about the ceiling. CJ is right about the floor. If you cannot keep ten flat dinks in the kitchen, the topspin dink is going to amplify your inconsistency, not reduce it. Build the foundation, then layer topspin once you have it.

How much footwork to teach first

CJ Johnson's "Start at the Bottom" video is the most aggressive footwork-first pedagogy on the topic. The cannon analogy is the cleanest version of his thesis: a stationary base produces a more accurate shot, your lower body is the base, and stopping your feet before contact is non-negotiable. The video walks through three footwork drills, all without a paddle.

Briones treats footwork as a key but bundles it with the upper-body mechanics. Use your legs, get low, but the video spends most of its time on the swing path and grip.

PrimeTime's "keep the ball low" video puts "quick hands and feet" third on its list of seven, behind low-to-high motion and target selection. Footwork matters but it isn't framed as foundational the way CJ frames it.

Honest take: CJ is right that footwork is the unlock most rec players miss. The drill that should be your warm-up is CJ's footwork-X without a paddle. Until your feet stop before contact every time, the upper-body mechanics matter less than the videos suggest.

Briones's five keys, plain English

The PrimeTime + Briones five-key framework is the cleanest single-frame walkthrough. In order:

1. Continental grip. One grip for everything.
2. Swing path: short backswing, contact in front, short follow-through, return to ready. Paddle never behind the body.
3. Use the legs. Knees bent, back straight, drop your level to get under the ball instead of bending forward at the waist.
4. Margin over the net. A foot to a foot and a half of clearance, not the inch-over-the-net myth. Margin reduces unforced errors.
5. Land in the kitchen. Past the line, the opponent volleys it. Inside the line, they have to dink it back.

CJ Johnson's foundation: paddle, arm, body together

CJ Johnson's consistency video is built around one mistake: dinking with the wrist and forearm only. His former dink position, in his own words, was "very little knee bend, too much bend forward from the waist, and relying solely on the wrist and the forearm to lift the ball over the net."

The fix:

1. Strong ready position with bent knees and a tall chest, not bent forward at the waist.
2. Paddle and arm move together, not the wrist independently.
3. Paddle angle always facing up, regardless of forehand or backhand.
4. Use the paddle, the arm, AND the body to lift the ball. The wrist stays mostly out of it.
5. Return to ready position after every shot.

The footwork drills nobody else publishes for free

CJ Johnson's "Start at the Bottom" video opens with the cannon analogy and then teaches three footwork drills, all without a paddle:

1. Non-paddle dinking

Two players at the kitchen, mimicking dinks with their hands. Goal is to control trajectory and land between two pieces of tape on the ground. Forces correct footwork because there is nothing else to focus on.

2. The footwork X (warm-up)

Two players, dinking in an X pattern. Person A hits straight ahead, Person B hits crosscourt. Stop your feet before each shot. Start small and grow the X as you warm up. CJ's most-used warm-up drill.

3. Run-back-and-forth challenge

One player at the kitchen line, the other partner alternating between kitchen and mid-court. After each dink, they retreat to mid-court, then sprint back forward to hit the next one. The discipline: stop your feet before each contact. Trains the rec habit of running through shots out of the body.

The topspin upgrade (Briones)

Once your foundation is reliable, the topspin dink is the upgrade. Briones's argument:

• 80% of dinks should be topspin at 4.0+ levels. The remaining 20% are flat or sliced for variation.
• The mechanics: get low, paddle tip well below the ball, swing straight up vertically, finish on the same side of the shoulder.
• Wrist stable, shoulder driving. The vertical motion comes from the shoulder, not a wrist flick.
• The benefit: the topspin causes the ball to dip after the net, landing closer to the opponent's feet and making it harder to attack.

Keep the ball low: PrimeTime's seven-tool kit

PrimeTime's "7 Key Ways to Keep the Ball Low" video reads like a graduate-level checklist. We summarize each:

1. Avoid hitting low-to-high shots hard. If you have to lift the ball, soften the contact so it descends before reaching the opponent.
2. Target their feet. "Find their shoelaces" forces a low contact even on a hard ball.
3. Quick hands and feet to hit early. Take the ball at its highest peak after the bounce. Higher contact means a flatter swing path and a low ball on their side.
4. Paddle face angle, contact in front. Open face for soft shots from low contact, more closed face for high contact, contact always in front.
5. Conscious grip pressure. Loose for soft shots, intentional firmness for counter-attacks. Never tight from fear or panic.
6. Do not flick the wrist or break the elbow. Shoulder drives the motion. Wrist and elbow stay relatively stable.
7. Add spin once you have the foundation. Topspin gives margin over the net plus a dip toward feet; underspin/slice keeps balls low after the bounce. Both complicate the opponent's timing.

The synthesized framework

Stack the five sources and a single decision tree falls out:

1. Ready position. Continental grip, paddle up, knees bent, weight forward. Reset to this between every dink.
2. Read the ball. If the dink is bouncing above net height on your side, attack it (see hands battle take). If it bounces below the net, dink it back.
3. Move first, hit second. Shuffle to keep the ball in front of your body. Stop your feet before contact.
4. Lift with the legs. Knees bend, paddle face stays up, arm and body move together with the paddle. Wrist stays quiet.
5. Land in the kitchen with margin over the net. Foot to a foot and a half of clearance, ball lands inside the kitchen line, ideally with topspin if your foundation is solid.
6. Return to ready. Don't drop the paddle to the hip between dinks. Pros do; you don't have their reaction time.

Common mistakes

Pulled from across the five videos, the rec-level mistakes that come up most often:

1. Wrist-and-forearm dinking. CJ's #1 fix. Use the body, not just the upper limb.
2. Bending at the waist instead of the knees. Forces wrist motion. Forces inconsistent contact.
3. Tight grip. Pops the ball up. Breathe and loosen during fast exchanges.
4. Late contact (paddle behind the body). Briones's diagnostic for popping it up. Always hit in front.
5. Long swing. Briones again: from-here-to-here, not behind-to-overhead. Long swings mean you cannot recover for the next ball.
6. Hitting too close to the net. The myth that low-over-the-net dinks are uniquely good produces nets and pop-ups. Margin matters.
7. Landing past the kitchen line. Briones's fifth key. Past the line, they volley you down.
8. Running through shots. CJ's footwork drill is built around stopping the feet before contact.
9. Trying topspin before flat is reliable. Briones acknowledges, CJ teaches around it, PrimeTime puts spin seventh.

The drill stack worth doing weekly

A 30-minute dink-rally practice that synthesizes all five videos:

1. 5 min: footwork X without a paddle. CJ's warm-up. Reset feet before every imaginary dink.
2. 10 min: flat dink rally with a partner. Continental grip, contact in front, knees bent. Try to keep 30 in a row. Reset every time it dies.
3. 10 min: cross-court flat-vs-topspin. One partner hits flat, the other tries topspin. Switch every five minutes. Briones's swing path is the focus.
4. 5 min: stop-and-go. One partner alternates between kitchen and mid-court, the other stays at the kitchen feeding. Train stopping the feet before contact.

Do this once a week and the dink rally stops being where you lose points. See our partner drills guide for variations.

Where this fits

The dink rally is downstream of the third shot. Our third-shot-drop take covers what gets you to the kitchen. Once you arrive, the dink is what keeps you there until an attack opens up. The hands-battle take covers what happens when the dink goes too high.

For the standalone how-to, our dinking strategy guide covers placement and the patience-vs-power frame. For the kitchen-line decision tree on every ball, speed up vs reset is the companion.

The honest summary: at 3.0, drill the foundation. Knees, contact in front, ready position, soft grip. At 3.5, layer in margin and target selection. At 4.0+, add topspin and start picking the dink that produces the most pressure on the next ball. The rally is a slow burn, the player who is most patient and most present wins it.

Sources

• PrimeTime Pickleball with Jordan Briones: 5 Keys to Successful Dinking
• PrimeTime Pickleball: 7 Key Ways to Keep the Ball Low
• Better Pickleball with CJ Johnson: Dink Shot Consistency
• Better Pickleball with CJ Johnson: Dinking Tips, Start at the Bottom
• Briones Pickleball Academy: Dink Better Instantly With This Topspin Technique