Scooping the Ball

 I'm warming up before teaching one of the PB 101 classes and we're dinking a bit.  One of the things I press upon beginners is the idea of lifting shots over the net.  It's easily observed with dinks, you have to get under the ball then lift and push it.

I also think it's true of almost all ground strokes.  If you place the paddle under the ball then roll or cut it, there is a lot of control and you'll get less netted balls.  

This concept of a scoop came from somewhere; I've watched a lot of PB these last few days with the nasty weather.  And as mentioned I was focusing on this catch/scoop then do something stroke.  

I liked how it felt and how it seemed to slow the hit down.  One of the things that pros do when dinking is move the paddle in position, always open, then do some last instant stroke to finish the shot.  They seem in slow motion and it looks easier than what I am used to doing.  Of course they miss dinks too, so while it may look effortless and totally in control they are walking a fine line too between joy and disaster.  Their shot evaluations are hopefully much more stern than us rec players, so it's probably all in balance vis a vis the success error ratio.

Today was a dark and stormy morning, but there were a few hardy souls out playing.  Practice preceded play.  I still like this scoop feeling with the ball particularly with dink and other soft shots like thirds.

I like this and it fits my style of caressing the ball rather than hitting it.  It generates a soft shot and I think I can hit these soft shots a bit higher over the net and still find them less attackable.  Getting them higher cuts down on netted balls, so I welcome that side effect.

Give it a try and feedback is always appreciated.