On Tuesdays there is a small group that gets together and drills. The current focus is on dinking and a soft game -- which is developing the skills that are required above the 3.5 DUPR level.
We were working on dinking and foot work. The consensus in re dinking is that you want to move your feet a lot more than your paddle or paddle hand. There is nothing strange about that. Moving towards the ball is pretty much the entire game. But, the usual question comes up and that is, "How do we do that."
I'm glad you asked... We had a drill where the paddle remained in the ready position until you were ready to hit the shot. So, paddle ready, move your feet to get to the ball, and then, finally, lower your paddle, twist your torso and hit the shot.
What that drill did was force the players to move first, stop and then hit the ball. This worked out incredibly well and the players looked like pros doing some dinking. They were mobile and relaxed and the actual hitting of the ball was the least important part of hitting the ball.
They looked like they had more time to play and were relaxed and the rallies were long and complex. All wonderful!
So give this a try: keep your paddle in the ready position, move to the ball, and then hit it.
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