Are You Making These Mistakes on Your Slice Dink?

Welcome to The Pickleball Clinic Coaching Newsletter!

Spin is an incredible tool in pickleball.

In fact, the type and amount of spin you put on the ball can totally make or break your shot.

The first spin that you learn to hit on your dinks is slice, or backspin—it’s the easiest to learn. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come with its challenges and mistakes.

So today, we’re going to breakdown the slice dink, its most common mistakes, and how to hit it.

Let’s get started 👇

Slice is the most common type of spin hit on dinks. In fact, several years ago, many of the pros hit their dinks almost exclusively with slice.

Even in today’s game, where topspin is the big thing that everyone is trying to learn, slice is still incredibly important to use on your dinks.

Slice, or backspin, does a few of key things for us:

1. It causes the ball to hang in the air longer, giving you time to recover if you’re out of position

2. It causes the ball to bounce lower, forcing your opponents to bend and discouraging off the bounce attacks

3. It is hit with an open paddle face, making it ideal for picking up low balls when you’re stretched

Slice is generally easier to learn than topspin, so players are able to being using slice dinks at a lower level, whereas topspin usually isn’t implemented consistently until the 4.0+ level.

That being said, despite the benefits and relative ease of learning how to slice your dinks, most amateur players are doing it wrong and making the same key mistakes.

Here my rules for hitting a perfect slice dink:

1. Don’t over complicate it: Keeping a simple swing might be the single biggest key to consistently executing a slice dink, and its where a ton of players go wrong. It’s intuitive to think that since you are putting backspin on the ball, you should “chop” at it by swinging downward, and swing fast to generate the spin.
   
   In reality, this will cause you to lose control of the ball and probably pop it up.
   
   Instead, open your paddle face and swing in a straight line from behind the ball. The open paddle face will generate your backspin as the ball rolls on contact, and your straight swing will keep the ball low and in control.

2. Keep your elbow straight, especially on the backhand: This is another incredibly common mistake. If your elbow is bent as you swing, you are likely to swing with your elbow, creating a chopping motion. This will cause you to lose control. Your swing should come directly from your shoulder, and your elbow should be straight all the way through your followthrough.

3. Keep your wrist still: Similar to the elbow, there is no need for your wrist on the slice! Your wrist is a small muscle that can accelerate the paddle very quickly. Therefore, it is difficult to control when we need precision. Again, make sure that your swing comes directly from your shoulder.

4. Swing with an open paddle face: Finally, you need an open paddle face to get backspin. It isn’t physically possible to generate backspin with a closed paddle face. So you should set your paddle face to open during the first part of your backswing.

Apply those tactics, and you’ll be on your way to hitting a consistent slice dink!

See you on the courts!

- Matt Slowinski (Co-Founder, Pro Player & Coach)

Can you spot the slice dinks in this video? Take a look at when these players choose to slice.

That dink rally had a good mix of slice and topspin on both sides. You’ll notice that the slice dink was used defensively in this rally. The players opted for it when they were in trouble and needed to hit an unattackable dink that gave them time to recover.

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Insights from Pro Player/Coach Alex Szczepkowski

Alex has multiple pro wins, has been rated as high as 6.1 on DUPR, and is renowned as “The Best Coach in South Jersey".

The backhand slice dink is of the most important shots to master if you want to be in control at the kitchen at all times. It’s a great way to move your opponent around the court while ensuring your shot is not attackable. Here are some quick tips to help you perfect it:

• Backspin, also known as slice, is generated with an open paddle face, so don’t chop at the ball or take a big swing

• Use a continental or slightly eastern grip and ensure an open paddle face at contact

• Keep your arm straight with your wrist cocked back

• Pull or slide your arm across your body, think of a pendulum swinging back and forth, the elbow and wrist should be locked in place throughout the swing

Ready to practice your slice dinks? Here’s an easy drill that you can do with your partner to level up your slice.

Topspin to Slice Crosscourt Dinking

1. Set up at the kitchen line crosscourt from your opponent

2. Designate one player to hit only topspin dinks and the other player to hit only slice dinks.

3. Initiate a dink rally back and forth with no speedups. The main goal is to work on hitting your spin with consistency.

In this drill, the topspin applies pressure to the slicing player, and creates a realistic situation that you’d choose to hit a slice in.

Start off by hitting the ball directly back to each other so you can focus on your technique. After you have several good rallies back and forth, start moving each other around to make the drill more challenging.

If you’re a visual learner, check out this video by Coach Matt that breaks down how to hit the backhand slice dink.

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Well, that’s a wrap… so let’s recap what we learned this week about slice dinks.

• Don’t overdo it

• Swing from the shoulder

• Keep your elbow straight

• Keep your wrist still

Thanks for reading! We hope you can put these tips to good use the next time you’re out on the courts!

Reply to this email with anything you want to see in our future newsletters 😄 

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic