Why I Kept Hitting the Ball Too High
The obvious answer is "bad technique." But that's not useful. I asked a 4.5 player named Rich who runs drills at our Tuesday night sessions to watch me dink for a few minutes. His feedback was uncomfortable but helpful.
"You're scared of the net," he said. "Every time you swing, you add a little extra lift because you don't want to hit into the net. So you overcompensate and the ball sails up."
He was right. I was so worried about netting the ball that I was unconsciously scooping under it. Every dink had way too much loft. Instead of the ball crossing the net and dropping down into the kitchen, it was crossing the net at shoulder height. That's not a dink. That's a setup.
The Grip Problem
Rich also pointed out that I was squeezing the paddle like I was trying to choke it. A tight grip locks your wrist, and a locked wrist makes it hard to control the paddle face angle. When you grip too tight, the paddle face tends to open up on contact, launching the ball upward. He told me to hold the paddle at about a 4 out of 10 grip pressure. That felt uncomfortably loose at first. Like the paddle might fly out of my hand.
The Wrist Angle Issue
I was also flicking my wrist at contact instead of keeping a firm but relaxed wrist through the stroke. That flick added unpredictable height. Dinking isn't a wrist shot. It's more of a shoulder and arm motion with the wrist staying quiet. Once I understood that, the ball started staying lower. Not perfect, but lower.
What Actually Fixed It
The mechanical adjustments helped. But the real breakthrough came from a drill that Lena and I did for about 20 minutes before rec play, three sessions in a row.
The Cooperative Dink Drill
We stood at the kitchen line and just dinked back and forth. No points, no competition. The only goal was to keep the rally going as long as possible with the ball never rising above the net by more than six inches. If either of us popped one up, we'd pause and reset.
The first session was humbling. I couldn't string together more than 8 or 9 dinks before lifting one. By the third session, we were hitting 40+ in a row. Something had clicked in my brain. I stopped thinking about "hitting" the ball and started thinking about "placing" it. That language shift sounds dumb but it actually changed my approach at the paddle.
Aiming for the Top of the Net
Rich gave me one more piece of advice that stuck: "Aim for the net cord." Not over the net. At the net cord. If you aim for the net cord, your margin of error goes both ways. A little high and it clears by a few inches and drops. A little low and it clips the tape and either goes over or falls back. But either result is better than aiming two feet over the net.
I still hit the net more than I'd like, probably once every 10 to 12 dinks. But the balls that clear the net are staying low. My opponents have to reach down to get them instead of teeing off at chest height.
The Results
Within about two weeks of focused practice, the pop-ups dropped dramatically. Not gone completely, but maybe 80% fewer. And the ones I do pop up now are usually because I'm off balance or reaching for a ball I shouldn't have tried to get.
The change in my game was almost immediate. Dink rallies started going 15, 20, 25 shots. I was actually winning some of those exchanges because my opponents would get impatient and pop one up first. That had literally never happened before.
One Tuesday night, a guy named Derek who I'd never beaten in singles said, "What happened to you? You're actually hard to play at the net now." That might be the best compliment I've gotten on a pickleball court.
Tips If You're Dealing with the Same Problem
Here's the short version of everything that helped me:
- Loosen your grip. If your knuckles are white, you're holding too tight. A loose grip lets the paddle face stay neutral through contact.
- Keep your wrist quiet. Dinking is an arm motion, not a wrist flick. Let your shoulder and elbow do the work.
- Aim for the net cord. It retrains your brain to keep the ball low instead of adding "safety" height.
- Practice cooperative dinking. Rally for length, not points. Build the muscle memory of consistent low contact.
- Accept that you'll hit the net more at first. Hitting the net while trying to stay low is better than popping it up. You'll find the right height with practice.
The pop-up problem is fixable. It took me longer than it should have because I kept trying to fix it during competitive play instead of slowing down and drilling it. Give yourself 15 minutes of cooperative dinking before you play and you'll probably see improvement within a week.