Most players like to dink crosscourt, sideline to sideline. It makes sense for a few reasons: The crosscourt dink travels over the low middle of the net and moves your opponent wide.

But there’s a few ways this strategy can get you in trouble.

When the ball has to travel a longer distance (sideline to sideline), there’s more room for error — and any error gives your opponent an opportunity to attack.

It also stresses your team. You scramble back to cover the middle while your partner hustles to cover the line.

In this video, Coach Tony Roig walks you through the “green cone” dinking pattern. Two cones on each side of the kitchen line — green in the middle, red on the outside.

The rule is simple: Green to green, green to red or red to green. Never red to red.

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Roig shows two versions of this pattern.

  1. The Z pattern: A set sequence that builds a rhythm. Middle to outside, then back to middle on the next ball.
  2. Freestyle: Dink anywhere, call your target out loud, just no red to red.

This is how more pros dink today. More middle dinks, fewer outside-to-outside exchanges.

You can still go wide. You just go wide from the middle and dink with more intention.

Tony Roig is a nationally-recognized coach, Sr. Pro Player, developer of “Respect the X” among other widely used strategies, and is the voice behind the weekly Pickleball Therapy podcast. To find out more about Tony and his coaching visit TonyRoigPickleball.com. You can access their 4 FREE Mini-Courses to get going.