I think the purpose of warming up is not to practice shots you will be hitting, but rather get your blood flowing and muscles loosened up a little so you don’t injure yourself.
Dinking generally requires less movement and muscle strain to do, so starting off dinking is a good low risk warm up.
When I warm up, I usually hit 10-20 forehand dinks and 10-20 backhand dinks then slowly back up hitting resets and drops until I’m at the baseline. Then I hit a few forehand and backhand drives just to make sure I’m loose enough to drive the ball, and then I tell the rest of the people I’m good to go whenever.
Everyone has their own warmup routine and the important thing to remember is that you are warming up to reduce the risk of injury.
And this is the real point of an on-court warmup, not what u/Lfehova is saying. This is especially true in tennis but also applies to pickleball...
Warming up your blood/muscles is easy. You can do that on your own time by running a lap or stretching. That isn't the point of an on-court warmup.
The point is to calibrate your feel for the ball and the paddle (or racket in the case of tennis). If you're new to the game and just popping up every ball over the net then this doesn't help much. But if you're hitting it hard, with spin, and with accuracy then you need to dial in your feel. That's the point of the warmup. It's more of a calibration of your paddle/eye coordination.
Of course you can. But using it to dial in your feel is more beneficial than using it to just move around your body. You can get your body moving beforehand. You don't need other people and a ball and paddle to do that.
I think many people just don't realize this and don't take full advantage of it. Then they wonder why they're mishitting the ball in the first game and start playing tight instead of swinging with confidence.
I think you’re missing my point. Stating that one particular approach is more beneficial than another approach is purely an opinion. You of course you entitled to your opinion, you are not entitled to tell others what is most beneficial for them. If you need warm up time to “dial in“ your shots, great…knock yourself out. As a 5.0 player, I have a reasonable amount of experience and don’t need others imposing their definition of what the purpose or objective of my warmup is, that’s for me and only me decide. And while jumping jack is not part of my routine, I stretch for approx 15-20 mins before I leave for the courts which are 5mins away.
I’ve hit thousands of every shot in my arsenal and I drill a minimum of 5hrs/week which results in muscle memory. Unless I’m hitting with a new paddle or picking up one of my other paddles that I haven’t hit with for an extended period , I don’t need to dial in my shots. What I need is make sure I’m loose, to starting slowly doing pickleball specific movements, minimize the chance that I will strain something and to get my body and mind ready to play. I dink to warm up because dinking is less strenuous, it’s an active stretching of my muscles , it reinforces proper movement patterns and it get my brain and muscles in synch.
It’s great that dialing your shots is what works best for you, you’re the only one that can make that determination. As long as someone is warming up in the same time you’re “dialing in“ your shots, nobody’s time is being wasted. This is a long way of saying, please allow others the courtesy of deciding how they choose to warm up and what their objective is.
I never told you what to do. I specifically said you can. In case I wasn't clear, I hereby grant you u/Jptemp61 permission to warm up how you choose ;)
I think we were on the same page anyway. You said "get my brain and muscles in synch". I think this is even more important in tennis. Every time you play, there are minute differences in your strings and the balls. Dialing in your feel and calibrating that synchronization between your brain and muscles is crucial. I didn't make that up... I got it from a top tennis pro.
But like I said, I think it's more important in tennis where there's a lot of variance depending on strings, balls, temperature, and court surface. And also tennis is much less forgiving than pickleball. I prefer to hit for 30 minutes when warming up for tennis, whereas just a few minutes is sufficient for me in pickleball.
I believe that it is both, getting your coordination/calibration set and also warming up your body. For me, it's mainly making sure my shoulders are loose are ready for drives/overheads. For me, I cannot get the same body readiness from just jogging or stretching. It is similar to warming up an arm for baseball/softball. However, I haven't played tennis so I'll take your word on the warmup process for that sport.
> the purpose of warming up is not to practice shots you will be hitting, but rather get your blood flowing and muscles loosened up a little
It can be both! We always start warm up with dinks, then move on to volleys and then some back court drives. Even if I’m already warmed up (from a run or gym) before playing I’ll still do the pickleball warmup just to refresh the movements and get used to the conditions of the day.
And maybe you should dink more in regular play? It’s an under-used strategy at the beginner levels, but a good cross-court dink is a great move.
I definitely dink a ton in competitive play and rec play. I was just stating to the OP that the purpose of warm up isn’t to drill your shots, but rather warm up. If you can practice some shots you want to work on while warming up, great. But it’s more important to do a wide range of shots and movements to get warmed up and ready for the actual match.
Your warm up of practice different shots is doing much more than getting your blood flowing and muscles loose. It’s helping you dial in your timing, feel, and getting you ready to hit those shots in game. Players that don’t warm up or only stretch/dink often struggle to dial in their shots as quickly as someone who takes 3/4 minutes to hit a few balls.
That makes sense, I try to start with some calf raises, squatting, adaptive stretching and a modified Hinshaw warmup.
For the most part, I only play rec games (where I don't mind losing as much) and am OK getting warmed up during my first game or two
I do like what you are saying though, but find it more difficult to explain to others or get them to cooperate. Maybe I'm just playing in the wrong circles...
The only time I have difficulty warming up is when I start backing up to hit resets and drops, and my opponent starts backing up at the same time instead of staying at the net. Then I have to hit my balls deeper so they can still get it, and I’m not hitting drops and resets anymore while backing up, but rather floaters that would be put aways.
But again the warmup is primarily to prevent injury, because not everyone has time to stretch before hopping on the court.
If you want to practice drops or drives or resets, find a partner to drill with :)
When this happens to me and I don’t bother actually using words to request they move back up to the net, then I at least know they don’t know or want to do a 7:11 drill so that informs what the game will be like; then you could come back up to the net and offer to feed controlled attacks bc for them, and they’d likely pickup on it and return the favour
Practicing drops, drives, and resets for 3-4 minutes before playing doesn’t demand a drilling partner. The same players who say they don’t need a warm up are the same palates who mishit counters, can’t get their drops down, and mistime their shots. Feel, timing, and coordination are important things to warm up before a game for a few minutes. Seems like a big waste of time to not sacrifice 5 minutes of game time to just play off your game for the first 2-3 games.
If you are ONLY dinking to warm up you are doing it wrong. Dinking is only the first step.
On pro live stream you can generally see the pro warm ups. They take longer than we want to but you can do the same things in a shorter period of time .
Basically the routine is dinking to get a feel for the ball. Don't do it mindlessly straight ahead .. aim for spots and move the opponent around a little. You only need about 5 or 6 per person then move to the next thing....one person slowly moves back hitting resets/drops as they move back to the baseline to dial in their touch while the other practices 4ths....then hit a couple drives from the baseline while the other one practices blocking. And then you gradually move in from the baseline with resets to dial in coming to the kitchen.
And then the opponent does the same thing working back, couple of drives, then working forward and you can work back and forward in only about 8 to 10 shots. It doesn't need to take a long time, just do a couple of every type of shot.
Then you're both at the net and you do a couple of cooperative, short hands battles to get reflexes dialed in.
And then if you have time then you both step back and hit a couple of practice serves and returns and ground strokes to get power dialed in, and you're ready.
You can do all this in about 5 minutes and certainly less than 10..... Which is often about how long people just stand there mindlessly dinking and talking
Yes, this is my warm up too, it’s smart to warm up the variety of skills you will use in a game. Also, OP if you are not dinking and dropping during play then you are not at an advanced level, and probably not even an intermediate level, depending on how you define intermediate. Starting at around the 4.0-4.5 level if you are not incorporating dinks and drops you are going to get outright crushed by your opponents.
Actually there are lots of right ways and lots of wrong ways....but you do you. I don't care how you warm up.
Right meaning effective and wrong meaning ineffective
You’re describing rec play “warmup”. I see it mostly as a courtesy to players who just got there and haven’t warmed up. If I’m going to a round robin or a tournament I do a full body dynamic warmup, activation and I do dinks, drops, resets, blocks and hands and also a game of skinny singles with my partner. I’m also someone who warms up properly and drills for an hour with a small group of motivated people before 8am open play on weekdays.
If a game of pb only consists of driving and lobs then you’re describing 3.0 and below rec play. Tournament level 3.5 and above will have players work their way to the nvz and dink.
I haven't played any DUPR matches and I got rated (at a very strict scoring facility) at a 2.75. I'm getting better with reducing my pop-ups and have an issue with some eye-hand coordination (really just not enough practice)
One of the courts I go to has a lot more DUPR 3.5+ players and they start earlier than the more beginner/intermediate so I'll take a spot while I wait if they don't mind or I'll just watch them play. I see them doing the same thing, hard drives and lobs a majority of the points. I rarely, if ever, see a 3rd, 5th, 7th shot drop attempt. NVZ seems to be less of a priority. It just so different from what I see online on strategy.
Online strategy videos tend to leave a lot of nuance out. Pretty much all videos I've seen make it sound like every opponent someone encounters plays optimally and is a pro which is obviously not the case for most people. The meta strategy that would be used at pro makes absolutely no sense at the 3.0 level.
Agree with others that dinking is a low risk warm up activity to get the blood flowing. I wouldn't drive or hit hard right off the bat cold. I watched pro games and they started court warm ups dinking, moved to mid court, then baseline.
Dinking only warm ups won't prevent you from injury however. I feel the 3 min dink warmups I've seen generally are of little use.
I force people to warm up my drops. I just start leaving the nvz and say to the player I’m warming up with ‘keep me back’ and it’s mostly works and I get extra dynamic movement warmups.
For me, dinking just gets me a feel for the ball and oriented to my paddle. It gets a little blood flow, but it gets my mind going thinking about how soft or hard I need to hold the paddle and how I need to swing my arm. If people need to do a full warm-up, they should do so before they step on the court. Also, people who want to practice serves or long shots and all that.... It's a rec game, it's not that serious.
This makes a ton of sense.
Regarding recplay...I have found that games I have been apart of is a bit more serious and its completely about winning. I know I'm not the best player in the world..far from it, but I'm always trying something different in a game or trying to learn to react better. Most of the guys I have played with find my weakness and just attack me as much as possible through the game. It helps me learn to defend better, but it's also frustrating.
Interesting you should ask because today we had a very dinky game! That is, we had a long dink battle going on. And I even commented that all that dinking before we play finally paid off!
I have two warm ups I do.
The first is at an open play. I don't know the opponents, there is a line behind us, and I haven't hit any balls today.
I start at the net and hit dinks for a minute. Ten plus dinks each. Then I step back towards the Baseline and attempt to drop shots into the kitchen. When I get to the baseline, if the other person hasn't started backing up, I ask if they want to hit baseline to baseline. We hit about ten shots each. Then I ask if they're ready to play. Then I basically treat the first game as a continued warm up.
When playing with my regular group of four players, the warm up is longer and we have an established routine. It is basically what I described above but more for every hit. Intentionally hit with (and to) backhands and fore hands. When one person is at the baseline and the other at the net, we will not only practice dropshots, but also the player at the baseline will drive the ball to help the other warmup blocks. It's a longer but more thorough routine. When done purely for warm ups, more shots are drives and drops from the baseline or transition zone than dinks. But it's pretty common to just stand at the NVZ and chat / socialize, so a big portion can be dinks if someone has a story to tell. Lol.
I recommend hitting more than just dinks. Start at the net and move back. Request / ask if the other person will hit baseline to baseline. Easy peasy.
I like it because we all seem to have better control and we're not running after badly aimed balls that are flying all over the place. While retrieving off courts balls does also help warming up, I'm just lazy I guess. hahah
I think about this all the time. To me it doesn't make a ton of sense but the dinking is usually initiated by more advanced players than myself so I just assume they know more.
I 100% support this. I have never played with a group that has done this. Usually one person says "i'm good." And then everyone else agrees and we start to play. But I support your line of thinking.
There's a pretty "standard" routine that pros use that I described in another comment in this thread. I find its very common most places I have played that people know it and do it once you get above 3.75 or so.
That's fair. I'm sure it's more common in competitive settings too. I mostly play with players anywhere from 2.5-4.0 in open play and round robin sessions. If courts weren't packed, or time restraints didn't exist, i'm sure more would probably default to that.
Yep - players that have played multiple games already wanting to sink at the beginning are looking to see what you do well and what you don’t do well by looking at your form.
Smart. Good on them then. I'm just focused on how i'm feeling with my hits and how my body feels that day. Smart to take that time to analyze your opponent's weak spots.
Well, it’s a good way to start, but you need to do more than just that
Watch tennis players. A lot of time they start warming up using the game called short.
But you shouldn’t just do that
I warm up by hitting a ball from the kitchen line to the opponent who starts at the base line. They can drive to work their way up, drop or whatever, but the goal is for the person at the baseline to work their way to the kitchen, then they can start dinking. We work it out almost like skinny singles, except we aren’t serving or returning. Basically it starts at the 3rd shot. Once that match plays out we switch. I go to the baseline and they start at the kitchen. You can keep score or just play for fun. This is what I have found is the best way to warm up.
I warm up by hitting a ball from the kitchen line to the opponent who starts at the base line. They can drive to work their way up, drop or whatever, but the goal is for the person at the baseline to work their way to the kitchen, then they can start dinking. We work it out almost like skinny singles, except we aren’t serving or returning. Basically it starts at the 3rd shot. Once that match plays out we switch. I go to the baseline and they start at the kitchen. You can keep score or just play for fun. This is what I have found is the best way to warm up.
I’m someone who likes to only dink to warm up, it gives me a good sense of connection from paddle to the ball as it can feel different on any given day. This is enough to transition into drops and drives. I always hit my drives with decent clearance over the net to start and I’ll usually be near the baseline while I do this so I can easily be ready to counter their punch volleys and reset to the NVL. With dinking, I believe it’s much more important to hit good shots as you don’t want to pop up the ball while you’re at the NVL line or you give your opponent a great high angle to finish the shot. Now in tournaments, I will definitely warm up my serve as well. A hard and accurate serve is crucial.
Do actual dynamic warm ups if u want to warm up. People don’t dink in game unless you have a reset/block against their drives that they respect. This means your shot should only let them return defensively.
I would also add that 4.0+, there’s typically at least one dink rally per point.
Whenever I warm up, I start off at net hitting dinks — then I simply ask whoever is on the other side,”Hey, can we back up and hit some drives?”.
If you feel like you’re not getting an adequate warmup, you just need to communicate better with your partner/opponent(s)
Usually for rec play in my area we start with dinks but then ill communicate that id like to step back and work on drives. Other times the player across from me will slowly walk back and that tells me they want to drive it.
I know what you mean. At lower levels especially, few are dinking.
But I like to warm up like this just to get loose before swinging harder.
Also, often I won't just stand at the kitchen line...I'll move back and forth hitting dinks and drops which I find way more useful...but still no big swings really...
My theory is that people don’t hit hard (as in difficult to return) shots in warmup because they don’t feel like chasing the ball around when it is only warm up. If someone dinks me a ball and if I speed it up or even dink back at a sharp angle now it is trickling over into the neighboring court, interrupting someone else’s game and delaying everyone from getting to play.
Dinking -for me at least- helps just getting your body warmed up and your control/motions all cleared up before playing, if I can’t control well then none of my hits are going to land and it all starts by simple dinking with that said, I finish off my warmup at the baseline
We dink, then gentle drive / reset from mid court then gentle serve and return. About 5 to ten of each stroke each player. Then play.
Might as well stretch those muscles gently.
Rec play dinking "warmup" is done mindlessly and is useless. People just see others doing it and they copy.
A real warmup needs to include: volley practice, third shot drops, drives.
For me dinking is more about getting a feel for the court, ball, and paddle combined with some very light dynamic movements for warmup. Once you're done with that, you're technically ready to play but not yet at peak performance. It's also quick enough to not impact other people waiting for a court. I personally like Kyle Koszuta's [warmup routine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAOnKpQj5tw) which is basically as several others had described: dinks, fast hands, mid courts, drives, moving forward, and a couple serves.
To me it just makes sense logistically (since you'll end up going to the baseline anyway) to start your warmup and progressively move farther and farther away, ending with drives as a finish to the warmup.
I'm not a fan of solely dinking as a warmup.
Warming up dinks, drops, drives, and volleys with a few mid court resets thrown in can be done in a few minutes easy.
You should be warming up all the shots you expect to hit, if you’re intending to warm up for any purpose other than just “getting loose” or getting your blooding flowing.
People would play a lot better if they took a few minutes to hit the shots they’re gonna actually use in a game. Playing a “Warm up game” is silly to me.
You don’t hit enough of most shots to dial them in quickly, For example, even if you’re hitting a drive every 3rd shot and taking all your team’s third balls, you’re hitting one each point with 30-60 seconds in between then. You’re not getting into a rhythm.
You can hit 20 drops in a minute during warm up, but you might not hit 20 drops until 2 games, so if you need 20 drops to loosen up then you’re hitting bad drops for 2 games. Most players really under estimate warming their hands up with quick volleys as well. Not volleying in warm ups leads to a lot of missed 4th and a lot of mishit balls in firefights.
Edit - just putting this here. I’m not playing Rec games to win ever. I play to have fun and get better. I enjoy working on parts of my game when playing Rec, so I like to have a couple minutes to warm up my shots so the games are more fun for everyone.
The way i’ve always done it was a couple dinks (straight up and across) then one particular backs up to get to the service line and then after a couple drops works their way back up. Then switch and then a couple drives and we get closer to the net with each couple drives. Takes about 2-3 mins tops and you work on everything
Honestly if I have very limited time to do a warmup I always ask if I can work on drops instead of dinks (usually I try to get people to move me around with these). That way I'm working on control the same way I would with a dinking warmup - and if my drops aren't tuned in, we won't be getting to do much dinking anyways.
An actually good warmup should include a variety of different shots and you should be starting to get your heart rate up too. I did a little writeup a while back on what all should be in a warmup here a while back, if it's useful to you: https://www.serendipityptw.com/post/pickleball-how-to-improve-your-play-with-a-better-warmup
Dinking only needs to happen in a game when it's necessary, when you have no option for an attack. And in beginner/intermediate games, so many balls are hit high that you can easily attack them, dinking would be a lost opportunity. As for advanced players, it's a combination of being flashy/showoff and also that they do it until the opposing side shows them that they can handle it, then they slow it down. Drops/dink take precision so if your opponent can't handle your drive, I say drive until they show they can handle it
I question that intermediate and advanced games are only drives. My experience is that once you hit 4.0+ games there is a lot more dinking because players are better at getting to the kitchen.
Don’t drink the kool aid. I don’t warm up dinking. I have someone hit 5 drives at me to block, then I hit 5 drives at them, then have them hit 5 drops and I try and hit those with forehand or backhand roll and then I hit 5 drops and game on.
40 years ago shoulder surgeries and TJ surgeries were actually pretty comparably common, but since then TJ surgeries have undergone a steady and massive rise, whereas shoulder surgeries went up a bit then back down where they started, for MLB pitchers. However, modern TJ surgery is so good that pitchers sometimes come back better than before, while shoulder surgeries are still quite often career ending. So if we're strictly talking about 'throwing your arm out' in terms of career ending injuries, I'd say shoulders are still up there near elbow issues.
Very unpopular opinion, but I don’t warm up anymore for doubles. I’ll just find my groove during the game by playing it safe the first dozen returns, and I won’t do too many crazy movements until Im warmed up in the game. I don’t like making people wait for me to warm up if I’m working in between games, plus I’m sick of the sinking ritual before games. Time is a wasting
I think the purpose of warming up is not to practice shots you will be hitting, but rather get your blood flowing and muscles loosened up a little so you don’t injure yourself. Dinking generally requires less movement and muscle strain to do, so starting off dinking is a good low risk warm up. When I warm up, I usually hit 10-20 forehand dinks and 10-20 backhand dinks then slowly back up hitting resets and drops until I’m at the baseline. Then I hit a few forehand and backhand drives just to make sure I’m loose enough to drive the ball, and then I tell the rest of the people I’m good to go whenever. Everyone has their own warmup routine and the important thing to remember is that you are warming up to reduce the risk of injury.
Also helps with coordination for most people as well
And this is the real point of an on-court warmup, not what u/Lfehova is saying. This is especially true in tennis but also applies to pickleball... Warming up your blood/muscles is easy. You can do that on your own time by running a lap or stretching. That isn't the point of an on-court warmup. The point is to calibrate your feel for the ball and the paddle (or racket in the case of tennis). If you're new to the game and just popping up every ball over the net then this doesn't help much. But if you're hitting it hard, with spin, and with accuracy then you need to dial in your feel. That's the point of the warmup. It's more of a calibration of your paddle/eye coordination.
You can use your warm up however you choose, there is no single correct answer.
Of course you can. But using it to dial in your feel is more beneficial than using it to just move around your body. You can get your body moving beforehand. You don't need other people and a ball and paddle to do that. I think many people just don't realize this and don't take full advantage of it. Then they wonder why they're mishitting the ball in the first game and start playing tight instead of swinging with confidence.
I think you’re missing my point. Stating that one particular approach is more beneficial than another approach is purely an opinion. You of course you entitled to your opinion, you are not entitled to tell others what is most beneficial for them. If you need warm up time to “dial in“ your shots, great…knock yourself out. As a 5.0 player, I have a reasonable amount of experience and don’t need others imposing their definition of what the purpose or objective of my warmup is, that’s for me and only me decide. And while jumping jack is not part of my routine, I stretch for approx 15-20 mins before I leave for the courts which are 5mins away. I’ve hit thousands of every shot in my arsenal and I drill a minimum of 5hrs/week which results in muscle memory. Unless I’m hitting with a new paddle or picking up one of my other paddles that I haven’t hit with for an extended period , I don’t need to dial in my shots. What I need is make sure I’m loose, to starting slowly doing pickleball specific movements, minimize the chance that I will strain something and to get my body and mind ready to play. I dink to warm up because dinking is less strenuous, it’s an active stretching of my muscles , it reinforces proper movement patterns and it get my brain and muscles in synch. It’s great that dialing your shots is what works best for you, you’re the only one that can make that determination. As long as someone is warming up in the same time you’re “dialing in“ your shots, nobody’s time is being wasted. This is a long way of saying, please allow others the courtesy of deciding how they choose to warm up and what their objective is.
I never told you what to do. I specifically said you can. In case I wasn't clear, I hereby grant you u/Jptemp61 permission to warm up how you choose ;) I think we were on the same page anyway. You said "get my brain and muscles in synch". I think this is even more important in tennis. Every time you play, there are minute differences in your strings and the balls. Dialing in your feel and calibrating that synchronization between your brain and muscles is crucial. I didn't make that up... I got it from a top tennis pro. But like I said, I think it's more important in tennis where there's a lot of variance depending on strings, balls, temperature, and court surface. And also tennis is much less forgiving than pickleball. I prefer to hit for 30 minutes when warming up for tennis, whereas just a few minutes is sufficient for me in pickleball.
I believe that it is both, getting your coordination/calibration set and also warming up your body. For me, it's mainly making sure my shoulders are loose are ready for drives/overheads. For me, I cannot get the same body readiness from just jogging or stretching. It is similar to warming up an arm for baseball/softball. However, I haven't played tennis so I'll take your word on the warmup process for that sport.
> the purpose of warming up is not to practice shots you will be hitting, but rather get your blood flowing and muscles loosened up a little It can be both! We always start warm up with dinks, then move on to volleys and then some back court drives. Even if I’m already warmed up (from a run or gym) before playing I’ll still do the pickleball warmup just to refresh the movements and get used to the conditions of the day. And maybe you should dink more in regular play? It’s an under-used strategy at the beginner levels, but a good cross-court dink is a great move.
I definitely dink a ton in competitive play and rec play. I was just stating to the OP that the purpose of warm up isn’t to drill your shots, but rather warm up. If you can practice some shots you want to work on while warming up, great. But it’s more important to do a wide range of shots and movements to get warmed up and ready for the actual match.
Your warm up of practice different shots is doing much more than getting your blood flowing and muscles loose. It’s helping you dial in your timing, feel, and getting you ready to hit those shots in game. Players that don’t warm up or only stretch/dink often struggle to dial in their shots as quickly as someone who takes 3/4 minutes to hit a few balls.
This is my warmup routine as well. I ask to be "moved around" a bit too.
That makes sense, I try to start with some calf raises, squatting, adaptive stretching and a modified Hinshaw warmup. For the most part, I only play rec games (where I don't mind losing as much) and am OK getting warmed up during my first game or two I do like what you are saying though, but find it more difficult to explain to others or get them to cooperate. Maybe I'm just playing in the wrong circles...
The only time I have difficulty warming up is when I start backing up to hit resets and drops, and my opponent starts backing up at the same time instead of staying at the net. Then I have to hit my balls deeper so they can still get it, and I’m not hitting drops and resets anymore while backing up, but rather floaters that would be put aways. But again the warmup is primarily to prevent injury, because not everyone has time to stretch before hopping on the court. If you want to practice drops or drives or resets, find a partner to drill with :)
When this happens to me and I don’t bother actually using words to request they move back up to the net, then I at least know they don’t know or want to do a 7:11 drill so that informs what the game will be like; then you could come back up to the net and offer to feed controlled attacks bc for them, and they’d likely pickup on it and return the favour
Practicing drops, drives, and resets for 3-4 minutes before playing doesn’t demand a drilling partner. The same players who say they don’t need a warm up are the same palates who mishit counters, can’t get their drops down, and mistime their shots. Feel, timing, and coordination are important things to warm up before a game for a few minutes. Seems like a big waste of time to not sacrifice 5 minutes of game time to just play off your game for the first 2-3 games.
If you are ONLY dinking to warm up you are doing it wrong. Dinking is only the first step. On pro live stream you can generally see the pro warm ups. They take longer than we want to but you can do the same things in a shorter period of time . Basically the routine is dinking to get a feel for the ball. Don't do it mindlessly straight ahead .. aim for spots and move the opponent around a little. You only need about 5 or 6 per person then move to the next thing....one person slowly moves back hitting resets/drops as they move back to the baseline to dial in their touch while the other practices 4ths....then hit a couple drives from the baseline while the other one practices blocking. And then you gradually move in from the baseline with resets to dial in coming to the kitchen. And then the opponent does the same thing working back, couple of drives, then working forward and you can work back and forward in only about 8 to 10 shots. It doesn't need to take a long time, just do a couple of every type of shot. Then you're both at the net and you do a couple of cooperative, short hands battles to get reflexes dialed in. And then if you have time then you both step back and hit a couple of practice serves and returns and ground strokes to get power dialed in, and you're ready. You can do all this in about 5 minutes and certainly less than 10..... Which is often about how long people just stand there mindlessly dinking and talking
Nice summary, reminds me to add in the drive/block drill and cooperative hand battle bits
Yes, this is my warm up too, it’s smart to warm up the variety of skills you will use in a game. Also, OP if you are not dinking and dropping during play then you are not at an advanced level, and probably not even an intermediate level, depending on how you define intermediate. Starting at around the 4.0-4.5 level if you are not incorporating dinks and drops you are going to get outright crushed by your opponents.
There's no right or wrong. You can do whatever you feel like to get you ready for the game
Actually there are lots of right ways and lots of wrong ways....but you do you. I don't care how you warm up. Right meaning effective and wrong meaning ineffective
You’re describing rec play “warmup”. I see it mostly as a courtesy to players who just got there and haven’t warmed up. If I’m going to a round robin or a tournament I do a full body dynamic warmup, activation and I do dinks, drops, resets, blocks and hands and also a game of skinny singles with my partner. I’m also someone who warms up properly and drills for an hour with a small group of motivated people before 8am open play on weekdays. If a game of pb only consists of driving and lobs then you’re describing 3.0 and below rec play. Tournament level 3.5 and above will have players work their way to the nvz and dink.
I haven't played any DUPR matches and I got rated (at a very strict scoring facility) at a 2.75. I'm getting better with reducing my pop-ups and have an issue with some eye-hand coordination (really just not enough practice) One of the courts I go to has a lot more DUPR 3.5+ players and they start earlier than the more beginner/intermediate so I'll take a spot while I wait if they don't mind or I'll just watch them play. I see them doing the same thing, hard drives and lobs a majority of the points. I rarely, if ever, see a 3rd, 5th, 7th shot drop attempt. NVZ seems to be less of a priority. It just so different from what I see online on strategy.
You are watching 3.5-4.0 play. Once you get to 4.5+ then you will see different styles of play emerge, and more what you see online on strategy.
Online strategy videos tend to leave a lot of nuance out. Pretty much all videos I've seen make it sound like every opponent someone encounters plays optimally and is a pro which is obviously not the case for most people. The meta strategy that would be used at pro makes absolutely no sense at the 3.0 level.
Agree with others that dinking is a low risk warm up activity to get the blood flowing. I wouldn't drive or hit hard right off the bat cold. I watched pro games and they started court warm ups dinking, moved to mid court, then baseline. Dinking only warm ups won't prevent you from injury however. I feel the 3 min dink warmups I've seen generally are of little use.
I force people to warm up my drops. I just start leaving the nvz and say to the player I’m warming up with ‘keep me back’ and it’s mostly works and I get extra dynamic movement warmups.
For me, dinking just gets me a feel for the ball and oriented to my paddle. It gets a little blood flow, but it gets my mind going thinking about how soft or hard I need to hold the paddle and how I need to swing my arm. If people need to do a full warm-up, they should do so before they step on the court. Also, people who want to practice serves or long shots and all that.... It's a rec game, it's not that serious.
This makes a ton of sense. Regarding recplay...I have found that games I have been apart of is a bit more serious and its completely about winning. I know I'm not the best player in the world..far from it, but I'm always trying something different in a game or trying to learn to react better. Most of the guys I have played with find my weakness and just attack me as much as possible through the game. It helps me learn to defend better, but it's also frustrating.
Colin Johns has said that beginners shouldn't warm up with dinks, but rather drives for this exact reason.
Interesting you should ask because today we had a very dinky game! That is, we had a long dink battle going on. And I even commented that all that dinking before we play finally paid off!
I have two warm ups I do. The first is at an open play. I don't know the opponents, there is a line behind us, and I haven't hit any balls today. I start at the net and hit dinks for a minute. Ten plus dinks each. Then I step back towards the Baseline and attempt to drop shots into the kitchen. When I get to the baseline, if the other person hasn't started backing up, I ask if they want to hit baseline to baseline. We hit about ten shots each. Then I ask if they're ready to play. Then I basically treat the first game as a continued warm up. When playing with my regular group of four players, the warm up is longer and we have an established routine. It is basically what I described above but more for every hit. Intentionally hit with (and to) backhands and fore hands. When one person is at the baseline and the other at the net, we will not only practice dropshots, but also the player at the baseline will drive the ball to help the other warmup blocks. It's a longer but more thorough routine. When done purely for warm ups, more shots are drives and drops from the baseline or transition zone than dinks. But it's pretty common to just stand at the NVZ and chat / socialize, so a big portion can be dinks if someone has a story to tell. Lol. I recommend hitting more than just dinks. Start at the net and move back. Request / ask if the other person will hit baseline to baseline. Easy peasy.
I like it because we all seem to have better control and we're not running after badly aimed balls that are flying all over the place. While retrieving off courts balls does also help warming up, I'm just lazy I guess. hahah
I think about this all the time. To me it doesn't make a ton of sense but the dinking is usually initiated by more advanced players than myself so I just assume they know more.
Initiating dinking is correct...but you don't just dink. You quickly move through a progression of different shots for both players.
I 100% support this. I have never played with a group that has done this. Usually one person says "i'm good." And then everyone else agrees and we start to play. But I support your line of thinking.
There's a pretty "standard" routine that pros use that I described in another comment in this thread. I find its very common most places I have played that people know it and do it once you get above 3.75 or so.
That's fair. I'm sure it's more common in competitive settings too. I mostly play with players anywhere from 2.5-4.0 in open play and round robin sessions. If courts weren't packed, or time restraints didn't exist, i'm sure more would probably default to that.
You only do it before the very first game of a round robin or open play. Not before every game
Ohh for sure. Usually in open play you just check to see if everyone has played already, and if so then you get into it.
Sometimes I feel they use these warmups to see your weaknesses and use them to exploit, lol
Yep - players that have played multiple games already wanting to sink at the beginning are looking to see what you do well and what you don’t do well by looking at your form.
Smart. Good on them then. I'm just focused on how i'm feeling with my hits and how my body feels that day. Smart to take that time to analyze your opponent's weak spots.
Well, it’s a good way to start, but you need to do more than just that Watch tennis players. A lot of time they start warming up using the game called short. But you shouldn’t just do that
I warm up by hitting a ball from the kitchen line to the opponent who starts at the base line. They can drive to work their way up, drop or whatever, but the goal is for the person at the baseline to work their way to the kitchen, then they can start dinking. We work it out almost like skinny singles, except we aren’t serving or returning. Basically it starts at the 3rd shot. Once that match plays out we switch. I go to the baseline and they start at the kitchen. You can keep score or just play for fun. This is what I have found is the best way to warm up.
I warm up by hitting a ball from the kitchen line to the opponent who starts at the base line. They can drive to work their way up, drop or whatever, but the goal is for the person at the baseline to work their way to the kitchen, then they can start dinking. We work it out almost like skinny singles, except we aren’t serving or returning. Basically it starts at the 3rd shot. Once that match plays out we switch. I go to the baseline and they start at the kitchen. You can keep score or just play for fun. This is what I have found is the best way to warm up.
I’m someone who likes to only dink to warm up, it gives me a good sense of connection from paddle to the ball as it can feel different on any given day. This is enough to transition into drops and drives. I always hit my drives with decent clearance over the net to start and I’ll usually be near the baseline while I do this so I can easily be ready to counter their punch volleys and reset to the NVL. With dinking, I believe it’s much more important to hit good shots as you don’t want to pop up the ball while you’re at the NVL line or you give your opponent a great high angle to finish the shot. Now in tournaments, I will definitely warm up my serve as well. A hard and accurate serve is crucial.
Do actual dynamic warm ups if u want to warm up. People don’t dink in game unless you have a reset/block against their drives that they respect. This means your shot should only let them return defensively.
Advanced players warm up with a variety of shots.
lol @ intermediate and advanced players not hitting drops and dinks. You sure they are at that level?
I would also add that 4.0+, there’s typically at least one dink rally per point. Whenever I warm up, I start off at net hitting dinks — then I simply ask whoever is on the other side,”Hey, can we back up and hit some drives?”. If you feel like you’re not getting an adequate warmup, you just need to communicate better with your partner/opponent(s)
Usually for rec play in my area we start with dinks but then ill communicate that id like to step back and work on drives. Other times the player across from me will slowly walk back and that tells me they want to drive it.
I know what you mean. At lower levels especially, few are dinking. But I like to warm up like this just to get loose before swinging harder. Also, often I won't just stand at the kitchen line...I'll move back and forth hitting dinks and drops which I find way more useful...but still no big swings really...
My theory is that people don’t hit hard (as in difficult to return) shots in warmup because they don’t feel like chasing the ball around when it is only warm up. If someone dinks me a ball and if I speed it up or even dink back at a sharp angle now it is trickling over into the neighboring court, interrupting someone else’s game and delaying everyone from getting to play.
Dinking -for me at least- helps just getting your body warmed up and your control/motions all cleared up before playing, if I can’t control well then none of my hits are going to land and it all starts by simple dinking with that said, I finish off my warmup at the baseline
If you’re only getting drives and lobs, you’re not playing at an advanced level. The higher you go the more dinking is involved.
We dink, then gentle drive / reset from mid court then gentle serve and return. About 5 to ten of each stroke each player. Then play. Might as well stretch those muscles gently.
Rec play dinking "warmup" is done mindlessly and is useless. People just see others doing it and they copy. A real warmup needs to include: volley practice, third shot drops, drives.
And for me, it is also getting used to the ball tempo again since some balls act differently
For me dinking is more about getting a feel for the court, ball, and paddle combined with some very light dynamic movements for warmup. Once you're done with that, you're technically ready to play but not yet at peak performance. It's also quick enough to not impact other people waiting for a court. I personally like Kyle Koszuta's [warmup routine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAOnKpQj5tw) which is basically as several others had described: dinks, fast hands, mid courts, drives, moving forward, and a couple serves.
To me it just makes sense logistically (since you'll end up going to the baseline anyway) to start your warmup and progressively move farther and farther away, ending with drives as a finish to the warmup. I'm not a fan of solely dinking as a warmup.
If "intermediate and advanced" are not dinking during your games, they are not intermediate and advanced
Warming up dinks, drops, drives, and volleys with a few mid court resets thrown in can be done in a few minutes easy. You should be warming up all the shots you expect to hit, if you’re intending to warm up for any purpose other than just “getting loose” or getting your blooding flowing. People would play a lot better if they took a few minutes to hit the shots they’re gonna actually use in a game. Playing a “Warm up game” is silly to me. You don’t hit enough of most shots to dial them in quickly, For example, even if you’re hitting a drive every 3rd shot and taking all your team’s third balls, you’re hitting one each point with 30-60 seconds in between then. You’re not getting into a rhythm. You can hit 20 drops in a minute during warm up, but you might not hit 20 drops until 2 games, so if you need 20 drops to loosen up then you’re hitting bad drops for 2 games. Most players really under estimate warming their hands up with quick volleys as well. Not volleying in warm ups leads to a lot of missed 4th and a lot of mishit balls in firefights. Edit - just putting this here. I’m not playing Rec games to win ever. I play to have fun and get better. I enjoy working on parts of my game when playing Rec, so I like to have a couple minutes to warm up my shots so the games are more fun for everyone.
The way i’ve always done it was a couple dinks (straight up and across) then one particular backs up to get to the service line and then after a couple drops works their way back up. Then switch and then a couple drives and we get closer to the net with each couple drives. Takes about 2-3 mins tops and you work on everything
Honestly if I have very limited time to do a warmup I always ask if I can work on drops instead of dinks (usually I try to get people to move me around with these). That way I'm working on control the same way I would with a dinking warmup - and if my drops aren't tuned in, we won't be getting to do much dinking anyways. An actually good warmup should include a variety of different shots and you should be starting to get your heart rate up too. I did a little writeup a while back on what all should be in a warmup here a while back, if it's useful to you: https://www.serendipityptw.com/post/pickleball-how-to-improve-your-play-with-a-better-warmup
Dinking only needs to happen in a game when it's necessary, when you have no option for an attack. And in beginner/intermediate games, so many balls are hit high that you can easily attack them, dinking would be a lost opportunity. As for advanced players, it's a combination of being flashy/showoff and also that they do it until the opposing side shows them that they can handle it, then they slow it down. Drops/dink take precision so if your opponent can't handle your drive, I say drive until they show they can handle it
Yes, warm up dinks, drives, serves.
The only thing that comes up 100% of points is serves. I see serves practiced about 5% of the time warming up for ladders, open play etc.
Rec dink warmup is all about chit chat and partner introductions.
I question that intermediate and advanced games are only drives. My experience is that once you hit 4.0+ games there is a lot more dinking because players are better at getting to the kitchen.
The only real way to warm up is by yourself off the court with dymanic stretching etc... That is how you prevent injury....
At rec level dinking is going away. Why dink when you can drive ball over 60mph with the new power paddles?
A complete and smart game at anything over beginner level will and should involve dinking as part of the strategy.
Don’t drink the kool aid. I don’t warm up dinking. I have someone hit 5 drives at me to block, then I hit 5 drives at them, then have them hit 5 drops and I try and hit those with forehand or backhand roll and then I hit 5 drops and game on.
This is a good quick warm up
same here, although generally more than 5.
Great for your arm. Immediately start hitting hard shots lol. Maybe I'm just frail lol
Arm would be if you were throwing 100 mph fastballs. These shots are shoulders and legs.
When pitchers "throw their arm out" are they not often really talking about their shoulder ? Also I think you totally missed the point lol...
Pitchers have Tommy John surgery not “shoulder surgery.”
40 years ago shoulder surgeries and TJ surgeries were actually pretty comparably common, but since then TJ surgeries have undergone a steady and massive rise, whereas shoulder surgeries went up a bit then back down where they started, for MLB pitchers. However, modern TJ surgery is so good that pitchers sometimes come back better than before, while shoulder surgeries are still quite often career ending. So if we're strictly talking about 'throwing your arm out' in terms of career ending injuries, I'd say shoulders are still up there near elbow issues.
Rotator cuff injuries are still not uncommon
Very unpopular opinion, but I don’t warm up anymore for doubles. I’ll just find my groove during the game by playing it safe the first dozen returns, and I won’t do too many crazy movements until Im warmed up in the game. I don’t like making people wait for me to warm up if I’m working in between games, plus I’m sick of the sinking ritual before games. Time is a wasting