{"id":1297,"date":"2026-11-06T11:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1297"},"modified":"2026-11-06T11:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:42:22","slug":"what-pros-prioritize-kitchen-dinks-shade-with-the-ball-respect-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1297","title":{"rendered":"What Pros Prioritize: Kitchen Dinks, Shade with the Ball, Respect Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"The Shot Pros Never Hit (Amateurs Hit All the Time)\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nkHv6d9Wp4o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Jordan Briones\u2019 Vietnam\u2013US World Cup breakdown highlights habits amateurs skip. Pros aim dinks into the NVZ so opponents can\u2019t take time away out of the air, shade together with the ball, and when pulled wide go middle\/inside feet.<\/p>\n<p>They also respect hand speed \u2014 a low middle ball that \u201ccould\u201d be attacked often gets reset instead of forced.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Land dinks in the kitchen to deny out-of-air takes<\/li>\n<li>Shade as a unit with the ball<\/li>\n<li>Pulled wide \u2192 high-% middle; respect hands on marginal attacks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In dinking, only count points when your dink bounces in the NVZ<\/li>\n<li>Watch one pro rally and pause on every \u201cno-attack\u201d decision<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"tdd-newsletter\">\n<p><strong>Get the 5 best pickleball tips every week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com\/v3\/loader.js\" data-beehiiv-form=\"0e5f3fe0-e4d3-4036-8d7f-c33b311980b2\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thedropdrive.beehiiv.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe free<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jordan Briones\u2019 Vietnam\u2013US World Cup breakdown highlights habits amateurs skip. Pros aim dinks into the NVZ so opponents can\u2019t take time away out of the air, shade together with the ball, and when pulled wide go middle\/inside feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,200],"tags":[123,730,585,1181,1354],"class_list":["post-1297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dinks","category-strategy","tag-briones","tag-dinks","tag-pro-habits","tag-shading","tag-world-cup-breakdown"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03-low-dink-at-the-net-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}