Seven Topspin Dink Techniques From A Seven-Time Canadian Champion

• Christina Chin, a 5.47 DUPR player and seven-time Canadian champion, teaches seven topspin dink techniques in a lesson on Ed Ju’s YouTube channel.
• A topspin dink dips, jumps off the bounce, and gives the opponent less time, while a dead dink floats up and invites an attack.
• Chin builds the shot from a dropped paddle tip, a brush up and through at about 45 degrees, and a follow-through across the body.

How A Brushing Motion Turns A Soft Dink Into A Weapon

Christina Chin is a 5.47 DUPR player and a seven-time Canadian champion. Her nickname is “Softy.” In a lesson on Ed Ju’s YouTube channel, she walks through the topspin dink she uses to win the soft game at the kitchen line. The Dink Media Team broke the lesson into seven techniques, and each one answers a common problem recreational players run into when they trade dinks.

The starting point is the difference between two kinds of dink. A topspin dink dips, jumps off the bounce, and gives the opponent less time to react. A dead dink floats up and invites an attack. Chin’s seven techniques are all aimed at producing the first kind and avoiding the second.

Start With The Paddle Face And A Loose Wrist

The first technique is to drop the paddle face. Point the paddle tip toward the floor before contact and keep the wrist relaxed. A flat paddle face produces a flat ball with no spin, so the setup before the swing decides what the ball does after it. Chin says this setup also helps her disguise a speed-up. The same preparation can lead to a soft dink or a faster ball.

The second technique is the swing path. Chin describes it as a brush, not a punch. The paddle face starts pointed down and finishes angled slightly up, moving up and through the ball at about 45 degrees. Stopping the paddle at contact makes the ball pop up, so the paddle has to keep moving after it meets the ball.

Finish Across The Body

The third technique is the follow-through. Chin finishes on the opposite side of her body instead of the same side. She notes that many coaches teach a same-side finish for safety, but she says that approach gives up spin and pace. The across-the-body finish works especially well on crosscourt dinks.

The fourth technique covers where the spin comes from. Chin says it comes from the shoulder, elbow, and wrist working together. The Dink lays out how each part behaves when it works alone. Wrist alone pops the ball up. Shoulder alone gives a push dink with no bite. Beginners should dink mainly from the shoulder at first, then add wrist once their touch is solid.

Drill The Pattern And Aim For Spots

The fifth technique is a drill called the figure eight. One player dinks crosscourt every time, and the other dinks straight every time. Both players aim for mid-kitchen, keep the ball soft, and build a rainbow arc. The two players swap roles every few minutes, so each of them practices both directions.

The sixth technique changes how a player picks a target. Chin says to dink to spots, not to the person. She uses four target spots and mixes them based on how her opponents shift. In one pattern, she pushes an opponent wide with a down-the-line dink and watches whether that opponent stays there. If the opponent stays wide, she attacks the middle with a speed-up off the bounce.

Use The Short Hop When The Dink Is Aggressive

The seventh technique is a defensive shot. When an opponent hits an aggressive dink, Chin uses the short hop. She gets low, opens the paddle face slightly, grips the paddle very softly, and pushes the ball shallow into the kitchen. She does not swing through the ball. Swinging through usually pops it up.

Chin also describes how she reads incoming dinks. She sorts them into three types. A defensive dink is shallow. A neutral dink lands mid-kitchen. An aggressive dink is deep or out of reach. Against defensive and neutral dinks, she hits topspin. Against aggressive dinks, she uses the short hop or takes the ball out of the air with a volley. When a neutral ball comes in slowly, she steps back, hits topspin, and follows the ball in.

What To Do When You Get Pushed Wide

The lesson includes guidance for the moment a player gets pulled off the center of the court. Chin says to aim for the opponent’s inside foot and avoid an ego battle with crosscourt dinks. Taking balls out of the air when possible also helps. She adds that communication with a partner lets the partner shade over and cover the middle while the wide player recovers.

Chin and Ed Ju played a game to three to show these ideas in use. Chin used inside-foot resets and attacked the middle when Ed shaded wide. Ed relied on short hops and described feeling trapped in a long dinking exchange. The game shows the lesson’s main point: a patient player who varies targets and spin can control a dinking exchange without hitting hard.

Technique Before Equipment

The article also addresses paddles. A rougher paddle surface can help create spin, but the article puts technique first, and it advises building technique before choosing equipment. For a recreational player who wants a better soft game, that order of operations is a practical rule: fix the paddle angle, the swing path, and the follow-through first.

How To Put The Lesson To Work

The seven techniques fit together as a sequence. The paddle tip drops, the wrist stays loose, and the paddle brushes up and through at about 45 degrees. The follow-through finishes across the body. The shoulder leads, with the elbow and wrist adding spin as the player’s touch improves. The player aims for spots instead of people and reads each incoming dink as defensive, neutral, or aggressive before choosing a response. Each step serves the same goal: a dink that dips and jumps off the bounce instead of floating up for an easy attack.

A player can start with the figure-eight drill. It asks for the same ball every time and rewards a soft, arcing dink. From there, the target-spot habit gives the drill a purpose in match play. Push one opponent wide, watch where that opponent stands, and attack the middle with a speed-up off the bounce if the opponent stays put.

Chin’s record as a seven-time Canadian champion and her 5.47 DUPR rating make the advice worth a close look for recreational players who spend many of their rallies at the kitchen. The Dink’s write-up lists all seven techniques in order for players who want to work on them one at a time. The lesson shows that the soft game rewards spin, movement, and placement as much as patience.

The shot that loses the most dinking exchanges is the one that floats. Chin’s answer is a quiet one: drop the paddle tip, brush the ball, keep the paddle moving, and finish across the body.

Image: Depositphotos