Top spin dink lesson with top pickleball pro Zane Navratil.

Maybe the dink you’ve been relying on… isn’t as sharp as it needs to be. Or that your topspin, the thing you thought gave you an edge, isn’t quite stacking up against players who’ve mastered it at a higher level.

That’s what this series is about. Starting here, I want to dive into what separates the everyday player from the pros—specifically when it comes to dinking and topspin.

At the pro level, a dink isn’t just a soft shot. It’s a weapon. It sets up the point, pressures opponents, and forces mistakes. And topspin? It changes everything. The spin shapes rallies, changes trajectories, and creates options you don’t have without it.

Even the best pros have different takes on how to use them. Some lean on control and consistency, others use spin aggressively to dictate pace. Different solutions, different styles—but also overlap in the fundamentals that make them all successful.

The goal is to break down those differences, learn how the best apply them, and figure out what’s actually transferable to players like us.

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