One of the biggest differences in the style of playing pickleball is between bangers vs dinkers. You may meet players that love to drive and attack every chance they get while others like to play slow, reset, and dink almost every ball. So between these two camps, who would win a game of pickleball?
Pickleball Bangers Vs Dinkers
What Is A Banger In Pickleball?
A banger in pickleball is a player with an aggressive style of play and will hit the ball hard almost every chance they get. Bangers love to drive their third shot and subsequent shots they get back.
Pickleball Bangers Strengths And Weaknesses
Bangers in pickleball are great at driving and putting balls away. If you’re playing against a banger, you can expect almost every ball to come at you fast and hard.
A good pickleball banger will also be good at aiming to drive at your feet as you move up or right at your body. If they know placement strategies, they may even drive between you and your partner or down the sidelines as you move up.
However, if your opponent has not mastered their topspin drive, you may notice that a lot of their drives will go out of bounds. Without the right technique, a slice return for bangers will also make the ball end up at the net almost every single time.
Bangers are looking for any high ball that they can rip back to you. You want to avoid giving them that ball. Instead, you want to keep the ball low either by taking the pace off of the ball or adding an underspin and slicing the ball.
This will make the ball unattackable. And because bangers want to attack every ball they can, they tend to attack unattackable balls. Subsequently, the ball will end up in the net allowing you to win the point.
What Is A Dinker In Pickleball?
A dinker in pickleball is a player with a more controlled and patient style of play who will drop, reset, and dink the ball until they force their opponent to pop the ball up.
Pickleball Dinkers Strengths And Weaknesses
Dinkers in pickleball will drop their third shot and play slow and controlled as they get up to the non-volley zone. Once at the net, they will patiently dink as long as you can take it.
Dinkers strength lies in their patience and construction of the point through progressive adding pace to the ball until you pop the ball up. Then, it is an easy putaway for them.
However, the dinker’s weakness can be taken advantage of when they’re looking for the perfect ball to attack. Because you know their style of play is safe, you can predict which balls they will attack and which balls they will reset. So you can surprise them by speeding the ball up, using an offensive lob to get them back towards the baseline, or continuing to stay aggressive and not play their game.
Who Wins The Game Of Pickleball Between Bangers Vs Dinkers?
So who wins in a game of pickleball: bangers or dinkers? The answer is the team that is able to use the technique that makes their opponents uncomfortable. So if dinkers want to beat bangers, they will have to slow the game down, keep the ball low, and not give any attackable balls.
And if the bangers want to beat dinkers, keep giving them pressured shots that will force them to make a high drop or reset. Don’t enter into a dinking battle at the net knowing they will stay patient. Keep them moving, changing up the pace of the ball.
More Pickleball Tips
Read Next: How To Beat Bangers In Pickleball
Read Also: USA Pickleball Official Rulebook