Never Show Them Your Knuckles | Pickleball Grip Strategy & Tips

Your Ultimate Guide to Winning Dinks in Pickleball

Hey there, pickleball enthusiast. Let’s stand at the kitchen line together for a second. I’m watching you float one more dink just a little too high, and I finally say the thing that changes your whole short game: “Never show them your knuckles.” From that moment on, your dinks start living lower, softer, and a whole lot harder to attack.

What does “never show them your knuckles” mean in pickleball?
It’s a simple wrist and paddle orientation rule at the kitchen line: knuckles down, paddle face slightly up, so your soft shots clear the net low and drop instead of popping up into your opponent’s strike zone.

Picture this: you’re in a long cross-court dink rally. Your opponent keeps firing balls at your feet, hoping you’ll panic and lift one. Instead, you stay balanced, wrist calm, knuckles quietly pointed toward the court. Your paddle face stays honest, each ball skimming the net and dying at their toes. They’re the one who finally blinks and pops one high; you’re the one who finishes the point.

That’s the heart of never show them your knuckles: a simple visual cue that locks in paddle angle, protects you from pop-ups, and makes your dinks and blocks feel like they’re glued to the net tape. Once you combine this with a relaxed, smart pickleball grip pressure, your entire soft game starts to feel calmer and more dangerous at the same time.

If you’ve already worked through how to hold a pickleball paddle, this knuckles rule is the kitchen-specific extension: same solid foundation, but tuned for delicate, fight-for-every-inch dinking.

Understanding “Never Show Them Your Knuckles”

Keeping your knuckles pointed down at the kitchen keeps your paddle face honest and your dinks low enough that opponents can’t comfortably attack. In plain language, the way your top hand knuckles point quietly decides whether you control the rally or feed your opponent put-aways.

When I coach this, I’m not asking you to memorize ten mechanical checkpoints. I’m giving you one simple picture: if your opponent across the net can see the tops of your knuckles facing them, your paddle face is probably open and your next ball is flirting with pop-up territory. If your knuckles point down toward the court, the paddle face settles into a neutral, reliable angle. That tiny change reduces your need to “steer” the ball in last-second panic.

PickleTip insight: I call this your “knuckle line.” Imagine a line running from your top knuckles down into the kitchen. When that line points at the court instead of the sky, your dinks naturally live low and safe.

• When your knuckles drift up toward your face → your paddle face opens, and dinks start launching higher than you think.
• When your knuckles stay pointed gently down → your paddle face stays stable, and the ball comes off with soft, predictable height.

Once you see it this way, never show them your knuckles becomes less of a cute phrase and more of a commandment for your whole soft game. It shapes how your wrist rests between shots, how you receive pace at the kitchen, and how easily you can redirect the ball to uncomfortable targets like ankles, shoelaces, and outside hips.

“If your knuckles are talking to your opponent, your dinks are about to say ‘sorry’.”

From here, we’ll build out how this one idea connects to control, deception, consistency, and even how tight or loose you should hold the paddle.

Why Keep Those Knuckles Hidden?

Hidden knuckles turn your dinks from random soft shots into deliberate, hard-to-attack patterns that frustrate even stronger players. When you control the paddle face this precisely, you control how much work your opponent has to do just to stay in the rally.

Most players think they need “better touch” when what they really need is better paddle orientation. You don’t have to caress the ball like a pro to become a menace at the kitchen. You just need your paddle face not betraying you. Knuckles down takes a lot of the guesswork out: the ball stops popping up in the middle of the court, and your misses gather tighter around the net line instead of floating up as invitations.

• Control: Knuckles down keeps the paddle face slightly closed, helping you send the ball low and short instead of high and deep.
• Deception: With a stable wrist, you can change direction late without flipping the face open.
• Consistency: The same wrist picture on every dink cuts down on wild height changes from shot to shot.

When your knuckles drift toward the sky → your dinks start landing deeper and higher, which gives your opponent permission to swing big.

When your knuckles stay quiet and pointed down → the ball tends to fall shorter and lower, forcing them to play up instead of through you.

Here’s the contrarian part: you don’t need to be the more talented player to win dinking exchanges. If you’re the one who understands how never show them your knuckles interacts with gravity, net height, and your opponent’s strike zone, you can dictate the quality of every contact even against someone with “better hands.”

As you internalize this, pair it with a softer grip from the dedicated pickleball grip pressure guide. Paddle angle (knuckles) plus tension (pressure) is the real engine under your kitchen game.

“Good hands are just good angles repeated a thousand times without panic.”

Mastering the Knuckle Technique

Knuckles-down mechanics are less about learning new motions and more about cleaning up what your wrist is already trying to do. You’re not rebuilding your stroke; you’re giving it rails to run on so it stops leaving the track under pressure.

I coach this in three layers: how your hand shakes the paddle, how your wrist sits between shots, and how you move your feet so the wrist doesn’t have to bail you out. Most players only think about the last moment at contact; the real magic happens in the seconds before, when your wrist is either calm and ready or already twisted toward disaster.

1. Handshake first.
   Start from a simple handshake-style Continental grip like you’ve seen in how to hold a pickleball paddle. Let your fingers wrap naturally; the face should feel neutral, not wildly open or closed.
2. Set the knuckle line.
   From that handshake, gently roll your top knuckles down toward the court just a few degrees. You’re not cranking your wrist; you’re settling it.
3. Freeze the picture between shots.
   After each dink, your paddle should return to roughly the same knuckles-down, paddle-up picture in front of your chest.

PickleTip insight: Think “small tilt, big result.” You don’t need a dramatic bend. That tiny knuckle tilt can be the difference between a ball that floats shoulder-high and one that dies by the net post.

When you only fix your wrist at the last second → you’ll feel rushed and inconsistent. When you keep the knuckles picture the same between shots → your brain relaxes, and your contact naturally settles into a repeatable window.

Once this feels steadier, you can start layering in more advanced decisions: changing direction late, adding a tiny bit of slice, and hiding your intentions without changing the knuckle picture your opponent sees.

Can I use the same knuckles-down concept for blocks?
Yes. At the kitchen, a knuckles-down, slightly forward paddle makes it easier to absorb pace and keep blocks low rather than popping them into overhead height.

Drills to Build Knuckles-Down Consistency

Drills turn “never show them your knuckles” from a reminder into a reflex. You’re not just memorizing a cue; you’re building hundreds of low-stress repetitions until your hand forgets how to flip the paddle face open in the first place.

These three drills are ones I use with players from 2.5 to 4.5. No fancy gear – just honest attention to what your wrist is doing.

When you race through these drills just to “get them done” → your wrist reverts to old habits. When you slow down and visually verify knuckle position every few balls → you build a new normal that holds up on game night.

One session won’t transform you. But five or six sessions, treated seriously, will. You’ll walk into rec play and notice that the same balls you used to float are now skimming the tape and dropping instead of rising into chest-high attacks.

How long until knuckles-down feels natural?
Most players feel a clear difference within 2–3 focused sessions and start trusting it fully after a few weeks of consistent use in games.

Strategic Dinking: Turning Technique into a Game Plan

Knuckles-down is the mechanic; winning dinks is the strategy layered on top. Once your paddle face behaves, you can start using it to move people, expose awkward contact points, and set up the ball you actually want.

Too many players think “just get it over” when they dink. That’s how you end up in long, meaningless rallies that end with whoever makes the last random mistake. When never show them your knuckles locks the ball height in, you earn the right to think more ambitiously about patterns.

• Aim for the inside foot.
  Knuckles down plus a slightly forward contact lets you park the ball at your opponent’s inside foot, where they have to scoop up instead of swinging through.
• Change directions late.
  With a stable wrist, you can send three dinks cross-court and then, at the last second, redirect one straight ahead without telegraphing it.
• Use depth as a weapon.
  Alternate shorter dinks that drag them forward with slightly deeper ones that push them back off the line.

When your dinks all land in the same safe, middle area → your opponent settles in and starts swinging.

When you vary depth and direction off the same knuckles-down picture → they never quite know what they’re defending.

Story from the court: I had a 3.5 player who was convinced he “couldn’t win dink rallies” because everyone in his group hit harder than he did. We rebuilt his kitchen game around hidden knuckles and inside-foot targets. Two weeks later, he told me, “I’m not the hardest hitter out there, but people are suddenly scared to get into a soft rally with me.” That’s paddling smarter, not harder.

As my regular partner Jen likes to gripe, “I swear they know where I’m going before I hit it.” If that’s you, knuckles-down plus late direction changes is your antidote. Same wrist picture, different landing spot.

Keeping It Low: The Fine Art of the Dink

Every great dink shares three traits: low, soft, and controlled. Knuckles down is the foundation, but how you manage angle, swing, and timing decides how annoying your dinks really feel from the other side.

The goal isn’t perfection; it’s building a “normal” that lives just over the net instead of six inches too high. That starts with your paddle face, continues through how big your motion is, and finishes with when you choose to contact the ball.

• Master paddle angle.
  Think of the paddle face as your ball elevator. Knuckles down keeps the elevator on the first floor, not the penthouse. You’re lifting the ball just enough to clear the tape, not sending it sightseeing.
• Control the swing.
  Short, compact, brushing motions help you stay honest. The bigger your swing, the harder it is to keep the face steady through contact.
• Win the timing battle.
  Contacting the ball just after it rises from the bounce gives you a natural downward arc. Wait too long, and you’re forced to lift; take it too early, and you jab up at it.

When you swing big at dinks → your brain has to manage too many moving parts at once, and the ball creeps up in height.

When you keep the motion small and time the ball just after the bounce → “low and soft” stops being an instruction and starts being your default setting.

If you want to go deeper on this whole soft-game mindset, pair this article with your broader piece on the dinking game, where footwork and positioning get just as much attention as wrists and paddle angles.

Grip Strength: Holding On but Letting Go

Knuckles down doesn’t work if you’re strangling the paddle. The more you squeeze, the more your wrist locks and the more your paddle face wants to bounce shots higher than you intended. Soft control at the kitchen needs a soft-enough hand to match.

On a 1–10 scale, with 1 being “paddle falling out” and 10 being “white-knuckle death grip,” your dinks should live around a 2–3. That sounds light, but remember: you’re not fighting pace; you’re shaping it. A gentler hand pairs perfectly with the knuckles-down picture you’ve been building.

• Too tight (7–9): Wrist locked, ball tends to jump off the face and land deeper than you want.
• Too loose (1–2): Paddle may twist, especially if your contact point is off-center.
• Sweet spot (2–3 for dinks): Secure enough not to twist, relaxed enough to absorb energy.

When your grip pressure climbs with your stress level → your knuckles-down work gets undone by tension.

When you treat grip pressure as its own skill → the knuckles cue becomes easier to maintain without fighting your own forearm.

For a deeper dive on this side of the equation, circle back to the dedicated article on pickleball grip pressure. Between that and never showing your knuckles, you’re building a soft game with both gears wired correctly: angle and tension.

Can I use a firmer grip if my opponent hits hard dinks?
Yes, you can nudge up to 4–5 briefly on harder balls, but avoid staying there. Reset to your softer baseline as soon as you’ve absorbed the pace.

Frequently Asked Questions

Remember to Never Show Them Your Knuckles

By now, you’ve seen that never show them your knuckles isn’t a cute slogan; it’s a full-on operating system for your kitchen game. Knuckles down stabilizes the paddle face. A lighter grip lets the ball sit on the strings a fraction longer. Smart targeting turns dinks from survival shots into weapons.

Here’s your measurable challenge: for your next five sessions, run at least one 10-minute knuckles-down drill (wall rally, partner ladder, or corner targets) before games start. Track how many dinks you accidentally pop above net height in real play. If that number doesn’t drop, we’ll talk. But it will.

When you’re ready to round out the rest of your foundation, pair this kitchen work with your grip and hold fundamentals in how to hold a pickleball paddle and your overall skill progression in the pickleball ratings overview. Your short game isn’t a side quest; it’s the front door to winning more points.

Stay patient, keep those knuckles quiet, and let your opponents wonder why every “easy” ball they get from you suddenly feels like work.