{"id":1056,"date":"2026-10-16T01:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2026-10-16T01:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:21:08","slug":"simplify-the-drop-shoulder-lift-locked-wrist-open-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1056","title":{"rendered":"Simplify the Drop: Shoulder Lift, Locked Wrist, Open Stance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Learn to Simplify the Drop Shot in Pickleball \u2705 #pickleball #thirdshotdrop #pickle\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/arximfoMpAs?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><\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Preston&#8217;s Playbook strips the drop to essentials. Prepare early with the paddle below the ball and lock the elbow and wrist. Lift with the shoulder in a smooth motion \u2014 no wrist flick or elbow slap.<\/p>\n<p>Keep the face slightly open and guide the ball up and over into their kitchen. On both wings, use a slightly open stance so a leg sits behind the paddle and stops the swing from drifting back.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Paddle below the ball early; elbow and wrist locked<\/li>\n<li>Shoulder lift \u2014 not wrist\/elbow flick<\/li>\n<li>Slightly open face into their kitchen; open stance braces the paddle<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Hit 30 drops with a frozen wrist \u2014 only shoulder lift allowed<\/li>\n<li>Check stance: back leg behind the paddle on every drop<\/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>Preston&#8217;s Playbook strips the drop to essentials. Prepare early with the paddle below the ball and lock the elbow and wrist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729,"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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,381,6],"tags":[125,639,1089,32],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drops","category-technique","category-third-shot","tag-open-stance","tag-preston-playbook","tag-shoulder-lift","tag-third-shot-drop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056","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=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}