{"id":1114,"date":"2026-10-19T01:17:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T01:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2026-10-19T01:17:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T01:17:48","slug":"make-more-thirds-loosen-the-grip-for-arc-spin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1114","title":{"rendered":"Make More Thirds: Loosen the Grip for Arc + Spin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Make more thirds! #pickleball #pickleballtips\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_UPfNFkHbHY?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>Richard Pickleball\u2019s fix for topspin thirds that flatten into the net is grip pressure. A tight grip pops the ball off the face early; loosening lets the ball stay on the paddle longer, grab spin, and carry a little arc.<\/p>\n<p>Same arm path forward \u2014 just without the death grip. When the softer feel clicks, you can repeat it instead of muscling every third into the tape.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Tight grip \u2192 flat thirds into the net<\/li>\n<li>Loosen so the ball stays on the face longer<\/li>\n<li>Softer grip = more spin + arc on the same swing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Hit 20 topspin thirds alternating tight vs soft grip and note net %<\/li>\n<li>On each third, say \u201csoft hand\u201d before the swing<\/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>Richard Pickleball\u2019s fix for topspin thirds that flatten into the net is grip pressure. A tight grip pops the ball off the face early; loosening lets the ball stay on the paddle longer, grab spin, and carry a little arc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737,"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,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,381,6],"tags":[702,100,14,73],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drops","category-technique","category-third-shot","tag-grip-pressure","tag-richard-pickleball","tag-third-shot","tag-topspin"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/09-ready-position-closeup-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","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=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}