{"id":1138,"date":"2026-10-21T01:16:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1138"},"modified":"2026-10-21T01:16:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T01:16:38","slug":"hold-the-speed-up-prep-early-so-they-cant-sit-on-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1138","title":{"rendered":"Hold the Speed-Up: Prep Early So They Can\u2019t Sit on You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Hold all day! #pickleball #pickleballtips\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JermbchDIIQ?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 explains why opponents sit on your speed-ups: you swing too soon and telegraph the line. Once you earn a dead ball, get the paddle prepped early \u2014 then hold.<\/p>\n<p>From that hold you can rip DTL, cross, or into the body, or change pace with an off-speed dink. The pause forces a guess; the early prep keeps every option alive.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Dead ball \u2192 prep early, then hold before you commit<\/li>\n<li>Hold opens DTL \/ cross \/ body \/ soft dink<\/li>\n<li>Swinging wild without a hold is why they sit on you<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>One kitchen game: freeze 0.5s in the hold before every speed-up<\/li>\n<li>Partner calls \u201csit\u201d \u2014 if they guessed your line, you didn\u2019t hold long enough<\/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 explains why opponents sit on your speed-ups: you swing too soon and telegraph the line. Once you earn a dead ball, get the paddle prepped early \u2014 then hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736,"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":[3,388,604],"tags":[719,1188,1189,100,308],"class_list":["post-1138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen","category-offense","category-speed-ups","tag-disguise","tag-hold","tag-prep","tag-richard-pickleball","tag-speed-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138","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=1138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}