{"id":1152,"date":"2026-10-22T01:17:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2026-10-22T01:17:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:17:53","slug":"squeeze-the-middle-find-it-shift-it-force-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1152","title":{"rendered":"Squeeze the Middle: Find It, Shift It, Force Communication"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\"><iframe title=\"Squeeze the Middle and Force Their Mistakes\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FxodF49LRrw?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><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Marshall Brown (Selkirk TV) on beating a better team by exploiting the middle. The middle isn\u2019t always the centerline \u2014 arm length and who is pulled wide change where \u201cmiddle\u201d lives (often nearer one partner\u2019s inside\/left foot at the kitchen).<\/p>\n<p>Two sides of the same idea: (1) attack their middle so they have to communicate and get uncomfortable; (2) you and your partner squeeze together \u2014 reach with the forehands \u2014 so they become tentative about going middle and get forced to the corners. After a great wide dink pulls someone off the court, the middle shifts; scoot over and keep finding the new middle. Pattern: open the middle up, find it, repeat \u2014 and eventually speed up into the seam.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Middle \u2260 fixed centerline \u2014 it shifts with reach and who\u2019s pulled wide<\/li>\n<li>Target the inside foot \/ seam to force communication<\/li>\n<li>Squeeze together so they fear the middle and miss wide<\/li>\n<li>After you push someone off, scoot and re-find the new middle<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>One game: every dink\u2019s only goal is the seam between their inside feet<\/li>\n<li>Partner call \u201cmiddle!\u201d whenever the seam opens after a wide ball<\/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>Marshall Brown (Selkirk TV) on beating a better team by exploiting the middle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734,"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":[3,388,200],"tags":[792,731,793,1210,253],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen","category-offense","category-strategy","tag-marshall-brown","tag-middle","tag-selkirk","tag-squeeze","tag-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","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=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}