{"id":1159,"date":"2026-10-23T01:19:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T01:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2026-10-23T01:19:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T01:19:29","slug":"return-setup-never-take-a-first-step-backward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1159","title":{"rendered":"Return Setup: Never Take a First Step Backward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Fix your return of serve in pickleball \ud83d\udca8 Access Exclusive Courses and Personalized Pickleball\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QArnMnvRuCg?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>John Cincola pins weak returns on starting too close to the baseline. Pros stand farther back because the worst first move on a return is stepping backward.<\/p>\n<p>Hug the line and a deep serve forces you back \u2014 momentum goes the wrong way (away from the kitchen) and you\u2019re more likely to leave the return short. Find a depth where even a great serve only has you moving forward through the ball toward the kitchen.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>First step backward on the return kills momentum and often leaves it short<\/li>\n<li>Stand far enough that every serve has you moving forward<\/li>\n<li>Pros give themselves space so they never have to retreat as step one<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mark a return start 2\u20133 feet behind your usual spot for one game<\/li>\n<li>Film three returns: if your first foot move is backward, start deeper next time<\/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>John Cincola pins weak returns on starting too close to the baseline. Pros stand farther back because the worst first move on a return is stepping backward.<\/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":[2,440,381],"tags":[1212,1220,780,159],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-footwork","category-returns","category-technique","tag-cincola","tag-first-step","tag-momentum","tag-return-of-serve"],"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\/1159","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=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/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=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}