{"id":1183,"date":"2026-10-24T03:20:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T03:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2026-10-24T03:20:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T03:20:33","slug":"drive-drop-combo-drill-push-back-then-soften-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1183","title":{"rendered":"Drive\u2013Drop Combo Drill: Push Back, Then Soften In"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Titan Pickleball Drill - Drive Drop Drill .. John Cincola Rapid Fire drill for Titan Drills Pro\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BbgWxsWQv5Q?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<\/div>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>John Cincola\u2019s Titan machine drill for transition: machine in kitchen-dink left (or right); you start at\/behind the opposite baseline. Pattern is drive first to hopefully earn a softer, shorter ball, then move in with a split step and drop the next ball off the bounce.<\/p>\n<p>Big mistake he flags: freezing after the drive instead of rushing forward. As soon as the drive leaves the paddle, close, split-step, and handle the second ball \u2014 then reset and repeat.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Setup: machine kitchen-dink; you behind opposite baseline<\/li>\n<li>Drive first \u2192 earn a shorter ball \u2192 drop in transition<\/li>\n<li>Leave the paddle and go \u2014 don\u2019t admire the drive<\/li>\n<li>Split-step before the drop contact<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Run 3\u00d710 drive-drop combos; count how often the drop lands in the kitchen<\/li>\n<li>Without a machine: partner feeds deep, you drive then drop the reply<\/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\u2019s Titan machine drill for transition: machine in kitchen-dink left (or right); you start at\/behind the opposite baseline.<\/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,"_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":[600,5,4,6,20],"tags":[1212,1221,1061,37],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drills","category-drives","category-drops","category-third-shot","category-transition","tag-cincola","tag-drive-drop","tag-titan","tag-transition"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/08-forehand-drive-sunlight-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183","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=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/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=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}