{"id":1194,"date":"2026-10-25T01:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2026-10-25T01:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:26:09","slug":"serve-target-deep-back-third-beats-pace-and-sidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1194","title":{"rendered":"Serve Target: Deep Back Third Beats Pace and Sidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Where Should You Be Aiming Your Serve in Pickleball?\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-El5Dei7-34?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>Ava Ignatowich on serve aim: if it keeps landing short, you\u2019re giving the easiest return of their life. You don\u2019t need max pace or sideline paint \u2014 give yourself margin and aim really deep, around the back third of the court.<\/p>\n<p>A good serve makes them take a step back, softens the return, and sets up a better third. The serve doesn\u2019t have to win the point \u2014 it just has to make the return harder. Then get ready for the next ball.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Short serves = free easy returns<\/li>\n<li>Aim deep (back third) with margin \u2014 not max pace or sidelines<\/li>\n<li>Serve\u2019s job: harder return + better third, not a free winner<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mark the back-third landing zone; 20 serves into it before games<\/li>\n<li>One game: every short serve counts as a point against you<\/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>Ava Ignatowich on serve aim: if it keeps landing short, you\u2019re giving the easiest return of their life. You don\u2019t need max pace or sideline paint \u2014 give yourself margin and aim really deep, around the back third of the court.<\/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_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[562,7,200],"tags":[671,456,406,492],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamentals","category-serves","category-strategy","tag-ava-ignatowich","tag-depth","tag-serve","tag-targeting"],"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\/1194","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=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/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=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}