{"id":1259,"date":"2026-10-31T05:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2026-10-31T05:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:02:13","slug":"stop-getting-destroyed-by-counters-wide-dink-then-middle-speed-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1259","title":{"rendered":"Stop Getting Destroyed by Counters: Wide Dink, Then Middle Speed-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Stop Getting Destroyed by Counters! \ud83d\udca5\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9QvgZ0kClk8?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 diagnoses why speed-ups keep getting killed: if you only pull every dead ball, opponents sit and wait for the counter.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, dink them wide to open the court, then speed up through the middle with space and options. Wide dink + middle speed-up beats telegraphing pace into a set defense.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Pulling every dead ball lets them sit on the counter<\/li>\n<li>Wide dink opens the court before you speed up<\/li>\n<li>Pattern: wide dink \u2192 middle speed-up<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Kitchen pattern drill: 2 wide dinks, then middle speed-up \u2014 12 reps each side<\/li>\n<li>Track how many speed-ups get countered when you skip the wide setup vs use it<\/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 diagnoses why speed-ups keep getting killed: if you only pull every dead ball, opponents sit and wait for the counter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730,"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":[373,220,3,200],"tags":[614,1321,100,308,1320],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-attacks","category-dinks","category-kitchen","category-strategy","tag-counters","tag-middle-attack","tag-richard-pickleball","tag-speed-up","tag-wide-dink"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03-low-dink-at-the-net-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","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=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}