{"id":1266,"date":"2026-11-06T11:41:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2026-11-06T11:41:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:41:24","slug":"stop-hitting-long-close-the-face-drive-forward-contact-out-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1266","title":{"rendered":"Stop Hitting Long: Close the Face, Drive Forward, Contact Out Front"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Why Your Shots Keep Going Long in Pickleball \u2014 Complete Fix\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YLU04W0H6ew?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>Tyler (Universal Rackets) breaks the soft-then-net \/ hard-then-long loop: power usually isn\u2019t the cause. Geometry is \u2014 paddle face, swing path, and contact location.<\/p>\n<p>Open faces send the ball long; close the face slightly (laser out the paddle center pointing where you want the ball) and dial it like a knob, not a switch. Mistake two: lifting the body with an upward path instead of driving forward \u2014 stay down through contact (paparazzi\/smile-for-camera cue keeps balance). Mistake three: contact too close to the body opens the face automatically \u2014 get the ball out in front. Fix those three and you can hit firm without sailing long.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Long balls are usually face\/path\/contact \u2014 not \u201ctoo much power\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Close the face slightly (laser cue); dial in small increments<\/li>\n<li>Drive forward, stay down, and take contact out in front of the body<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Feed 20 FH drives at ~60\u201370% \u2014 only count balls that land deep inside the baseline<\/li>\n<li>Film from the side: check face angle and whether contact is beside the hip vs out front<\/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>Tyler (Universal Rackets) breaks the soft-then-net \/ hard-then-long loop: power usually isn\u2019t the cause. Geometry is \u2014 paddle face, swing path, and contact location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732,"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":[560,5,381],"tags":[103,293,1329,41,288,1330,76],"class_list":["post-1266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-consistency","category-drives","category-technique","tag-contact-point","tag-drives","tag-hitting-long","tag-paddle-face","tag-swing-path","tag-tyler","tag-universal-rackets"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/05-rec-doubles-outdoor-court-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266","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=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}