{"id":1279,"date":"2026-11-06T11:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2026-11-06T11:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:42:08","slug":"who-takes-middle-both-and-clean-up-your-own-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1279","title":{"rendered":"Who Takes Middle? Both \u2014 and Clean Up Your Own Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Who takes the MIDDLE? The Most Important Question in Pickleball (Ft. #1 APP Player, Jack Munro)\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7kxuhSwYA-A?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>Jilly B Pickleball with Jack Munro reframes middle coverage. It is not always \u201cthe forehand\u2019s ball\u201d \u2014 both players own middle.<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re yanked wide, feather a short ball in front instead of a panicked cross-court that often pops middle. And if you create the pop-up, you cover middle: two paddles beat none. Running backward with the paddle down does not help your partner.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Middle responsibility is shared \u2014 both paddles<\/li>\n<li>Popped it up? You cover middle (\u201cclean your mess\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>When pulled wide, feather short in front instead of panic cross-court<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Play \u201cyou make the mess, you clean it up\u201d cross-court dink game for 10 minutes<\/li>\n<li>Agree with your partner before the next match: either paddle can take middle<\/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>Jilly B Pickleball with Jack Munro reframes middle coverage. It is not always \u201cthe forehand\u2019s ball\u201d \u2014 both players own middle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734,"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":[205,3,200],"tags":[730,1179,335,1346,731],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doubles","category-kitchen","category-strategy","tag-dinks","tag-doubles","tag-jack-munro","tag-jilly","tag-middle"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/07-lunging-volley-dark-background-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","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=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}