{"id":1301,"date":"2026-11-06T11:42:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1301"},"modified":"2026-11-06T11:42:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:42:24","slug":"blocking-level-3-absorb-pace-mid-court-dont-push-hard-balls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1301","title":{"rendered":"Blocking Level 3: Absorb Pace Mid-Court \u2014 Don\u2019t Push Hard Balls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Become a blocking machine (Level 3\/4)\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/14DBwT9_NC4?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>Pickleball Kitchen\u2019s Level 3 is mid-court pace absorption for 4.0+ bangers. Pushing forward on a hard ball just reloads their pace.<\/p>\n<p>Refuse to shove the paddle into fastballs; soft balls need more push, missiles need less. Let the ball come into you and reset.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Hard in \u2192 less push; soft in \u2192 more push<\/li>\n<li>Absorb mid-court \u2014 don\u2019t fight fire with fire<\/li>\n<li>Reset speed is a skill separate from blocking at the line<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Transition drill: partner rolls hard; you only soft-block with minimal forward push<\/li>\n<li>Compare exit speed on film \u2014 slower off your face is the win<\/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>Pickleball Kitchen\u2019s Level 3 is mid-court pace absorption for 4.0+ bangers. Pushing forward on a hard ball just reloads their pace.<\/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":[391,20],"tags":[610,1358,896,37],"class_list":["post-1301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defense","category-transition","tag-blocking","tag-pace-absorption","tag-pickleball-kitchen","tag-transition"],"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\/1301","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=1301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/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=1301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}