{"id":1318,"date":"2026-11-06T11:43:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1318"},"modified":"2026-11-06T11:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:43:05","slug":"split-step-learn-how-first-then-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1318","title":{"rendered":"Split Step: Learn HOW First, Then WHEN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Learning to Split Step is FUN (and important)\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PHZpWKU2PL4?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>Coach Jess (Athena Pickleball) makes the split step approachable for non-tennis players.<\/p>\n<p>The move isn\u2019t automatic if you never learned it: first train how to hop-land balanced on both feet, then train when to time that landing as the opponent contacts the ball. Her drill series builds both the movement pattern and the timing muscle.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Non-tennis players need explicit HOW before WHEN<\/li>\n<li>Split step = tiny hop, land balanced, ready to push either way<\/li>\n<li>Drill the movement, then attach it to opponent contact timing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Shadow 30 split-steps alone: hop-land soft, then push left or right on a cue<\/li>\n<li>In feeds, split only on feeder contact \u2014 ignore the ball until after you land<\/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>Coach Jess (Athena Pickleball) makes the split step approachable for non-tennis players.<\/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":[2,567],"tags":[607,301,12,47,170],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-footwork","category-ready-position","tag-athena","tag-coach-jess","tag-footwork","tag-ready-position","tag-split-step"],"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\/1318","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=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/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=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}