{"id":1319,"date":"2026-11-06T11:43:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1319"},"modified":"2026-11-06T11:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T11:43:05","slug":"stop-missing-long-close-the-face-forward-topspin-contact-out-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1319","title":{"rendered":"Stop Missing Long: Close the Face, Forward Topspin, Contact Out Front"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Why your shots keep flying long... #pickleball #pickleballtips\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8o-xPOE-tRQ?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>Universal Rackets ties long misses to late contact across the whole game \u2014 not just drives.<\/p>\n<p>Stack three fixes: close the paddle face slightly, swing forward with topspin (not up-and-away), and get contact out in front. Do that on returns, blocks, and resets and you can swing with confidence instead of guiding every ball short of the baseline.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Late contact \u2192 ball flies long on returns, blocks, and resets<\/li>\n<li>Close the face a touch + forward topspin swing<\/li>\n<li>Contact out in front so you can problem-solve instead of hoping<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Shadow 20 contacts with a target marker a full arm\u2019s length in front of your lead hip<\/li>\n<li>In block drills, if one goes long, call which of the three broke (face \/ swing path \/ contact) before the next ball<\/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>Universal Rackets ties long misses to late contact across the whole game \u2014 not just drives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736,"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":[5,18],"tags":[103,1370,41,73,76],"class_list":["post-1319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drives","category-resets","tag-contact-point","tag-long-balls","tag-paddle-face","tag-topspin","tag-universal-rackets"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/08-forehand-drive-sunlight-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319","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=1319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}