{"id":1344,"date":"2026-11-09T11:23:47","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2026-11-09T11:23:47","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:23:47","slug":"stop-hitting-long-point-the-paddle-face-laser-where-you-want-the-ball-to-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1344","title":{"rendered":"Stop Hitting Long: Point the Paddle-Face \u201cLaser\u201d Where You Want the Ball to Land"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Most long balls leave the paddle face pointing up.. #pickleball #pickleballtips\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yoSYNpvd98g?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 explains that most long balls leave the paddle going slightly upward because the face is tipped a few degrees toward the sky. You don\u2019t notice it, but the ball does: a few degrees at contact turns into several feet long at the baseline.<\/p>\n<p>The cue: pretend a laser shines out the center of your paddle. Wherever you point that laser, the ball goes. Point it up and the ball sails long; point it down into the court and it stays in. That small face change at contact is night and day.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>An open face (tipped toward the sky) is the hidden cause of most long balls<\/li>\n<li>A few degrees at contact becomes several feet long by the baseline<\/li>\n<li>Cue: point the \u201claser\u201d out the center of the paddle where you want the ball to go<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>On 20 groundstrokes, check at contact whether the face\/laser is pointed down into the court or up<\/li>\n<li>Film your contact from the side and mark every long miss that left the face open<\/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 explains that most long balls leave the paddle going slightly upward because the face is tipped a few degrees toward the sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731,"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":[381],"tags":[83,1329,1381,41,76],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technique","tag-contact","tag-hitting-long","tag-laser-cue","tag-paddle-face","tag-universal-rackets"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04-overhead-at-the-net-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344","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=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}