{"id":179,"date":"2026-09-17T01:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=179"},"modified":"2026-10-04T10:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T10:19:17","slug":"pickleball-doubles-strategies-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=179","title":{"rendered":"Pickleball Doubles Strategies You NEED to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\"><iframe title=\"Pickleball Doubles Strategies You NEED to Know\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pcZZoCOyVwc?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<p>Ryan Morneau (Pickleball Daily) teaches how to <strong>adjust against unique playing styles<\/strong> using real pro points \u2014 not generic \u201cplay the middle\u201d advice. The lesson opens on how hard it is to adjust to weird grips and patterns (example: Callan Dawson\u2019s ping-pong-like choke-up grip with a finger on the paddle face). Morneau also frames lessons from competing against uniquely styled players such as Tama: the theme is recognize disadvantages (before or during the match), then attack those pain points.<\/p>\n<p>On Dawson specifically, he maps concrete targets: going at the <strong>right shoulder<\/strong> (hard to get the shoulder up to put the ball down with that grip) and going <strong>through the middle \/ behind the body<\/strong> when there is no true two-hand backhand recovery. He also notes that not every weird technique is a \u201cdisadvantage\u201d \u2014 Dawson taking dinks off the rise \/ short hop can be neutral\/safe and can bait bad speed-ups if you are undisciplined. Separately, the video stresses <strong>learn as you go<\/strong>: when you see a unique drive or shape (e.g. a pushy shoulder\/elbow drive that lives in the chest), stop labeling it good\/bad and adapt \u2014 including <strong>setting your feet<\/strong> in transition before that ball arrives.<\/p>\n<p>Use this when opponents have non-standard grips, extreme BH bias, off-the-rise dinking, or other styles that make your stock patterns fail. Common mistake addressed: hitting \u201cgood shots for normal players\u201d that actually play into <em>this<\/em> opponent\u2019s strengths. Strategy is opponent-specific.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Scout unique grips\/patterns early; name the pain points<\/li>\n<li>Example map (Dawson): right shoulder + middle behind the body<\/li>\n<li>Weird \u2260 automatically bad \u2014 some unique shapes are safe or baiting<\/li>\n<li>Learn mid-match: unique drives may require an earlier plant\/split-step<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t force your default plan against a style it feeds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Action items:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Warm-up scout: write one grip\/shape note and one target before game 1<\/li>\n<li>After two lost exchanges to a weird style, mandatory plan change (new target)<\/li>\n<li>Practice \u201cshoulder \/ middle\u201d targeting in hands drills with a choked-up partner demo<\/li>\n<li>Partner role-play: one player dinks only off the rise; other must stay disciplined (no free speed-ups)<\/li>\n<li>Film one match section: mark where stock middle balls helped vs hurt<\/li>\n<li>Next session: watch 5 minutes of this video, then play a set with a pre-written adjust card<\/li>\n<li>Transition plant drill vs \u201cchest-high push drives\u201d so feet stop before contact<\/li>\n<li>Debrief: \u201cWhat was unique?\u201d \/ \u201cWhat was the pain point?\u201d \/ \u201cDid we attack it?\u201d<\/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>Ryan Morneau (Pickleball Daily) teaches how to adjust against unique playing styles using real pro&#8230;<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,21,200],"tags":[278,210,249,277,276],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doubles","category-hands","category-strategy","tag-adjust","tag-doubles-strategy","tag-pickleball-daily","tag-ryan-morneau","tag-tama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","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=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/530"}],"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=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}