{"id":216,"date":"2026-09-18T01:34:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T01:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=216"},"modified":"2026-10-05T03:36:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:36:46","slug":"hitting-a-split-step-before-every-shot-is-one-of-the-greatest-things-you-can-do-for-your-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=216","title":{"rendered":"Hitting a split step before every shot is one of the greatest things you can do for your game!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Hitting a split step before every shot is one of the greatest things you can do for your game!\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EPhwJdEjYxg?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<p>Troy Akin calls the <a href=\"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=105\">split step<\/a> one of the biggest advantages tennis athletes bring to pickleball. Right before the opponent hits \u2014 on 3rds, 5ths, kitchen, or baseline \u2014 land a balanced split instead of running through the next ball off-balance. Getting to the kitchen often takes two or three good shots; embrace that. Pair split-stepping with shot recognition: if your third is actually good, take the forward steps; if not, don\u2019t crash.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Split before every opponent contact<\/li>\n<li>Land balanced \u2014 don\u2019t run through the next ball<\/li>\n<li>Kitchen arrival often needs 2\u20133 shots<\/li>\n<li>Good third \u2192 advance; bad third \u2192 don\u2019t crash<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Shadow: split on every clap\/partner toss for 5 minutes<\/li>\n<li>Transition drill: third + split + decide advance vs hold<\/li>\n<li>Match rule: no step forward without a split first<\/li>\n<li>Film approach: flag reps where you\u2019re still running at contact<\/li>\n<li>Tennis players: transfer the habit explicitly; non-racket players: over-train it<\/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>Troy Akin calls the split step one of the biggest advantages tennis athletes bring to&#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":[2,6,20],"tags":[12,67,348,170,14,37,160],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-footwork","category-third-shot","category-transition","tag-footwork","tag-kitchen-approach","tag-shot-recognition","tag-split-step","tag-third-shot","tag-transition","tag-troy-akin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","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=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/835"}],"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=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}