{"id":298,"date":"2026-09-25T01:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T01:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=298"},"modified":"2026-10-05T03:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:36:52","slug":"a-few-more-thoughts-on-follow-the-ball-with-your-paddle-tip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=298","title":{"rendered":"A Few More Thoughts on &#8220;Follow the Ball With Your Paddle Tip&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"A Few More Thoughts on &quot;Follow the Ball With Your Paddle Tip&quot;\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BvP9hifo22Q?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>Matt\u2019s Pickleball follow-up to the \u2018don\u2019t follow the ball with your paddle tip\u2019 tip. Clarifies that tracking the ball visually (and even adjusting paddle position) is fine \u2014 the problem is pointing the tip at the ball so you\u2019re late and exposed on speed-ups. Keep the paddle in front in a <a href=\"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=246\">true ready position<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Eyes track; paddle stays ready in front<\/li>\n<li>Tip-pointing telegraphs and delays coverage<\/li>\n<li>Ready position beats reactive pointing<\/li>\n<li>Nuance matters \u2014 don\u2019t over-correct into a frozen paddle<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Partner speed-ups; freeze and check paddle face position<\/li>\n<li>Cue: \u2018face forward, not tip-pointing\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Film kitchen exchanges for tip-chasing<\/li>\n<li>Shadow ready position for 60 seconds between games<\/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>Summary Matt\u2019s Pickleball follow-up to the \u2018don\u2019t follow the ball with your paddle tip\u2019 tip&#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,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,567,381],"tags":[504,396,80,47],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hands","category-kitchen","category-ready-position","category-technique","tag-hands","tag-matt-s-pickleball","tag-paddle-tip","tag-ready-position"],"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\/298","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=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/860"}],"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=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}