{"id":370,"date":"2026-10-03T03:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T03:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=370"},"modified":"2026-10-04T10:21:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T10:21:02","slug":"how-to-defend-the-left-side-speed-up-%f0%9f%94%a5-pickleball-propickleball-pickleballstrategy-pickle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=370","title":{"rendered":"How to Defend the Left Side Speed Up &#x1f525; #pickleball #propickleball #pickleballstrategy #pickle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"How to Defend the Left Side Speed Up \ud83d\udd25 #pickleball #propickleball #pickleballstrategy #pickle\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8YqSOQsn3S0?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>Preston&#8217;s Playbook on defending the left-side speed-up in doubles. Once the left-side player hits a cross-court dink, the partner&#8217;s job is to cover the line by sliding to his right and sitting back in. The left-side player slides with his partner and covers the middle with his forehand in case the opponent speeds up through the middle. Demo with Ben and Alby.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Coverage shifts as a team after a cross-court dink<\/li>\n<li>Partner covers the line: slide right and sit back in<\/li>\n<li>Dinking player slides too and covers the middle with the forehand<\/li>\n<li>Defending a speed-up is about positioning before it comes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Drill: cross-court dink, then both players slide; partner calls &#8216;line&#8217;, dinker calls &#8216;middle&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>Partner practices sliding right and sitting back in<\/li>\n<li>Dinker: forehand ready for a speed-up through the middle<\/li>\n<li>Review points lost to left-side speed-ups: who was out of position?<\/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 Preston&#8217;s Playbook on defending the left-side speed-up in doubles. Once the left-side player hits&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734,"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":[598,391,3,200],"tags":[460,376,682,639,658],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-counters","category-defense","category-kitchen","category-strategy","tag-defense","tag-left-side","tag-middle-coverage","tag-preston-playbook","tag-speed-up-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","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=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}