{"id":773,"date":"2026-10-05T01:33:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T01:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=773"},"modified":"2026-10-05T03:36:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T03:36:59","slug":"short-hop-is-key-pickleball-pickleballtips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=773","title":{"rendered":"Short hop is key! #pickleball #pickleballtips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Short hop is key! #pickleball #pickleballtips\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MDCsqg57nEM?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>Richard Pickleball teaches the short hop in the <a href=\"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=397\">transition zone<\/a>: taking the ball right after the bounce. Most players mess it up by using too much wrist or a big swing, which throws the ball up.<\/p>\n<p>Cross-step if you need to, set the paddle early, keep the wrist stable and the motion minimal. Aim for the middle of the court, since down the line and sharp cross-court are harder to control, then let the ball bounce and work your way to the net.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The short hop is a key transition skill<\/li>\n<li>Too much wrist or a big swing pops the ball up<\/li>\n<li>Pre-set the paddle and keep the motion compact<\/li>\n<li>Aim through the middle for margin<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Have a partner feed balls at your feet in transition for 20 reps<\/li>\n<li>Keep the wrist locked and count pop-ups<\/li>\n<li>Aim every short hop at the middle<\/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>Richard Pickleball teaches the short hop in the transition zone: taking the ball right after the bounce. Most players mess it up by using too much wrist or a big swing, which throws the ball up.<\/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":[2,18,20],"tags":[139,786,100,785,37],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-footwork","category-resets","category-transition","tag-compact-swing","tag-half-volley-2","tag-richard-pickleball","tag-short-hop","tag-transition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","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=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":901,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/901"}],"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=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}