{"id":937,"date":"2026-10-07T01:28:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=937"},"modified":"2026-10-07T01:28:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:28:39","slug":"how-to-short-hop-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=937","title":{"rendered":"How to Short Hop Better"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Short hop better! #pickleball #pickleballtips\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S07A0zjIvPw?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 explains why so many players struggle with short hops: paddle positioning. Hitting a short hop while standing tall makes the ball very hard to control.<\/p>\n<p>Get your body low first, then turn the paddle face up. Keep the wrist in place and use your arm, almost like a scoop. That gives you control, lets you get around the ball, and keeps it short in the kitchen.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Get low before anything else<\/li>\n<li>Open the paddle face<\/li>\n<li>Keep the wrist quiet<\/li>\n<li>Scoop with the arm and shoulder<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Have a partner feed balls at your feet and practice the low, open-face scoop<\/li>\n<li>Count how many short hops land in the kitchen out of 20<\/li>\n<li>Check that your wrist isn&#8217;t flicking at contact<\/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 explains why so many players struggle with short hops: paddle positioning. Hitting a short hop while standing tall makes the ball very hard to control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730,"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":[3,18,381],"tags":[786,448,41,100,785],"class_list":["post-937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen","category-resets","category-technique","tag-half-volley-2","tag-kitchen-control","tag-paddle-face","tag-richard-pickleball","tag-short-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937","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=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}