{"id":939,"date":"2026-10-07T01:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=939"},"modified":"2026-10-07T01:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:28:40","slug":"stop-sprinting-to-the-kitchen-treat-the-transition-zone-as-a-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=939","title":{"rendered":"Stop Sprinting to the Kitchen: Treat the Transition Zone as a Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Stop the sprint to the kitchen! Too many players treat the transition zone like a race, but this\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/36i-D9tt61E?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>Troy Akin contrasts a 4.0-plus player, who is happy to hit one, two or three balls to earn the way to the kitchen, with a typical 3.5 who sprints up and hits the transition ball off balance, often popping it up.<\/p>\n<p>After a good third-shot drop, move forward but get balanced and split-step as the next ball is about to come over, so you can hit the reset with firm, low feet instead of on the run.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The transition zone is a journey, not a race<\/li>\n<li>Split-step before the opponent&#8217;s contact<\/li>\n<li>Reset with firm, low feet<\/li>\n<li>Rushing in leads to off-balance pop-ups<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Drill third-shot drop, move, split-step, reset<\/li>\n<li>Give yourself permission to take two or three balls to reach the line<\/li>\n<li>Notice whether you&#8217;re still moving when your opponent hits<\/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 contrasts a 4.0-plus player, who is happy to hit one, two or three balls to earn the way to the kitchen, with a typical 3.5 who sprints up and hits the transition ball off balance, often popping it up.<\/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":[2,18,20],"tags":[106,170,32,15,160],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-footwork","category-resets","category-transition","tag-reset","tag-split-step","tag-third-shot-drop","tag-transition-zone","tag-troy-akin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939","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=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"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=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}