{"id":952,"date":"2026-10-08T01:23:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=952"},"modified":"2026-10-08T01:23:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:23:43","slug":"triangle-theory-in-pickleball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=952","title":{"rendered":"Triangle Theory in Pickleball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\"><iframe title=\"Triangle Theory in Pickleball\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cDzlxJliG_k?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><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Marshall Brown explains a lesson he learned against better teams: it&#8217;s easy to fall into their slow game and hesitate to speed up because you expect to get countered. The triangle theory gives you a sense of where the ball is likely to come back after you speed it up, so you can start the hands battle and already be waiting for the counter.<\/p>\n<p>On the right side, if he speeds up with his forehand to his opponent&#8217;s forehand, the ball usually comes back to the middle of the court rather than at his body. If he speeds up cross-court, it usually comes back cross to his forehand. In the live examples he speeds up a backhand cross-court from the middle, moves straight into his forehand, and is ready when the counter arrives. A backhand speed-up followed by a forehand counter, or the reverse, is a combination he recommends against stronger opponents.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Counters after a speed-up tend to come back in a triangle<\/li>\n<li>Speed-up straight at a forehand usually comes back through the middle<\/li>\n<li>Cross-court speed-up usually comes back cross to your other side<\/li>\n<li>Knowing where the ball is going makes you freer to start the hands battle<\/li>\n<li>Pair a backhand speed-up with a forehand counter, or the reverse<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In dink games, speed up cross-court and immediately sit on the expected return<\/li>\n<li>Track where counters go after your speed-ups for one session<\/li>\n<li>Practice the backhand speed-up into forehand counter pattern with a partner<\/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>Marshall Brown explains a lesson he learned against better teams: it&#8217;s easy to fall into their slow game and hesitate to speed up because you expect to get countered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736,"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":[5,3,604,200],"tags":[477,148,86,792,546,308,906],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drives","category-kitchen","category-speed-ups","category-strategy","tag-anticipation","tag-counter","tag-hands-battle","tag-marshall-brown","tag-selkirk-tv","tag-speed-up","tag-triangle-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952","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=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}