{"id":953,"date":"2026-10-08T01:23:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=953"},"modified":"2026-10-08T01:23:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:23:44","slug":"fix-your-contact-point-before-you-speed-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=953","title":{"rendered":"Fix Your Contact Point Before You Speed Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"You need to Fix Your Contact Point! #pickleball #pickleballtips\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FtfLBW-d46o?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>Universal Rackets shows why so many speed-ups go wrong: the ideal contact point for a speed-up is out in front, but when the ball is close to your body you try to force it anyway and it fails every time.<\/p>\n<p>His fix is to back up off the kitchen line so the contact point moves back out in front of you, which gives you the space a speed-up needs. He also warns that good players notice the pattern: once they see you step back, they&#8217;ll get ready for the speed-up.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A speed-up needs a contact point out in front<\/li>\n<li>When the ball is at your body, step back to create space<\/li>\n<li>Good opponents will learn to read your step back<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In dink rallies, step back off the line before speeding up a ball at your body<\/li>\n<li>Notice where your contact point is on speed-ups that miss<\/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>Universal Rackets shows why so many speed-ups go wrong: the ideal contact point for a speed-up is out in front, but when the ball is close to your body you try to force it anyway and it fails every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732,"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,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,604,381],"tags":[103,907,11,308,76],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen","category-speed-ups","category-technique","tag-contact-point","tag-create-space","tag-kitchen-line","tag-speed-up","tag-universal-rackets"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/05-rec-doubles-outdoor-court-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","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=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}