Playing defense

I've been told that the best part of my game is the quality of my straight drives. They are tight against the side wall. But, all of my recent training to play more pace has made my straight drives less consistent and wayward. It seems the only way to play consistently good straight drives is to play more defense and play the ball with less pace than I feel the urge to. I practiced several nights playing this way. The results are hopeful. I controlled the ball pretty well. It takes less effort to play defense and the shots had better height and lengths too. The urge to hit the ball hard is still there and I suppose it wouldn't be bad if I get the right height on the ball, but until I do I will refrain from hitting the ball hard and focus on the height and depth with a defensive shot.