Third Shot Tutorial

Getting the fundamentals right...

The Jordan Briones Primetime series continues today and features Dave Weinbach in 3rd Shot Success with Dave Weinbach | Pickleball. The topic is the third shot drop and the keys to a successful shot. I often say that the third shot drop is the hardest shot in pickleball. I'm glad to hear that Dave's thoughts align with mine. But he also says that it is the most important shot in the entire game. So let's see his suggestions to make ours better.

Dave has 3 keys to a successful shot. We will go through them one at a time.

1. Light grip pressure

The drop shot is part of the soft game. A soft shot requires a light grip to take energy off the ball. Dave recommends a grip pressure of 3-4 on a scale of 1-10. A tighter grip will be noticeable as the ball will rocket off the paddle face.

Third Shot Drop Success by Skill Level

Everything has a purpose...

We have spent a couple of days discussing what defines a successful third shot drop. But what are the expectations for success? As you might guess, the expectations vary significantly by skill level. The International Pickleball Teaching Professional Association has established standards for their ratings system. Their ratings closely correspond to USAPA ratings, although the USAPA standards for each shot are not as specific. The IPTPA standards are shown below.

A Contrarian View of the Drop Shot

Everything has a purpose...

Yesterday post was my view of what an effective third shot should be. As you might guess from the title of this post, Mark Renneson also has a strong opinion on he topic. In this case, his is pretty closely aligned with mine. Below is an excerpt from his article It's Not What You Think: Myth-busting the Drop, which can be read in its entirety at the link.

..when we are all together in the gym or on the court, everyone knows exactly what is meant by a third shot drop: a slow-moving reply to the return-of-serve. A shot that lands in or near the kitchen when the opponents are near the net. This is not big news. But then I ask them: “Why, exactly, would we hit this shot? What is the point of a drop?”. This is where things get interesting.

The 3rd Shot Drop is a response to a return of serve, used when opponents are at the NVZ.

Measuring the Third Shot Drop

Everything has a purpose...

Everybody talks a lot about the third shot drop...and they should. After all, it is one of the most important shots in any rally. But what makes it so important? I want to discuss what makes a third shot drop effective but we must first make clear its purpose before effectiveness can be determined.

Prior to any discussion, let's ensure that we are all on the same page with regard to the court positions and advantages or disadvantages at play on the third shot. The third shot is hit by the serving team immediately off the return of serve made by their opponents. The serving team must wait for the return of serve to bounce before making a play. This normally allows their opponents to be positioned at the NVZ while the serving team remains stuck in the back of their court. This is pictured below. The gray (serving) team is back while the black (receiving) team is up near the NVZ.

"2 in 1" Drill

Make drills fun...

This post is the next in the series of Jordan Briones' drills. While this one differs in that there is no scorekeeping for a competition, the 2 players do switch positions from feeding to drilling based on success or failure in the drill. 

This video (the sixth), Pickleball 3rd Shot Drill | "2 & 1" Drill, covers shots from the dink to the 3rd shot drop. To set up the drill, both players start at the NVZ line on opposite sides of the net but in the same half of the court. This drilling game will use only 1/2 of the court for boundaries. 

Training for Better Third Shot Decisions

Muscle has memory: the body knows things the mind will not admit...

I cannot calculate how many times I have said (or thought) "I was thinking too much on that shot" after a poor hit. While more options are generally a good thing, there are times when too much of a good thing can be detrimental. One benefit of a targeting strategy is that options are reduced. Targeting eliminates entire sections of the court and focuses on only a limited number of areas. This allows fewer thoughts to complicate the decision-making and also allows muscle memory to take over. 

But targeting does not eliminate all important decisions. One that remains is the drop versus drive decision on the third shot. But Mark Renneson has a training method to create the memory necessary to make the decision more instinctive and less of a coin-flip.

Targeting: The Experts on Third Shot Options

Be sure to positively identify your target before hitting the ball...

Last week I reinforced the return of serve concepts in my articles with advice from experts. Today's post will do the same with the options for the third shot. 

Deb Harrison has a video - Pickleball TipBit: Third Shot Options - in which she discusses alternatives to the drop shot, including the drive and the lob.

Targeting: Where and Why - The Third Shot

Be sure to positively identify your target before hitting the ball...

This will be the third week of the skills and drills sessions on targeting. The first, Targeting: Where and Why - The Serve - focused on the serve targeting strategies. The second, Targeting: Where and Why - The Return of Serve, focused on the return. The natural progression for this week is the third shot, i.e., the return of the return of serve.

The usual reminder before starting: there is a set of premises that guide us in through the decision-making process. These were covered in the article Targeting: Where and Why. The primary goal of the third shot is to neutralize the net advantage of your opponents and allow your team to also gain the net.

The third shot is the first where opponent positioning strongly influences the targeting decision. With the serve, the returning opponent is locked into one spot. With the return of serve, the opponents' requirement to allow a bounce also lock them into fixed positions. This lack of variability makes the choice of targets relatively simple. With the third shot, opponents are free to move anywhere and hit any ball. Their freedom provides more target options.

Drop or Deep?

The last couple of days we have learned that the goal of the third shot is to gain the kitchen while preventing opponents from getting an offensive shot. The best shot to do that is typically a drop shot. But "typically" means that your opponents have done everything right and attained the kitchen line on the return of serve. Even if that has not happened, wouldn't a drop shot work when an opponent has stayed back? Well, no...and an article from Prem Carnot called The First Commandment of the Third Shot (And It’s Not “Hit a Dropshot”) explains why.

The First Commandment of the Third Shot (And It’s Not “Hit a Dropshot”)

First off, let’s just say that this is obviously NOT the only commandment to live your life by (unless Pickleball truly is your only religion).  But when it comes to pickleball, this is a biggie.

In this article, I’m going to clear up a misconception about the “third shot” (a.k.a. the return of the return of serve, a.k.a. the first shot your team hits after you serve the ball).  On my teaching tours, I have found this misconception to run rampant in the pickleball world. Players from coast to coast, north to south, and newbies to long-time ambassadors all believe that the best shot they could ever hit for the third shot is a drop shot. National champ, Enrique Ruiz says “The drop shot is overrated” and that’s because there’s a big problem with how most people hit a third shot drop shot, and this is what it is:

They are using the drop shot at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.

The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles - Phase 2

A previous post mentioned that this is a theme week focused on understanding what is happening on the court. The centerpiece is a video, Doubles Pickleball - The Basic Overall Strategy. That initial post introduced and emphasized the overriding strategy of getting to the net. The next post moved on to the first phase of most points which the video calls "The Formality Phase". This post advances to phase 2 of most points - "The Service Team Struggle to the Net".

Phase 2 is when the service team tries to advance to the net in order to level the playing field. Remember that phase 1 concluded with the non-serving team positioned at the net. They have a tactical advantage because the service team had to stay back waiting for the return of serve to bounce. The service team must overcome their disadvantage by gaining the net through a third shot strategy.

A Different Third Shot Strategy

In my post The Third Shot, I discussed 3 options for the third shot but ultimately stated "(the drop shot) is, however, the best option for the third shot...". While that remains true for the vast majority of players, some top level players have found one of the other options to be very effective due to the advances made in equipment. 

The first option I listed in that post was the low drive with topspin. The biggest problem with this shot is that it is hit so hard that it provides insufficient time to move to the kitchen. At most, the serving team can advance 1-2 steps before stopping to split-step. But this shot is now gaining traction.

The 3D Game

Previous posts have discussed the most important strategies of the first three shots of a rally - the serve, return of serve and third shot drop. Each of the shots can be practiced individually with drills, but drills can be boring. I recently came across a "game" that incorporates each of these shots called the 3D Pickleball Game. Before going into details of the game, let's review the 3 shots.

In Service Strategies, I stated:

The most common strategy is to land the serve deep (within 5 feet of the baseline) in the opponent’s service court. There are 2 reasons to serve deep. First, a deep serve does not allow the returner to build forward momentum. It might even cause the returner move back. By contrast, a short serve is an open invitation for the returner to move toward the kitchen line. The team that controls the kitchen line generally wins the rally. A deep serve helps to beat those odds. Second, a deep serve gives the returner fewer options to hit an aggressive shot. A deep shot of any kind, including the serve, takes away a returner’s angles.

In The Return of Serve, I stated: