How to Master 3rd Shot Drops in Pickleball
Mastering the 3rd shot drop is how you bring your game to the next level in pickleball. It separates beginners from intermediates and advanced players and it takes time and practice to master. It doesn’t look difficult when you see the pros hit it, but it takes a combination of timing, practice and finesse to master this shot. In this article, we’ll go over how to hit a 3rd shot drop, common mistakes to avoid, practice drills you can do, and why this is one of the most important shots in pickleball.
What is a 3rd Shot Drop In Pickleball
A 3rd shot drop is when the serving team hits the third shot of the point into the kitchen, or non volley zone, in order to neutralize their opponent and prevent them from attacking. This shot is typically hit low over the net and lands short into the kitchen. While the shot isn’t hit very hard, it’s also important not to hit the ball too soft, as you do want the ball to drop quickly once it clears the net.
Hitting a 3rd shot drop with topspin isn’t mandatory, and some players prefer to hit this shot with backspin, or a slice. Floating a 3rd shot drop over the net with backspin might push the ball too deep into the kitchen or too high over the net. 3rd shot drops that are hit too high will end up being attacked and volleyed out of the air. Some players might prefer to hit a 3rd shot drop with slice on the backhand side and use topspin on the forehand side.
Why You Need to Learn the 3rd Shot Drop In Pickleball
The 3rd shot drop is important to learn because as you improve and start playing against better players, you can’t afford to let them attack your third shot. Standard doubles strategy would call for the team that is returning to rush the net after hitting their return. 4.0 and up players will be licking their lips and attacking the ball if you set them up for an easy shot after they hit the return.
You need to take advantage of the kitchen when you’re on defense and the other team is at the net. Hitting a proper 3rd shot drop allows you and your teammate to do three things.
- Prevent your opponent from attacking
- Resets the point so neither team has an advantage
- Allows you to get to the net
Once both teams are at the net, it becomes a battle of patience and skill. The next step is to keep dinking to the weaker player or their backhand side. Stay patient and keep the ball low and wait for an opportunity to hit an aggressive volley.
While this might not work in your favor if the other team is clearly better than you, it is still the better option then simply hitting the ball back over the net and hoping for the best. It’s important to practice your 3rd shot drops and play percentage pickleball.
How to Hit a 3rd Shot Drop
Prepare Early
After you or your partner serves, you should be preparing to hit the 3rd shot. Two of the most popular options would be a 3rd shot drive or a 3rd shot drop. In either case, your preparation is going to be the same. Your feet should be wider than shoulder width apart with your legs bent and in ready position. If you’d prefer to hit a forehand or a backhand, you can position yourself on your side of the court so that you’re more likely to hit either a forehand or a backhand. Early preparation is a combination of good footwork and good court positioning, two of our favorite pickleball tips for new players.
Once the return is hit and you’ve figured out where it is going to land, it’s time to start your your paddle preparation and moving your feet to the ball. Rotate your shoulders for either the forehand or backhand and try not to bring the paddle too far back past your hips.
Make Contact Out In Front
Now that you’ve moved your feet to the ball and prepared your paddle, it’s time to make sure you hit the ball out in front. The head of the paddle should be below the handle and you should be ready to brush up on the ball on contact and finish with a high follow through. With that in mind, you can focus on making contact with the ball in front of your body. Hitting the ball too far back can put you off balance and cause you to hit the ball too high.
As you practice hitting 3rd shot drops, you can adjust how hard you hit the ball, how much spin you hit with, and how high of a follow through makes sense. There is no hard and fast rule for spin, speed and follow through, but you’ll find something that feels the most comfortable for your game, but more importantly provides consistent results.
Slightly Open Paddle Face
The next step is to find the right angle on the face of the paddle. Typically the face of the paddle will be slightly open to allow you to arc the ball so that it lands into the kitchen. Depending upon how powerful your paddle is, how much spin you hit with, and how big of a swing and follow through you swing with will ultimately determine how open or closed the paddle face should be. You can start with a slightly open paddle face to test your swing. You can adjust the angle from there based on your natural swing.
Low to High Follow through
The swing on your 3rd shot drop should be low to high with a good follow through. As you’re learning and practicing this shot, you can exaggerate your follow through. Extend your paddle higher than you typically would, and with more intention. If you’ve ever played corn-hole, you can think about this shot in a similar way to tossing a bag. This will feel weird or awkward at first, but this is just to help you build muscle memory and good technique on the shot. As you become more comfortable and confident, and you be more relaxed on the follow through and find a consistent swing to produces great drops!
Analyze Your Shot and Prepare to Move Forward to the Net
The last step of hitting a 3rd shot drop is getting in position for the next shot. As you hit the shot, you want to analyze how good of a drop you just hit. If you played it too high where the opponent can attack, it will make more sense to stay back on defense. If you hit the shot perfectly over the net, you’ll want to realize that quickly and prepare to get to the net.
One of the points of hitting a 3rd shot drop is that it gives you time to get to the net. It might not always be the right idea to come to the net after hitting a 3rd shot drop, but the majority of the time your next move is to get to the net.
It’s important not to hit the ball and move in at the same time. Doing this can cause you to be off balance and not make clean contact with the ball. Feet should be as planted as possible with a strong base, just as you would hit any other ground stroke or drive.
Common 3rd Shot Drop Mistakes
Don’t take a full swing
Because you want a 3rd shot drop to land short in the kitchen, you don’t need to take a full swing. A full swing would be if you bring the paddle all the way back pointing behind you before you swing. This may be a good technique if you’re hitting a drive or a hard groundstroke, but will likely produce too much power for a 3rd shot drop. It will also make the timing of the shot much more difficult. Instead, bring your paddle back about half as much as you would for a drive and start from there. You can always adjust this depending upon how much control you have and how powerful your paddle is.
Don’t Hit off the Back Foot
When we say don’t hit off the back foot, what we really mean is don’t lean back or have your body weight moving backwards. Since you’re trying to drop the ball just over the net, it’s easy to think that leaning on the back foot when you hit makes the shot easier. You’re more likely to hit the ball in the net and not have clean contact if you’re hitting this way. You want to stay as balanced as possible and keep your body weight neutral or moving forward.
Too Much Wrist
Since you want the ball to drop into the kitchen, it’s easy to think that you need to hit with a lot of topspin. Doing this can lead you to hit with too much wrist and mess up your timing and consistency. You can still hit a 3rd shot drop with topspin, but focus more on guiding the ball with a consistent follow through as opposed to a flick of the wrist. An easy, compact stroke will build your confidence and consistency on the 3rd shot drop.
3rd Shot Drop Practice Drills
Working your way back
One of the first drills you can do to get comfortable with 3rd shot drops is to work your way back. This drill is easier to do with a partner, but if you have a basket of pickleballs you can do this on your own.
Start from the kitchen line and start dinking with your partner. One of you will be staying at the kitchen and the other will slowly start working your way back. Practice dropping the ball into the kitchen and take one step back every time you have a successful shot into the kitchen. Do this until you’ve made it all the way back and have made three in a row from there. Then rotate with your partner. You can do this on the forehand side first and then on the backhand side.
3rd Shot Drop Feeds
The next drill you can either be a solo drill or with a partner. You’ll want to have 10 or more pickleballs to make the most of this exercise. Feed yourself the ball while standing back at the service line and drop the ball and let it bounce. Practice hitting drops after you let the ball bounce once.
Do this 10 times and pick up the balls and try from the other side of the court. You should alternate from forehand to backhand side after every ten shots. Do this three times on forehand and backhand side. If you have a partner, they can either toss the ball to you by hand or paddle feed depending upon their comfortability.
Play ‘King of the Drop’ Game
In this drill you’ll play a game to 5 or 11 with a partner but with a slight twist. This game will be a cross court only game and you can only win points on the serve. The server will serve into the kitchen as if they were hitting a 3rd shot drop and the returner stands at the kitchen. The goal of the game is for the server to hit drops until they can get to the net and hopefully win the point. If the server loses the point, the other player then goes back and serves.
Conclusion
The 3rd shot drop is one of the most important shots to learn in pickleball. Learning this shot and incorporating it into your game not only brings you to the next level, but it will help you win more matches against better players. Practicing the drills in this post and avoiding common mistakes will get you hitting 3rd shot drops in no time.