How would your pickleball ball game change if you could hit a third shot as
consistently as pro player Dave "the Badger" Weinbach?
Silly question, right?
Would you like to know what he says are the four essentials in a
consistent third shot? Stay tuned.
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Recently, Dave "the Badger" Weinbach stopped by the Better Pickleball channel.
Of course,
we needed to talk about third shots since he hits that so consistently,
everybody wants to know how he does it. Here's what he had to say.
The four key things you need to do to develop a consistent drop shot.
I talk about, you know, in my lessons in my clinics,
I talk about how the third shot, in my opinion,
is the most important shot in all of pickleball because that's the
shot that enables you and your partner to get from the baseline
to the kitchen line where you need to be to play winning pickleball.
So you know, the third shot drop gets obviously a lot of attention,
but a lot,
a trend that we're seeing and have been seeing for really two years now is the
third shot drive for the third shot and then leading to a
potential fifth shot drop.
So let's talk about the drop shot first because in my opinion,
it's not only the most important shot,
it's by far the most difficult shot that players of
all levels struggle with this. Even the 5.0 players,
they struggle with their third shot drop because it's the hardest shot.
So I tell people in my lessons and clinics, I said,
I'm not going to make this shot easy for you,
but I'm going to make it easier if you just follow
four key principles.
Number one, after you serve,
I want people to get behind the baseline so when they hit their third shot,
drop, their momentum is going forward.
Momentum forward. Okay. Because if you fall away on your third shot,
okay, first of all,
you're going to be really slow getting into the kitchen line and second of all,
when you fall away on any shot and pick a ball, what happens? You lose power,
you lose control and you're totally out of position and you're going to have
very little, okay?
Second big thing we talk about is grip pressure
on the paddle on a third shot drop or any soft shot you
hit and pick a ball for that matter, whether it's a dink or a third shot drop,
I need you to have light grip pressure. If you grip the pedal too tight,
what happens is you lose feel, you lose control,
you lose sensitivity on the face of the paddle.
So in grip pressure on a third shot drop,
I want people to be like a three to four out of 10 okay.
Which sounds ridiculous to people when they first hear that, okay,
but just try it next time you go to the courts,
you have that lighter grip pressure.
It's going to feel like the balls on your paddle longer and that's what gives
you the superior feel in control.
The third thing,
which seems obvious but people don't do it on the third shot drop is the motion
needs to be a low to high motion,
low to high motion to create that loft.
Okay. Too many people, they hit their third shots,
they drive it in hard and they aim like a ball or two
balls over the net and that's their idea of a third shot drop and they wonder
why they hit so many in the net and they don't give enough respect to the net.
Okay, so remember low to high.
The fourth key thing that I talk about a lot on the third shot drop is it has to
do with the location of the apex of the ball flight.
Okay. We all know that apex means that highest point of the ball flight.
So I want the highest point of the ball flight.
The apex of the ball to be just inside of
my own kitchen line by about, you know,
six to seven inches inside of your own kitchen.
That's the highest point of the ball flight, what we call the apex.
And the ball starts to lose speed and by the time the ball gets over the net,
it's lost 80 to 85% of its pace.
And then we all know it comes down like a rock. Okay?
So those are the four key things that are make the third shot a lot easier
for you.
If you'd like a little bit more help with the third shot we've got you covered,
click on that playlist over there.
Give this video a thumbs up and share it with your pickleball playing friends
because together we can. Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well.