{"id":1078,"date":"2026-10-17T01:33:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2026-10-17T01:33:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:33:04","slug":"fourth-shot-air-%e2%86%92-step-back-bounce-%e2%86%92-then-concede","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1078","title":{"rendered":"Fourth Shot: Air \u2192 Step-Back Bounce \u2192 Then Concede"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Stop giving up the kitchen\u203c\ufe0f Grab your Adidas pickleball gear and save with code CINCOLA10 visit:\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h0CHyvcTIhE?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>John Cincola wants more aggression on the fourth so you stop gifting easy points. Progression: first look to take the ball out of the air when opponents are back dropping or driving \u2014 that steals the most time.<\/p>\n<p>Second, if you cannot reach it airborne, step back, let it peak, and still attack off the bounce. Only if neither works do you hold, half-volley, and concede the kitchen \u2014 don&#8217;t default there first.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Priority 1: take fourths out of the air<\/li>\n<li>Priority 2: step back and attack the bounce apex<\/li>\n<li>Concede\/half-volley only after those fail<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In fourth-shot drills, ban conceding until two aggressive options are tried<\/li>\n<li>Track how often air\/step-back wins vs early concede<\/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>John Cincola wants more aggression on the fourth so you stop gifting easy points. Progression: first look to take the ball out of the air when opponents are back dropping or driving \u2014 that steals the most time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730,"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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[391,3,388,20],"tags":[1058,169,61,1003],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defense","category-kitchen","category-offense","category-transition","tag-fourth-shot","tag-john-cincola","tag-kitchen","tag-take-out-of-air"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","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=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}