{"id":1170,"date":"2026-10-24T03:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T03:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1170"},"modified":"2026-10-24T03:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T03:20:19","slug":"thirds-by-depth-slice-drop-regular-drop-or-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1170","title":{"rendered":"Thirds by Depth: Slice Drop, Regular Drop, or Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"3 types of 3rd shots you need! #pickleball #pickleballtips #pickleballvietnam \" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I8T4jAqjPZw?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>Elite Pickleball Coaching keeps third-shot choice simple: match the shot to where the ball is. When it\u2019s short in the court, hit a slice drop. When it\u2019s deeper but still neutral, hit a regular drop.<\/p>\n<p>When the ball is more aggressive and deep, drive it. Depth and pressure dictate the shape \u2014 don\u2019t force one third for every feed.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Short ball \u2192 slice drop<\/li>\n<li>Deep but neutral \u2192 regular drop<\/li>\n<li>Aggressive + deep \u2192 drive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Feed yourself three depths and force the matching third each time<\/li>\n<li>One game: call the third aloud (\u201cslice \/ drop \/ drive\u201d) before you swing<\/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>Elite Pickleball Coaching keeps third-shot choice simple: match the shot to where the ball is. When it\u2019s short in the court, hit a slice drop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736,"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,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,200,381,6],"tags":[617,1151,124,14],"class_list":["post-1170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drives","category-drops","category-strategy","category-technique","category-third-shot","tag-drive","tag-elite-pickleball-coaching","tag-slice-drop","tag-third-shot"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/08-forehand-drive-sunlight-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170","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=1170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}