{"id":1175,"date":"2026-10-24T03:20:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T03:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1175"},"modified":"2026-10-24T03:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T03:20:25","slug":"third-drop-still-wins-feet-behind-it-kitchen-by-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1175","title":{"rendered":"Third Drop Still Wins: Feet Behind It, Kitchen by Five"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"3Rd ShOt DrIvEs!!! A good drive is a good drive, but nothing beats a good drop that gets you and\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2HZRWnLnWHA?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>Troy Akin pushes back on \u201cthird-shot drops are dead.\u201d Driving every third isn\u2019t the answer \u2014 you still have to arrive at the kitchen. Start with a drop, move your feet, get behind the ball, and close so you\u2019re up by the fifth shot.<\/p>\n<p>Lazy feet, not the drop itself, are what kill the pattern. A good drive is fine; a good drop that lets you and your partner take the kitchen is better.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Drops aren\u2019t dead \u2014 lazy feet are<\/li>\n<li>Get behind the third-shot drop; don\u2019t reach and float<\/li>\n<li>Goal: kitchen by the fifth shot<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>One game: every third is a drop \u2014 track whether you\u2019re at NVZ by shot five<\/li>\n<li>Partner feeds deep returns; demand a split-step behind the drop before closing<\/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>Troy Akin pushes back on \u201cthird-shot drops are dead.\u201d Driving every third isn\u2019t the answer \u2014 you still have to arrive at the kitchen. Start with a drop, move your feet, get behind the ball, and close so you\u2019re up by the fifth shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731,"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":[4,2,6,20],"tags":[1236,32,37,160],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drops","category-footwork","category-third-shot","category-transition","tag-kitchen-by-five","tag-third-shot-drop","tag-transition","tag-troy-akin"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/04-overhead-at-the-net-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175","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=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}