{"id":1249,"date":"2026-10-31T05:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2026-10-31T05:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:02:00","slug":"take-the-third-shot-early-zero-backswing-arm-leads-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1249","title":{"rendered":"Take the Third Shot Early: Zero Backswing, Arm Leads Body"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Take the Third Shot EARLY! Instant Transition Pressure\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nkVp5L62N18?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><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Zack Marceau (on Richard\u2019s channel) shows why taking the third shot early creates instant transition pressure instead of letting opponents set at the net for free.<\/p>\n<p>On the forehand early take: start from a neutral low position with zero backswing, then focus on a through-swing out in front. Let the arm lead the body forward so contact doesn\u2019t drag deep from body momentum. Keep a neutral paddle face and push more outward than up \u2014 extra height just gives them time. Because you\u2019re contacting closer to the ground and further inside the court, you don\u2019t need to hit as hard as a standard drop.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Zero backswing from a low neutral start \u2014 through-swing out in front<\/li>\n<li>Arm leads body so early contact doesn\u2019t sail deep from momentum<\/li>\n<li>Neutral face, push out (not up) \u2014 less height = less time for them<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Feed short returns; take 20 FH thirds early \u2014 count how many land soft in the kitchen without floating<\/li>\n<li>Film from the side: check arm-leads-body vs body-dragging-through contact<\/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>Zack Marceau (on Richard\u2019s channel) shows why taking the third shot early creates instant transition pressure instead of letting opponents set at the net for free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737,"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_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,381,6,20],"tags":[777,618,100,14,37,1310,1309],"class_list":["post-1249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drops","category-technique","category-third-shot","category-transition","tag-drop","tag-early-contact","tag-richard-pickleball","tag-third-shot","tag-transition","tag-zack-marceau","tag-zero-backswing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/09-ready-position-closeup-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249","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=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}