{"id":1367,"date":"2026-11-10T04:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T04:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1367"},"modified":"2026-11-10T04:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T04:21:13","slug":"dont-default-to-the-third-shot-drive-drop-instead-and-get-to-the-kitchen-by-five-drive-only-weak-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1367","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Default to the Third-Shot Drive: Drop Instead and Get to the Kitchen by Five (Drive Only Weak Returns)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Why I stopped hitting 3rd shot drives \ud83e\udd10\ud83d\udc47 Here\u2019s the truth nobody wants to tell you: The drive\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/do6ytIkiIFY?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 explains why he stopped defaulting to third-shot drives. He&#8217;ll still drive a weak return he can take control of. But against someone who can handle all of his power, the drive doesn&#8217;t finish the job \u2014 he still has to hit a drop anyway. So he might as well take the third shot as a drop and get himself and his partner up to the kitchen by the fifth.<\/p>\n<p>The official description spells out what usually happens on that drive: it goes in the net, it sails long, or it lands and they block it back \u2014 and now you have to hit a perfect fifth-shot drop anyway. The drive isn&#8217;t a bad shot; it&#8217;s the wrong default. Drop first, and drive when they give you a short, high ball. You&#8217;ll need to practice those drops, but it&#8217;s the simplest way to get to the kitchen.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Drive a third only when the return is weak enough that you can take control<\/li>\n<li>If they can handle your pace, you still have to drop \u2014 so drop the third and try to be at the kitchen by five<\/li>\n<li>The usual drive outcomes are net, long, or a block that still leaves you hitting a fifth-shot drop; the drive isn&#8217;t a bad shot, just the wrong default<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Play a game where your default third is a drop, and drive only short, high returns<\/li>\n<li>After any third-shot drive that gets blocked, notice that you still needed a drop \u2014 that&#8217;s the clip&#8217;s argument for starting with one<\/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 explains why he stopped defaulting to third-shot drives. He&#8217;ll still drive a weak return he can take control of.<\/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_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,200,6],"tags":[617,777,726,61,14,160],"class_list":["post-1367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drives","category-drops","category-strategy","category-third-shot","tag-drive","tag-drop","tag-fifth-shot","tag-kitchen","tag-third-shot","tag-troy-akin"],"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\/1367","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=1367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/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=1367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}