{"id":358,"date":"2026-10-03T03:52:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T03:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=358"},"modified":"2026-10-04T10:20:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T10:20:54","slug":"train-your-third-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=358","title":{"rendered":"Train Your Third Shots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Train Your Third Shots\" width=\"563\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wyykFHoatD0?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>Shea Underwood shares a third-shot drill he&#8217;s used for years. One partner stands at the kitchen line with a few balls; you start just behind the baseline in a ready stance. The kitchen player gives a friendly feed, you drive it, they block it back, and your next shot is a soft, controlled drop into the kitchen: feed, drive, block, drop. The goal is seven quality sequences in a row, and a rep only counts if the drive is low and the drop lands in the kitchen. It puts you in real game patterns on repeat, so you learn to hit a heavy, controlled drive that stays in and then soften your hands and float a drop as your momentum carries you forward. Tips: stay low through the drive and don&#8217;t stand up as you hit it; on the drop, shorten your stroke, relax your grip and don&#8217;t try to do too much.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Pattern: feed, drive, block, drop<\/li>\n<li>A rep only counts if the drive is low and the drop lands in the kitchen<\/li>\n<li>Stay low through the drive; don&#8217;t stand up<\/li>\n<li>On the drop: shorter stroke, relaxed grip, don&#8217;t overdo it<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Run the feed-drive-block-drop drill from just behind the baseline<\/li>\n<li>Goal: seven quality sequences in a row; restart the count on a miss<\/li>\n<li>Cue on drives: &#8216;stay low&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>Cue on drops: &#8216;short stroke, loose grip&#8217;<\/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>Summary Shea Underwood shares a third-shot drill he&#8217;s used for years. One partner stands at&#8230;<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[600,4,19,6],"tags":[184,293,290,246,14],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drills","category-drops","category-soft-game","category-third-shot","tag-drills","tag-drives","tag-drops","tag-shea-underwood","tag-third-shot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","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=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/682"}],"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=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}