THIRD SHOT DRILL
To set up this drill, you should have a person at the
net and a person at the baseline. The person at the net
is going to hit the ball as deep as he/she can to the person
on the baseline. Meanwhile, the person on the baseline is
going to work on that third shot technique where the ball
reaches the apex before the net and lands into the kitchen.
The important part of it is you don’t want to hit the ball
short and miss into the net. You want to see the ball go up
and over the net as much as possible, rather than miss into
the net and end the point. Something to remember when you start working your
way through No Man’s Land, those shots are not going
to be exactly the same as the third ball shot that you hit
from the baseline. You might have some at your feet that
you’re going to have to short hop. You might have to take
some out of the air. The main point is that we need to get
that arch so that the ball is descending into the kitchen,
forcing your opponent to hit the ball up. Whether they
have to let it bounce or hit it up is going to protect you as
you work your way through No Man’s Land.
THE SPLIT STEP
Once you’re comfortable hitting your third ball drop and
you can hit it consistently, we’re going to start working
our way to the kitchen. We do this by using our split steps.
We’re going to hit our third ball, split step, hit a fourth ball,
split step, maybe even a fifth ball, split step, until we can
work all the way to the kitchen. The third shot technique is one of the hardest parts of
the game of pickleball. The thing to remember is that these
are drills, and this is the perfect time to make mistakes. So,
have fun doing them, and I promise, if you stick to it, your
game will improve immensely.
Special thanks to: Matt Staub, Brian Staub, The
Villages. •
Rusty Howes is the Executive Producer and
creator of Pickleball Channel. Rusty worked
for the likes of Warner Bros and Disney before
creating Pickleball Channel to develop and
provide fantastic, professional video content for
the pickleball community. He is deeply involved
in promoting the sport of pickleball at home
and across the country.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 |
MAGAZINE
17