Why the third shot drop will never go out of style

The third shot drop will always be a core part of pickleball in mind. Sure, you don’t really NEED it anymore, if you’re able to hit a consistent low drive and get in on the next one. I think why your seeing more third shot drives and shake and bake plays boils down to two things, one of which is pretty obvious:

1. Paddle tech: duh, the UPA doesn’t even test for grit and these paddles are still hot as hell. That balls movingt a lot and if your a little late coming in, it is quite difficult.

2. Fourth’s in general are weak: I feel pretty comfortable saying in general though, players’ fourth shots are frequently a weakness. The low fourth specifically (more than likely need to open your paddle face) is a shot even some of the best players haven’t mastered. It’s my opinion that players fourth shots over time will evolve to handle these drives that are getting better and better.

So if fourth shots get better what happens? The penalty for hitting a drive is severe, you’ll probably lose the point especially in men’s. With serving also becoming more of a weapon, it’s frequent that the third shot might be your best ball to drop, and if your opponent has really good fourth’s you’ll probably be more inclined to. You still see a lot of third shot drops today, and I don’t really see that going anywhere.