THIRD SHOT DEVELOPMENT
We all know that the third shot is a key part of pickleball: hit it well and good things happen. Hit it poorly and you’re asking for trouble.
This series of lesson plans gives you tools to work on developing a variety of third shot skills as well as develop the decision-making needed to go with them.
We wrote clear descriptions of each of the activities. But for even more fun, we added a few examples below as GIFs. Enjoy!
About This Series
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PLAN #1: 3rd Shot Drive. Taking a swing on the third shot can be a very effective way to cause trouble against a team whose volley skills are a little suspect. The teaching points and activities in this lesson plan will help give your players confidence to let it rip!
3rd Shot Drives: Drop and Drive Progression
3rd Shot Drives: 1, 2, Drive (crosscourt)
PLAN #2: 3rd Shot Drop. When the drive doesn’t make sense, the drop is usually the next best option. The trouble is, the shot is high-risk and hard to execute well. This lesson plan will help you walk your players through the key technical elements of good drops and give them meaningful chances to develop them.
3rd Shot Drop: Continuous Rally - Drop to Volley
PLAN #3: 3rd Shot Decision-Making. What should a person do after hitting the third shot? Well, it depends. And this lesson plans gives your players a chance to develop those critical decision-making skills.
Decision-Making: Depth Recognition
WARM-UP MENU
In each lesson plan, we allocated time for the warm-up. We created a “warm-up menu” and recommend choosing a sample from it to start off each of your lessons.