If you've played a few sessions and started hearing players talk about "getting to the kitchen" or working on their "third shot drop," this is the shot they mean — and it's one of the more important things to understand once you're past your first few games.
What is the third shot?
In a rally, the serve is shot one, the return of serve is shot two, and shot three is whatever the serving team does next. Because the serving team starts back near the baseline, they're at a positional disadvantage — the receiving team usually gets to the non-volley zone (the kitchen line) first, which is the stronger position in pickleball.
The third shot is the serving team's chance to neutralise that disadvantage before they advance to the net themselves.
Why not just smash it back?
A hard, fast third shot is tempting, but it plays right into the hands of opponents already standing at the kitchen line — they can simply block or punch it away for a winner, since a fast ball at the net is easy to redirect. This is exactly why the "drop" version of the third shot exists: instead of power, you're aiming for a soft, arcing shot that lands in the opponents' kitchen, low enough that they can't attack it aggressively.
What makes a good drop
A good third shot drop clears the net with room to spare but lands short and low in the kitchen, ideally dying near the ground rather than sitting up as a easy target. It's a touch shot, not a power shot — most of the work is in a soft paddle face and a controlled, gentle stroke rather than swinging hard.
It takes real practice to get consistent. Most players find it one of the harder shots to learn precisely because it goes against the instinct to hit the ball firmly.
Why it matters so much
Landing a good third shot drop buys the serving team time to move forward to the kitchen line themselves, evening up the positional battle. Skip it and you're stuck defending from the baseline against opponents already camped at the net — a tough spot to be in for the rest of the point.
This is a big part of why the sport feels different once you get past the beginner stage — a lot of intermediate and advanced play is really a contest over who controls the kitchen line, and the third shot drop is the tool that lets the serving team fight their way into that position.
An easier alternative while you're learning
If the drop feels too hard to control consistently at first, a third shot lob or simply a deep, controlled drive can buy you a bit of time too, even if it's not the "ideal" textbook answer. Plenty of solid intermediate players lean on a reliable deep drive while their drop touch is still developing — it's a reasonable stepping stone, not a shortcut to avoid.
How to practice it
The drop is much easier to build with repetition against a consistent feed than in the middle of a live game. If you get the chance, feeding balls to a partner (or having someone feed to you) from the baseline while they stand at the kitchen line is the classic way to groove the shot without match pressure.
Our Sunday Skills & Drills session is exactly built for this kind of focused, no-pressure practice — a good spot to work on your drop specifically rather than trying to learn it mid-rally in a competitive game.
Check the sessions calendar and come give it a go.