68: Stop Thinking About the Third Shot. START Thinking About the Fifth.

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[00:00:56] Send Help. Rated R. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. Welcome to 4.0 To Pro, the pickleball podcast that focuses on a single shot, tip, or strategy to improve your pickleball game with every single pocket-sized episode. Our goal is to make you better on the court every time you hear our voices.

[00:01:19] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of 4.0 To Pro, your pocket-sized pickleball podcast where we teach you a single shot or strategy every single episode. I'm Michael O'Neal here in sunny Long Beach, California. I'm joined by one Mircea Morariu in Boca Raton, Florida. What's up, bud? How are you doing, my friend?

[00:01:39] I'm great. I'm great. I've been cranking away here at this business I've been doing, and it's good, and I'm forcing myself to get on the pickleball courts because if I don't, I'm going to be 300 pounds before you know it. Well, we don't want you to be forcing yourself on the pickleball courts. That would be a shame. So you want to enjoy it. So get out there as much as you can.

[00:01:59] I will, and I am, but I'm just making myself not just wake up and start going to work. I'm like, okay, I have to actually get some time in for some exercise because it's going to clear my head and it'll feel better the rest of the day. As we do, you and I text routinely throughout the week, and you mentioned something about revisiting third shot choices, and I almost said third shot drops, but revisiting that.

[00:02:25] And I think it's a really good idea because I watched a team the other day, as I do, I walk my dog, I throw the frisbee to them, there's pickleball courts right there. And I watched on a number of occasions, either a team never bother to try to drop it so they could advance because it was a very 3-0, 2-5, 3-0 type world where they live in transition zone, or they would hit a great drop and not follow it up. They wouldn't collapse on it. They wouldn't actually take advantage of the great shot that they just hit.

[00:02:55] And when you brought it up, I thought, yeah, this is a good time to talk about things like that. We can talk about some basics, and then I think you've got some really cool ideas around decision-making on when you should actually drive or drop or even lob, which I'm not sure if I've ever hit a third shot lob in my life. Really? Never? I don't know. I'm not sure if I have. It's not in my repertoire, but it should be.

[00:03:17] All right. Well, I think this is one of the most common questions that people have as they're advancing is, should I drop or should I drive my third shot? And obviously we have a host of answers to this, but the simplest answer is it depends. So let's go through some of the decision-making, Michael. How do you relate to what I just mentioned about seeing some of the earlier folks, the folks that maybe aren't completely advanced down the duper ladder,

[00:03:47] actually hitting a nice ball where their opponents are dropping their head, meaning that the ball actually dropped into the kitchen, but then they don't advance quickly enough to take advantage of whatever that next shot is, which is going to be going up by default because they've managed to get their opponent's head to lower and watch the ball. Oh, yeah. That's an incredibly common scenario.

[00:04:09] The issue that I think is really fundamental with respect to your evolution of your thinking is each shot is frequently in isolation when you first start playing. And sometimes even you, as you advance from 3.5 to 4.0 to 4.5, et cetera, you really play balls and you're hitting one shot and you're not anticipating.

[00:04:29] And so what we're trying to do from our perspective to try to advance from 4.0 to pro is advance the thinking where it's not just what shot am I going to hit, it's what shot am I going to hit and why am I doing that and what's going to happen next? I think the common mentality, especially if you came from tennis, is you're trying to hit a winner. You're trying to hit this completely untouchable ball.

[00:04:56] And I still do it if I'm on the left-hand side and someone swings me wide and I can turn on it and rip it down the line. I still go for that a couple of times, you know, during the course of a day. I'll go one for six or something. You know, it won't be a high percentage shot. It's very satisfying when I hit it, but definitely not a tournament-type ball when you're trying to advance to the line. It's just a satisfying ego shot more than anything.

[00:05:21] But your point is really interesting because I think a lot of us, like I said, came in from tennis with this winner mentality. I'm trying to rip it through the line or, you know, kick a field goal, as I like to say. The proper way to think about these, really pickleball in general, is to start getting into that combo mentality. If my third is here, what does my fifth look like? If my speed-up is here, what does my counter look like?

[00:05:47] It's just part of this overall, I would say, maturity in how you approach the game and your shots in pickleball. Yeah, obviously, most pickleball players, or I would say a vast majority of them come from tennis, or at least having played tennis at some point, not even if they're high-level tennis players. I just mean at some point, most people at this point have played tennis before they play pickleball.

[00:06:10] And obviously, the court is just ginormous if you have the perspective from playing pickleball and you go back on that tennis court. So you have so much more room to hit those clean winners. And it's absolutely incredibly satisfying to hit a clean winner like you smoke a forehand drive down the middle and no one touches it and you call it a field goal. But that's just not the common scenario because the court is small. And the ball is hard and you're playing with paddles, so there's no strings.

[00:06:36] So you can't perfectly shape the ball unless you're, you know, a very high-level player. And obviously, we want to get to that point. But the biggest thing is the third shot isn't just a shot. It should be the plan. It should be the beginning of a plan and you're planning a sequence of events. So I think that you can look at it a couple different ways. If your third is, let's say you hit a drop and it's a great drop. Well, then your fifth has a chance to actually be some offense from the transition zone because the ball may pop up.

[00:07:06] Or at the very least, you've made your way all the way up to the kitchen, which I don't know. I have the numbers in front of me. You probably know them more than I do. But the point winning percentage at the kitchen, meaning you've established yourself at the kitchen, you've neutralized the point, is so incredibly higher than if you haven't made it all the way up. If you're in the transition zone or the baseline or whatever.

[00:07:28] So me taking this hero ball and trying to go down the line or up the middle is like a fraction of the percentage of let's focus together on making our way up to the kitchen. So that's kind of the first thing is like we want to get up there. And the second part is what do we want that fifth to look like? So if it's a great drop, you may actually have some offense on the fifth because if they pop it up or if you hit a great drive and you chicken wing him and the ball pops up, that could be it. That could be the combo.

[00:07:57] But what you're saying is we can't necessarily rely on that. The more important part is that you're getting up, you're moving forward, you're creating pressure. Exactly. You know that we want to get up to the non-basil. You want to get up to the kitchen line because when you're serving, you're in fact down in the point. And we've talked about this before, the concept of being up in the point, down in the point or neutral. So when you're serving, you're technically down in the point because your opponents are going to return. You have to let the ball bounce. So you and your partner have to try to make it up to the kitchen.

[00:08:26] Now, one of the first things that I consider is my own skill set. If you're out there listening, just think of what your own skill set is. When you have a 3-5 level and you come from tennis and you've been playing for two months, you are most comfortable driving. That's probably what you're going to do most of the time. But think of it as driving to try to set up your better fifth, either for you or your partner.

[00:08:51] So even if you're a relatively lower level player, you can still have the sequence mentality in mind based on your skill set. And also sometimes the environment. Let's say it's really windy. You're playing a tournament for the first time. You're nervous and it's much easier to hit through the ball in a drive and kind of get those nerves out. That's when you might choose to hit a third shot drive at the beginning of the match until you get a little more comfortable. Yeah, I really liked what you just said.

[00:09:18] When you talk about being up or down in the point, I almost frame it to people as being like, when you serve, you think you're on offense, but you're actually on defense. Until you get to the non-volley zone, you're hanging on for dear life. You're trying to establish yourself, but you've got two people standing at the net that can rip it at your feet the whole time. And you're going to have to figure that out. But would you mind, because I really think this is cool to frame everything. In our outline, it has this little section called the evolution of pickleball thinking. Do you mind if I go through that really quick? No, absolutely. Please do.

[00:09:48] Okay, so I really love this. I've never seen this before, but I really think it encapsulates how we all think as we go through our journey. A beginner would think, I'm trying to get the ball in. An in could be literally in the court. Is my paddle face facing the right way? Am I balanced? You're not worried about any combos or anything. You're just like, I want to get the ball over the net. The intermediate will say, well, I'm trying to hit the correct shot. So someone's at the line. They're at the non-volley zone. Everybody says you should be dinking right now.

[00:10:17] You're trying to create something. So don't just try to speed a ball up. Actually try to hit the right ball at the right time. This is a whole nother show, but this is where an advanced player can get tripped up by an intermediate player because there's an expectation of the correct ball that needs to be hit. And all of a sudden you're surprised by what your teammate did. The advanced person would start saying, I'm trying to create the correct next ball.

[00:10:43] So that means they're trying to put pressure on their opponents and they're actually hitting the correct shot in the correct way in order to put that kind of pressure. And then the pro version is I'm trying to create a sequence. We know that this is not going to be a one shot winner. This is almost always going to be, I'm going to hit a ball. I'm going to get the next ball that I might be able to do something with. Maybe I can put it away. Or if not, I'm going to keep going back to that well or a well to get a ball to pop up so I can put it away.

[00:11:11] And that's where the game changes. That way you're not playing like, this is my third, this is my fifth, this is my seventh or whatever. You're playing combinations. And I think the more you start thinking of, if I hit this ball in a particular way to a particular spot, here's the result that I typically get. And that result is favorable. That's when you start really changing how you view the game. Absolutely, Michael. And I would add something that I think is critically important to the pro level thinking versus I'm trying to create a sequence.

[00:11:40] What I would add is for myself and my partner. And I think this is often the most overlooked part of this concept is not just am I going to drive or drop, not just what's my target. Does my partner know what I'm doing and are they reacting appropriately? A perfect example is let's say someone hits a deep hard return and you're pushed back and you're not comfortable dropping it on a dime on a very difficult return.

[00:12:07] If your partner is not aware that you're going to drive to get yourselves a better fifth shot, your partner might wander up halfway through the transition zone. And guess what? You hit a high drive or maybe you try a drop and it's high. Guess what? Your partner is going to be the target and they're going to crush it at your partner's feet. If you've told your partner, hey, if someone hits a deep hard return to my backhand, which is my weaker shot, I'm going to try to drive it and get us a better fifth. Well, it changed everything.

[00:12:36] You don't have to hit a perfect drive or drop. You both stay back and you can defend. Yeah, I think over commitment from your partner, it looks different on the pro level than it does at the amateur level. You mentioned many shows ago that when you get a lot of trust in your partner and you know they've got an open look and they've got a nice drive and it's humming that day or they've got a drop that you can count on. It's going right to the middle or going to that cornhole spot. You can commit a little more than you would otherwise.

[00:13:04] If you're playing with a random partnership, you're at a rec game or you're with a new partner, man, that can be a huge challenge. I mean, dude, that happened to me in one of my first tournaments. My teammate kept aggressively. I would be ready to set this third up and he would be aggressively going to the net. And finally, I said, bro, you're putting so much pressure on me by getting up there before I even hit the shot. And it makes me think this has to be perfect or he's dead. And we don't want that.

[00:13:33] We don't want to put that kind of pressure on our teammate. If you guys think about this, when you watch like YouTube clips or Instagram clips or whatever of pickleball, think about how many times the ball gets hung up kind of high. And they have to defend and defend and defend. And you go, man, I can't believe they got those balls back. Well, here's the news. When you play, the same kinds of things happen. So trust your defense and don't just completely overcommit to that third because it can really hose both you and your teammate. That's why I think communication is just so key.

[00:14:02] If your partner communicates what they're generally thinking in terms of drive or drop and then a target, and you've talked about it, it doesn't have to be an extensive conversation. I mean, most teams communicate what the score is, where they're stacking, maybe a position like I'm going to be on the right, you're getting me on the left. But more elite teams will communicate the intent before they're the third shot. So I might say I'm going to drive or drop to Joe and Joe is the one returning.

[00:14:29] Or I might say drive middle, drop cross, drive left hip. So I will literally tell my partner what my target is before they or I serve. And then I will try to execute it as best I can. Obviously, you can't do it all the time. But I will also tell them drive or drop right before I'm about to hit the ball. Now that I know is a little excessive, but partners have told me that they like it because they know if the ball is coming hard or fast.

[00:14:56] Even if you don't get to the level where you're communicating right before you're about to hit the ball, because that might be a lot for many people. At the very least, try to tell your partner or at least have your partner tell you also is where they or you are thinking of driving or dropping. So you have a general idea where the target is. And that helps your anticipation tremendously. I think that this is an area, Mircha, that's going to evolve in pickleball over the next couple of years.

[00:15:23] And I think you'll start seeing things like in football, we have the A gap, the B gap, the C gap. I wonder if we'll have something similar where A would be like dropping to the right side players, right side. B would be the middle of the court and C would be the cornhole drop that left side players, left side. Where I could just be like drive A, drive B, drive C or drop A, drop B, drop C and have just little code between the teammates where you do have this nice little outline of where it's going to go.

[00:15:53] Do you want to talk a bit about the different kinds of combos that we can be looking for since we're going to start thinking about pickleball in combos? And that's to me the overall notion of this show. And you correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah, like we talked about before, when we're thinking combos, I think probably the most common combination that most people think about or we want most people to think about is the combination of a drive and a fifth shot drop.

[00:16:20] So if there's a deep hard return, whether it's with topspin or just flat or slice, it's not easy to hit a perfect drop. Now you can, and if that's your comfortable shot, by all means hit it. For most players, it's quite a bit easier to hit a drive. Hopefully your opponent blocks it and you and your partner get an easier fifth shot drop.

[00:16:46] Again, it's very helpful if you communicate where you're targeting. So if you have an opponent that's the non-returning player, that all they do is block their backhand and you get an easy fifth shot every time. And this has happened actually, there are a few players that I know on a senior pro level, I know that if I drive for their backhand, they're going to block it and we're going to get a really easy fifth.

[00:17:11] Even if they're the non-returning player and they're up there in their traditional thinking process, okay, I'm going to hit the third shot to the returning player. I will actually, in this particular scenario, I'll hit it where I know that I'm going to get a predictable response and my partner and I can move forward. My partner knows if it's a deep hard return to stay back a little bit, I'm going to create a better fifth. And that's the most common sequence that we think about. Tomorrow morning is knocking. Stock your fridge now.

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[00:18:09] Like no work emails after six. One small step for boundaries. One big leap for checkout. Pays. It checks out. Activation required. See Pays.com to learn more. Terms and conditions apply. I watched a team the other day, Mircha. When I tell you it, it happened about seven times in a row and the guy never caught it. Where on his third, he was on the left-hand side and they would kind of swing him wide.

[00:18:35] So it was, you know, a little bit, it would have been sort of on his left-hand side, we might say corner pocket. So they were returning kind of diagonally. And he kept driving that ball to the other left-side player's backhand. So cross-court to the backhand. And that guy had a diabolical drop. And he just kept cutting it. And the guy had no chance. He was so far off court and he kept doing it. And I kept going, I'm not coaching these guys, but if I were, I would say, dude, drive middle.

[00:19:05] One of the reasons why we drive middle is because it takes the angles away from the other team. They can't hit these really crazy. I mean, look at Annalie Waters. When she gets a hold of that thing and just hooks it. And it's just what feels like a 90-degree angle on the court. So it does do that. And I suppose that's part of your reasoning that even if they're both established, they have to communicate who's getting that ball.

[00:19:31] And also, it doesn't hurt you quite as much because they don't have the angles to choose from. My favorite drive is this imaginary window between the outstretched arm of the non-returning player. So let's say I am serving from the left side. The left side player is returning. So you have the right side player, the opponent is up at the kitchen line. I'll serve to the left side player. The left side player returns in the middle.

[00:20:00] I will have that drive as the left side player. So I'll hit a forehand. I imagine where the right side player reaches out with their backhand and their paddle is extended to their left. And that window between the point of the paddle and where the right side player is coming in if they extend their paddle to the right. This imaginary window. And it's amazing if I hit it properly, how often I get a successful response.

[00:20:27] Either one is stretching or they're both stretching or they're not sure who's going to take it. Or they clank paddles or we get a really weak response so we can hit a quality fifth shot. This is why we tell the returning team, the person that's up at the net. This is why we tell you that as soon as your partner hits the ball, just shift over and cover middle a little bit. Because there's mirches on the other side of the net that want to take that exact spot. And that would help neutralize that.

[00:20:53] It would at very least force you to start thinking about, well, I want to go to now forehand on that person's up front. Or at least change your shot. And if you can get the other team to change their shot, it's always a good thing. The second combo is kind of what I mentioned before. You happen to hit a great third, whatever that is. I play against a guy that has a very, if I target, I know that if I target his right side, if I target his chicken wing, it pops up 70% of the time.

[00:21:23] I know that. I just know no matter where he is on the court, that if I attack this particular spot, it's a really good spot for us to attack. So I've got two choices here. Number one, I've ripped a nice drive. And I've gotten a pop-up. I've gotten a really weak shot. Probably a floater, like we talked about in the last episode. Hopefully a floater. That's floating in the middle of the court. And I can close that space really quickly.

[00:21:52] I can swing level. And that's all she wrote. The other option would be if I hit a great third shot drop, same idea. The ball pops up. It might not be coming at the velocity or quite as high as the other one, but I know that I can get and collapse on it. I know that I can get or pounce, as you would say. I can get all the way up to the non-volley zone, and that next ball that pops up after my drop is probably going to be attackable or at least put them in some position that they don't want to be in.

[00:22:21] Yeah, and how helpful is it for you as my partner if you know that if there's a short or weak return, I'm going to hit a certain shot? So let's say it's a short, low return. If you're my partner, I've already told you that I'm going to hit a drop on that nine times out of ten. With a short, low return, you're going to be running in. You have the ball below the net.

[00:22:46] It's hard to hit a perfect drive off of that, so I will most often drop it, so you'll know that. Now, if it's a short, high return or a weak return, I'll say go. And so you know that you can automatically go up and put pressure on our opponents. And since you also know the target that I am aiming at, you don't have to look back at me and wait to look to see what I'm doing.

[00:23:11] You can just look forward because you're going to know that I'm going to hit the ball right in front of you, and you are able to pounce on it if you get an attackable ball. So you get the attackable fifth and you pounce on that. So it's incredibly helpful if you know what your partner is doing. Let me get slightly techy about this, Mircha. So if you're on the left-hand side and you get a nice, short, low return, it's going to be mid-court to three-quarters of the way through the transition zone.

[00:23:40] So you've got to move up quickly for it. Are you generally thinking of dropping in the middle or doing the cornhole drop to the left-side player's left side? And I'm going to ask you the same question when you're on the right, but let's start with the left. Yeah, with the left, I'll generally try to target the weaker side of the left-side returning player.

[00:24:01] So if the left-side player is returning and I'm on the left, I'll typically go cross-court with my backhand or inside out with my forehand, particularly on those low, short returns where I'm not driving. So left-side player's left foot would be the ideal ball right there. Yes. So if you're on the right side, Mircha, like you might with Jose DeRisi, and he's serving cross-court, that person directly across from you returns it short to body or on the inside of your left foot. Are you trying to drop straight ahead?

[00:24:31] Are you trying to drop to the middle? I'm just curious what your right-side thought is versus your left. To clarify, my partner Jose is serving from the left side and I'm the right-side player and I get the return. Correct. And it's on the inside of you. It's like it's because if it's in the middle and you've got a backhand, I don't know what else other than middle. I think it's probably a weird shot, but I think you have an option to either go straight ahead or go middle as the right-side player.

[00:25:00] Well, it depends on the ball, but one of my favorite targets in that scenario, when the left-side player is advancing, when they're returning, I try to go middle-ish. So the ball would be coming in to the backhand of the right-side player when both players are right-handed. Alternatively, if the player is relatively slow in getting up to the kitchen who is returning, which would be the left-side player, then I might go straight or straight middle-ish.

[00:25:29] What I don't do is I don't go wide. I typically don't go wide with either scenario because the wider you go, and this is the other mistake that people make, the wider you go with your third shot, the more angle you give. But it's not even just that. You're going towards the higher part of the net and you have the sideline, which is that extra defender. So you are increasing your risk dramatically.

[00:25:55] And while we're talking about all these choices, the biggest thing that you have to think about when you first start playing really is like you have to make these balls. We often try to hit perfect third shots and get that perfection out of your mind in terms of your thinking process. You want to make your balls. For sure. And that always is evidence.

[00:26:16] If you guys want to practice that a little bit, play a couple of rally scoring games and you will see how important it is to make every single ball. It just changes how you play pickleball. The third is pretty interesting, Mircha. And I'm not sure if we could have had this conversation five years ago, three years ago, because I don't think the paddle technology allowed us to do this, which is you've hit a lovely drop for the third. They really have to reach.

[00:26:42] You've hit a die ball drop and the ball bounces in the middle of the transition zone and you can actually fire a ball. You can hit a drive from there because we would never typically tell anybody to drive from the middle of the transition zone. And to me, it almost feels like in the NFL when they show a particular play early in the game and then they show the same exact configuration of offense, but they run a different play from it. But that's kind of what this feels like because so rarely does somebody try to drive from the transition zone.

[00:27:11] And I don't think we had the paddle technology to do it a few years ago. But now you can get in there and get a short ball and find a spot and attack a spot if you have the right exact ball. You can and as long as you have a reason for it, like for example, you have a big fluffy ball that bounces and maybe one of your opponents is holding really hard backhand. And so you go to their right hip, their right handed player. So you have a reason for it or they have weak blocks.

[00:27:39] I think a more common scenario that people often don't think about is with a third shot drop and the fifth shot attack, this is the scenario. You hit a really good third shot drop or your partner does. What your opponent is trying to keep you back so they hit it hard and they have to hit it from low to high. The next ball, even though it's hard, is right in your wheelhouse and you just counter that and they're not ready.

[00:28:05] It's one of my favorites because you have to stay so compact. It requires so much of what we talk about on the show all the time, which is stability, stopping and not moving through the transition zone and being able to just stop and plant and fire an accurate shot at a particular spot. And you're probably going to get that next ball. The seventh is going to be a put away if that fifth wasn't already.

[00:28:27] I just watched Tyson and Dekel Barr, who sadly, it almost feels like I'm watching pickleball from three years ago, watching this team. Sorry, you guys. But they did this fourth scenario, which I feel like the game is evolving a little bit from this. But I think it's still valuable, which is the drop drop. You hit a third shot drop, you hit a fifth shot drop. And you're just trying to slowly and methodically. This is Ben Johns in 2022, slowly and methodically trying to make their way to the net.

[00:28:55] We don't see it as much with the younger teams and the current pro game, but you probably see it a bit in the senior pro circuit, I would imagine. Yeah, it's a great way to get up. I mean, I always say when you hit the ball hard, what do you think is going to happen? It's going to come back more quickly. So you don't have time to advance and your partner doesn't have time to advance.

[00:29:18] It's when you hit the ball soft, when you hit a good drop, it's much more easy to advance because you are hitting the ball softly. And ideally, hopefully it's dropping where you want it to drop. So both you and your partner can advance. And what do we want to do? We're not going to win matches from the baseline. So we know that. So we want to get up the kitchen line. So a drop drop. If that's your skill set, you know, by all means, keep doing it.

[00:29:42] It sounds like a really simple concept, but I watch teams sometimes play and they are comfortable driving. So they keep driving and they're losing every single point when they serve. They just can't get to the kitchen. Why don't we try doing something a little different? Why don't we try dropping the ball? And I've fallen victim to this myself when I was first starting out, especially in mixed. Like I would think, okay, well, I'm going to drive at the lady coming up and we're going to get an easier shot.

[00:30:09] And there are some ladies that have amazing hands and they're countering and crushing the drives. When I started changing it up and I started dropping, I realized that those same ladies that have great counters when I'm driving really don't like bending and reaching when I hit a good drop. So it was really much more advantageous for me to get a good drop. And then my partner could advance much more easily because I'm hitting a good drop.

[00:30:34] It changed the game and the outcome many times when I changed from driving every ball to trying to get more drops in. This is obviously much more of a strategic conversation about decision making, but it's worth noting that if one of those things isn't working, like I've had instances in the last two or three months, right now I'm using the carbon barrage one, which is the elongated. And I've texted you before.

[00:31:03] I've never even seen my drive as good as it is right now. It's crazy. I've had a couple of days where it's so diabolical. It's just a missile and it's so great. And then the other day, this is after a little bit of time off. I haven't played a lot lately. I couldn't hit a drive. I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. It was so bad. I was just like, God, first of all, the timing thing is crazy. Especially when you switch from a lifetime ball to a Franklin ball.

[00:31:29] People don't think it's a big deal, but man, does it mess your timing up like you wouldn't believe. I couldn't make anything happen. So I said, you know what? Today's a dropping day. My drive is just not there. And it was better. We were better when I said, you know what? Even though I do feel like it's my bread and butter and it influences a lot of what my game is, which can be very aggressive and footwork oriented. If my knees are wacky or my drive's off, my game is off on both of those occasions.

[00:31:57] So I do think that it's really nice to have in your back pocket. Hey, let's just be patient about this. Let's trust our defense and let's get the thing to drop. Don't feel like you have to overcomplicate that shot. It doesn't have to be crazy, top spin, spinny. It just has to be over the net and not supremely attackable by your opponents. Absolutely. And this goes back to the perfection that we all seek. It's sometimes very elusive.

[00:32:23] When you talk about the red, yellow, or green, and what that means is like if you hit a third shot and you pop it up and your opponent can hit an overhead or a shot at the shoulder, it's red, meaning you don't advance. If you hit a really good third shot drop that drops below the net, then it's green. You advance. And then in the middle is the yellow. During big points, I'm targeting yellow. I want an average drop because I know I can defend and I can get up there.

[00:32:50] And I know that if I hit it in the net, it doesn't give my, number one, it doesn't give my opponents a chance to screw up. Number two, it doesn't give my partner and I a chance to defend. If you make the ball, both those things are true. Meaning your opponents can screw up the ball, you know, it can make an error and you and your partner can defend and you can get up there. And you put a lot more pressure at eight all nine all on your opponents. If you're just simply making the ball. I don't remember what tournament it was, but I was watching somebody playing.

[00:33:19] I want to say it was Anna Brighton, Anna Leigh Waters, and they were just having such a hard time getting to the net. It was the hardest part about that particular team is that they're there. I'd almost call it like the on base percentage in baseball that they just couldn't get up there. They were getting up like 23% of the time or some crazy stat like that. And you ain't going to win pickleball from the transition zone or from the baseline. Certainly not at the more advanced levels. Yep. I want to just end with some things that people should think about doing tomorrow.

[00:33:48] Number one, stop asking, should I drop or drop my third? Start thinking about what fifth shot am I trying to create? What's the sequence that I want to create? And number two, communicate these thoughts with your partner. Talk about the target, what you're trying to do with your third, where you're trying to hit it, what kind of balls you're trying to get back. Number one, the sequence. And number two, communication. Those are the key takeaways from this pod.

[00:34:17] If you start recording on video and you only look for one thing, just look for your, did I make the third? And did I make the fifth? If you start counting the mistakes you had in those games on the third and the fifth, it's revolutionary. It will completely and utterly change how you think about pickleball and these particular shots. So you don't even have to do it for weeks and weeks and weeks.

[00:34:43] Record one match and just see how many balls you make and how many you've missed. And if that percentage is higher than you would like it to be, and it is, trust me, because mine is. It's something you need to actively work on. And again, you can do that by drilling with rally scoring versus the typical side out scoring. Because if you miss a third and your opponents get a point, boy, does that matter? That really matters. So you start finding ways to get that ball in and trust your defense. Yeah.

[00:35:13] And in terms of the more competitive aspect of it, if you're playing higher level or tournaments, just make sure that if what you're doing isn't working, that you're adjusting and you're communicating that with your partner. If what you're doing is working every time, awesome. Keep doing it. However, if it's not working, try something different. I always said when I was coaching, let's at least try to lose differently. Let's just not do the same thing over and over and expect a different result, which is, I believe that's the definition of insanity.

[00:35:43] So let's not be insane out there. Stop thinking about the third shot. Start thinking about the sequence. Think about the combo. The players who control the fifth ball usually control the rally. I love that. I'd never seen that in writing before, Mircha. And I love that. The players who control the fifth ball usually control the rally. Love that. All right. Thank you. I'm glad you like it, my friend. All right, boys and girls, go enjoy yourselves on the Pickleball Court.

[00:36:12] It's always nice to be back in your ear balls for Mircha. I'm Michael. You guys keep on rocking. We will talk to you for the next episode. Thank you for listening to 4.0 to Pro. For more tips, find us on Instagram at 4.0 to Pro. If you have a pickleball question, submit it at picklehelp.com. Now, get out there and dominate. But don't forget to have fun.

[00:36:45] Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for a three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra.

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