Third Shot Drop in Pickleball: What It Is, How to Hit It
The third shot drop is the serving team's first hit after the serve: a soft shot, struck after the return bounces, that lands in the opponent's kitchen. From the baseline the target sits 22 to 29 feet away. It slows the rally so the serving team can walk up to the net.
The shot comes out of the two-bounce rule in the 2026 USA Pickleball rulebook, and the rules page has the rest of the book. This page gives the target in feet, a test for drop or drive, and three drills with pass marks.
What is the third shot in pickleball?
It is the third ball hit in a rally, and the first one the serving team gets to hit after the serve.
- The server hits the serve.
- The receiver hits the return. It has to bounce on the serving side before anyone there hits it (Rule 10.A.2).
- The serving team hits the return after that bounce. That's the third shot.
The fourth shot, from the other team, can be a volley, so the rally opens up from here. The doubles rules cover who stands where. Singles has a third shot too, with no partner to walk up beside you.
Where should a third shot drop land?
In the opponent's kitchen. The kitchen is 7 feet deep and 20 feet wide, and it starts at the net (Rule 3.A.4.c). The court is 44 feet long (Rule 3.A.1), so the net is 22 feet from your baseline and the kitchen line is 29 feet away. That makes the target a 7 by 20 foot rectangle, 22 to 29 feet from where you stand on the baseline.
A drop that lands there is hard to attack. USA Pickleball's Basics of the Third Shot Drop (12 December 2024) describes the aim as landing the ball in the opponent's kitchen, so they have to let it bounce and can't run in and slam it.
The distance changes with where you hit from. This table counts straight down the court.
| You hit from | Net is | Kitchen line is | Land it between |
|---|---|---|---|
| The baseline | 22 ft | 29 ft | 22 and 29 ft |
| 3 ft behind the baseline | 25 ft | 32 ft | 25 and 32 ft |
| 6 ft behind the baseline | 28 ft | 35 ft | 28 and 35 ft |
The ball also has to clear the net, which is 34 inches high at the center and 36 inches at the sidelines (Rules 3.B.7, 3.B.6). A worked example: you hit from 3 feet behind the baseline. The ball must travel 25 to 32 feet and clear a net 34 to 36 inches high.
The arcs in the drawing are illustrative. The distances are to scale and the heights are not.
Drop or drive?
Pick the drop when you would have to hit up to clear the net, and the drive when you can hit down. That test is ours, not USA Pickleball's, but it matches what the governing body says in Mastering the Third Shot (22 September 2025): drive a short return that bounces high, and drop a low return that is tough to drive.
| What the return does | Shot | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lands short and bounces high | Drive | You can hit down into the court. |
| Lands deep and stays low | Drop | You'd have to hit up, so a drive would sail or hit the net. |
| Pushes you back behind the baseline | Drop | The soft arc gives you time to walk forward. |
| Catches you off balance | Drive | USA Pickleball lists a drive as the quicker option here. |
How do you hit it?
Stick to what a named source supports. The Basics article gives three points:
- Stance. Use a semi-open stance. It keeps your movement compact and stops an oversized backswing.
- Paddle position. Picture a brick wall right behind your legs. The paddle shouldn't swing back past it.
- Grip. Hold the paddle loosely. USA Pickleball says to hold it "around a three on a scale of one to ten for grip pressure." The tighter you squeeze, the farther the ball goes.
A practical tip of ours, not a rule: set your feet before the ball arrives, because a soft shot has no spare speed to rescue a late start.
Three drills you can score
The pass marks are targets we set. They aren't a standard. These differ from the feed drills on the pickleball drills page, which has the general menu.
| Drill | Setup | Pass mark |
|---|---|---|
| Marked target | Hit 10 drops from the baseline. On a court the kitchen is the target. On a driveway, chalk lines 22 and 29 feet from your baseline. A feeder helps but you can drop-feed yourself. | 6 of 10 land between the lines |
| Serve, return, third shot | Two or more players. One serves, the other returns deep, and the server hits the third shot drop. Swap roles each round. | 5 drops in a row land in the kitchen |
| Solo bucket | 20 balls. Self-feed a bounce at the baseline and hit a drop at the kitchen. Write down how many land in. | Beat last session's count |
For more solo work, try the wall drills. For the other shots, the shot-by-shot table in pickleball tips says when to hit each one.
Mistakes and edge cases
- Skimming the tape. A drop that just clears the net is hard to reach, but it leaves no room for error. Aim for the middle of the kitchen. That's advice, not a measurement.
- Worrying about the line. A drop that lands in the kitchen or on its line is in. Only a served ball that lands on the kitchen line is out (Rules 8.B, 8.C).
- Landing it deep. A drop that lands past the kitchen line isn't a fault. It just lands where the other side can attack it more easily.
- Confusing it with a drop serve. A drop serve is a way to serve, where you drop the ball and hit it after it bounces (Rule 7.D). The third shot drop is a different shot.
- Forgetting the volley rule. After the return bounces, either team may volley, but not from inside the kitchen (Rule 11.A). The kitchen rules explain it. When the drop goes wrong and a hard ball comes back, the reset shot is the fix. Once you're at the line, the dink is the shot you'll use next, and seven dinking drills give you court distances and a pass mark for each.
To start today, run the marked-target drill for ten minutes and write down the count. If you'd like to see how a point opens first, play a game in singles or doubles against the computer.
Sources
- 2026 USA Pickleball Official Rulebook: Rule 3.A.1 (44-foot court), 3.A.4.c (kitchen 7 feet deep, 20 feet wide), 3.B.6 and 3.B.7 (net 36 inches at the sidelines, 34 at the center), 7.D (drop serve), 8.B and 8.C (in and out balls), 10.A.2 (two-bounce rule), 11.A (volley rule).
- USA Pickleball, Mastering the Third Shot in Pickleball: Drop vs. Drive (22 September 2025): when to drive and when to drop.
- USA Pickleball, Basics of the third shot drop (12 December 2024): the aim of the shot, the semi-open stance, the brick wall image and grip pressure.