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

Welcome to 4.0 to Pro.

The Pickleball podcast focuses on a single shot, tip or strategy to improve your pickleball game with every single pocket-sized episode.

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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'Neil here in Sunni, Long Beach, California. I'm joined by one Mircha Marariou in Boca Raton, Florida. Sup, bud?

How are you doing, my friend?

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.

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 a little feel better the rest of the day.

As we do, you and I text routinely throughout the week and you mentioned something about revisiting a third shot choices.

And I almost said third shot drops, but revisiting that 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 him. 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 get advanced because it was a very 30253O type of 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.

And I, and I, when you brought it up, I thought, yeah, this is a good time to talk about things like that. You know, 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? No, no, no, not sure if I have. It's not in my repertoire, but it should be.

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.

Did you, how do you relate to what I just mentioned about seeing some of the, the earlier folks, the folks that maybe aren't completely advanced down the duper ladder, 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 opponents head to lower and watch the ball.

Oh, yeah, that's an incredibly common scenario. The issue that I think is really fundamental with respect to your evolution of your thinking is each shot is frequently an isolation when you first start playing.

And sometimes even you, as you advance some three, five to four road four, five, et cetera, you really play a ball.

And you're hitting one shot and you're not anticipating.

And so what we're trying to do from our perspective to try to advance from four or to pro is advance the thinking where it's not just what shot I'm going to hit is what shot am I going to hit and why am I doing that and what's going to happen next.

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.

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 times 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. 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 kick a field goal as I like to say.

The proper way to think about these really pick a ball 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?

It's just part of this overall, I would say maturity in how you approach the game and your shots in pickle ball.

Yeah, obviously most pickle ball players are, 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 played pickle ball.

And obviously the court is just ginormous if you have the perspective from playing pickle ball and you go back on the tennis court.

So you have so much room to heat 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.

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 strength so you can't perfectly shape the ball unless you're a very high level player.

And obviously we want to get to that point.

But the biggest thing is the shirt, their 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.

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 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 to the baseline or whatever.

So me taking this hero ball and trying to go down the line or up the middle,

it's 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. It's 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.

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-buzz zone.

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.

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 three five 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 you for you or your partner.

So even if you're a relatively lower level player, you can still have this sequence mentality and 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 on the 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. 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-valley zone.

You're hanging on for dear life. You're trying to establish yourself.

But if 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.

Okay, so I really loved 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. And in could be literally in the court.

Is my paddle faced 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-valley zone. Everybody says you should be dinking right now.

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.

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.

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.

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 the 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.

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 so 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.

We'll change everything. You don't have to hit a perfect driver 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 corn hole spot. You can commit a little more than you would otherwise.

If you're playing with a random partnership, you're at a wreck game or you're with a new partner.

Man, that can be a huge challenge. I mean, that I do 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. We don't want to put that kind of pressure on our teammate.

And if you guys think about this, when you watch like YouTube clips or Instagram clips or whatever, a 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 over commit to that third because it can really host both you and your teammate.

That's why I think communication is just so key. If your partner communicates what they're generally thinking in terms of driver drop and then a target and you've talked about it, it doesn't have to mean 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 or I might say drive middle drop cross. Yeah 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 as best I can. Obviously you can't do it all the time. But I will also tell them driver 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 harder fast.

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 and pickle ball over the next couple years. 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 corn hole 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.

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 pickle ball 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.

So if there's a deep hard return, whether it's with top spin 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 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 from on the 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.

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.

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.

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 players backhand. So cross court to the backhand and the 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, do drive middle.

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 Analy Waters, which he 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 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 opponent is up at the kitchen line. I'll serve to the left side player, the left side player returns in the middle. 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. Either one is stretching or they're both stretching or they're not sure who's going to take it or they climb 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 matures on the other side of the net that want to take that exact spot and that would help neutralize that.

It would 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 or change their shot it's always a good thing.

The second combo is kind of what I mentioned before if 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 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 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 pounds 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 a tackle or at least put them in some position that they don't want to be in.

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 10 with a short low return you're going to be running in we have the ball below the net 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 week 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 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.

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 tacky about this mere 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 the way through the transition zone so you've got to move up quickly for it.

So I'm generally thinking of dropping in the middle or doing the corn hole drop to the left side players left side and I'm going to ask you the same question for 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 players so if the left side players returning and I'm the left I'll typically go cross court with my back hand or inside out with my forehand particularly on those low short returns where I'm not driving.

So left side players left foot is it would be the ideal ball right there. Yes. So if you're on the right side mere to like you might with Jose D'arisi 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 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 lower back.

Serving from the left side and I'm the right side player and I get the return correct my most 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 well it depends on the ball but one of my favorite targets in that scenario when the left side player is advancing the when they're returning I try to go middle ish so the ball.

The ball would be coming in to the backhand of the right side player when both players are right hand 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 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 are going to do.

The wider you go with your third shot the more angle you give but that'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 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 the

thinking process you want to make your balls for sure and that always is evidence 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 pickle ball the third is pretty interesting

I'm not sure if we could have had this conversation five years ago I'm 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 you've hit a

die ball could 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 that's kind of what this feels like because so rarely does somebody try to drive from the transition zone 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 if they're right handed player so you have a reason for it or they have weak blocks 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 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 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 I just watched Tyson and Decal Bar who sadly it almost feels like I'm watching pickle ball 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'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it.

I think it's still valuable which is the drop drop your 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 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 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 wanted to drop so both you and your partner can advance and what do we want to do

we're not going to match this 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 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 this myself when I was first starting out especially in mixed like

I would think okay well I'm gonna drive at the lady coming up and we're gonna get in easier shot and there's 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 realize 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 good drop.

It changed the game and the outcome many times

when I change 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,

I'm right now I'm using the carbon barrage one,

which is the elongated.

And I've texted you before,

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 brunt 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.

People don't think it's a big deal,

but man, it's 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.

There's no, 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 drives off, my game is off.

I'm both of those occasions.

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 over complicate that shot.

It doesn't have to be crazy, topspin, 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.

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,

but 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 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,

I want to say, was Anna Bright and Annelie 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, 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 gonna win pickleball

from the transition zone or from the baseline.

Certainly not at the more advanced levels.

Yeah, I want to just end with some things

that people should think about doing tomorrow.

Number one, stop asking should I drop or dodge 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 pot.

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.

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 this typical side out scoring.

Because if you miss a third and your opponents get a point,

what does that matter?

That really matters.

So you start finding ways to get that ball in

and trust your defense.

Yeah, 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

and 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.

How is it 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.

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.

It's always nice to be back in your ear balls for Mircha.

I'm Michael.

You guys keep on rockin', and we'll 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.