Have you ever heard someone say "Aim at your opponent’s feet?" That was the advice my wise tennis turned pickleball player mom told me when I started to elevate my game a little bit more. But, it took me a while to understand what she meant. 

The team at Enhance Pickleball recently shared tips for elevating your third shot – including the shot that aims right at your opponent’s feet. 

They call it the hybrid third shot.

In pickleball, the third shot refers to the third shot played during a point. And the two most common returns on this shot are either a drop, where you drop the ball into the kitchen, or a drive, where you hit the ball back to the baseline. 

Given just how much pickleball strategy continues to evolve, Enhance Pickleball proposed a new shot to add to the third shot mix: the hybrid.

The hybrid is a cross between a drop and a drive. It’s a half speed shot that lands somewhere near your opponent’s feet, which is something I need to work on. 

This is best achieved when your opponent is coming up from the baseline, but hasn’t yet made it to the kitchen line. 

Here’s how to hit a hybrid third shot.

First off, hit it with top spin.

“You want to hit it like a drive, but with a more compact motion,” demonstrated the team at Enhance Pickleball. “I don’t want to be taking a huge backswing because I’m not hitting it that hard. It’s a linear motion, and I’m going for a brush. You don’t want to take the paddle back too far.”

Where to aim the hybrid third shot.

“There’s not a specific spot on the court that you need to aim for. You’re mainly concerned with where your opponent is standing. As your opponent runs in on the return, your goal is to get the ball to land around your opponent’s feet. After you hit your serve, watch where your opponent is standing in order to aim the shot as best as possible,” they explained. 

The best place to aim is cross-court on an angle. To demonstrate, the serving player hits a serve down the middle. That opens up more space on the court for the returning player to move, as the server hits the hybrid third shot cross court on an angle to the outside of the court. 

Best of all, that shot can be set up by you so you have more control and predictability of the point.

“Once you’ve hit a hybrid effectively, the next thing you want to do is crash in, get aggressive, and take advantage of the opportunity that you’ve created,” they concluded.

Something to note, this shot isn't going to eliminate pickleball’s beloved drops and drives. But it’s certainly a good shot to keep in the back pocket when the time is right. So read your opponents well, and shock them with this hybrid shot.