It was Pickleball Night in America (again … click here).
This time, I charted third shots across the four matches. Here are the results:
Teams scored 47% of the time when hitting drop shots.
Teams scored 47% of the time when hitting drives. No difference. Interestingly, drives were effective when paired with a “shake and bake” strategy.
72% of drop shot attempts were what I called “Effective” … they either bounced or were taken low and underhanded.
About eight in nine drives were in … with just one in nine rocketing out the back or being buried into the net.
I don’t think this will always be the case, but the best odds of scoring came when hitting a high drop shot (called a “drip” … not a drop, not a drive) that the opposition was able to punch and keep the team hitting the drop shot back. I suspect this happened because the teams were good at playing defense, they were good at hitting effective 5th/7th/9th shots.
About 5 out of 8 third shots were drop shots.
How do the shot choices and percentages outlined above compare with your style of play?
Pickleball Analytics! 