World No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters and her mom and coach, Leigh Waters, recently shared their top insights with pro pickleball player and content creator, Kyle Koszuta.

One of the lessons was focused on the third shot drop. 

“How would you coach someone into making smarter third shot decisions?” asked Koszuta.

“The better serve you hit, the shorter return or worse return you’ll get, so going for your serve is a big thing because if you’re getting a return here and your opponent is moving, it’s a lot easier to hit a third,” explained Anna Leigh. “Rather than if you’ve hit a bad serve, they’re at the net, and you’re back trying to hit a third.” 

“Another thing is that if the return is short, it’s really hard to drive, not only because you’re moving forward and it’s low, but you also have less court to work with,” she added. “I would drop if the return is short, and drive if the return is deep. Anything in the middle is personal preference to what you’re better at.”

Koszuta also noticed that Waters doesn’t always follow through with her drops and she finishes on the same side and calls it “Rafa Nadal style.”

He inquired about the benefit of hitting her drops like that. 

“You can get a lot more spin that way,” she said. “Sometimes if someone’s hit a really good return, you don’t have time to try and whip your arm over and get to the other side. Because you really don’t have time to really finish the movement then reset, and I get way more spin with this shot.”

However, Anna Leigh cautioned against hitting this shot by only using your arm since it can cause tension and potentially lead to a shoulder injury.

If you use your legs and torso, though, you can protect your shoulder. 

“Any shot that I hit, I’m trying to set up a ball that I can be aggressive on,” she mentioned.

Anna Leigh summarized her third shot mentality as:

-       Your best shot
-       Strategy
-       Their weaknesses

“If your best shot can exploit their weakness, you win every time. You don’t need that much of a strategy. Sometimes your strength feeds into their strength, and that’s where you have to be a little careful,” Leigh explained. “Start with your best shot, and if that’s not working then you have to go to plan B and think how can I exploit their weaknesses even if it’s not my number one strength?”

Leigh further added a common question she receives from amateur players when they get a ball they don’t know what to do with it.

“Want every ball and expect every ball is going to come to you. Even if you’re off the ball, you should be thinking about what you would be doing with that ball. That way, you’re always in the point, you’re always expecting that shot, and you’re staying mentally in the point even if you’re off the ball.”

Anna Leigh’s anticipation is the best in the game, so this strategy is certainly paying off. 

“If you know what your partner’s doing, you can be ready. If you’re just standing there and your partner speeds up the ball, then you’re not ready. Whereas if you know they’re going to speed up and you’re ready, that’s a putaway ball,” said Anna Leigh.

“That’s the best way to learn how to anticipate, put yourself on every shot mentally throughout the point,” added Leigh. 

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