The “first three shots” drill does exactly what you’d think. It helps you improve your serve, return of serve, and third shot (drop in this case). It’s also sometimes called “Long, Long, Short”, or “Serve, Return, Drop” (and I’m sure many more names).
How do we do the drill?
The drill is simple to understand, but difficult to master. Start by simply serving the ball. Your opponent then returns it, and you (or your partner if available) attempt a third-shot drop. Pretty easy, right? They key is, you want to get your serve to land in the back 3 feet (1 meter) of the court, your return to do the same (within 3ft/1m of the baseline), and your third shot should drop into the no-volley zone (aka “kitchen”). After the third shot, play stops, and the next person serves.
1) Long serve within 3ft (1m) of the baseline: 1 point.
2) Return of serve within 3ft (1m) of the baseline: 1 point
3) Third-shot drop into the kitchen: 2 points.
Scoring
What fun is a drill without a little competition?! There are many variations to scoring. My personal favorite is 1 point for a serve, 1 point for a correct return, and 2 points for a correct drop. “Correct” meaning within 3 feet of the baseline for serve and return, and within the kitchen on the third-shot drop. No points are scored if the ball is too short (serve/return) or not within the kitchen on the third shot.
Other scoring methods are 2 points for a serve, 1 for return, and 3 for third-shot. Yet others suggest giving a single point for an “in” serve regardless of distance, or 2 points if it’s long enough.
Adjustments
There are no set “rules” for this drill. Make adjustments based on your group’s skill level and for your overall enjoyment.
There are no rules! (or at least none that you can’t tweak as needed!)
Type of serve: You may also want to work on a specific serve. This drill is commonly played with a lob serve as a requirement, but it works just as well if you want to work on a drive serve/return, or any other serve.
Distance from baseline: adjust this to your liking / skill level. It’s commonly set at 5ft, 3ft, and 1ft based on the skill of the group. You don’t want to set it so easy that people score on every serve, but you also don’t want to play without scoring for 20 serves in a row.
Lines
While it’s possible to do the drill by making a guess if the serve and return are within 3ft of the baseline, it’s easier and more fun if you have actual lines on the court. This can be done with chalk (if you’re outdoors and have permission to do so) or with painter’s tape. If you’re like me, and would rather not re-tape or re-line the court for every drill, try the Gamma Court Lines – they make it SUPER simple to toss down the lines, whether indoor or out, then adjust as you improve or change drills.
Number of players:
You can play with 2 or 4 players. Simply make teams of 1 or teams of 2 and rotate accordingly.
