Why Ben Johns Drops Nine Times Out of Ten, and Also Almost Never
At the North Carolina Cup in April 2024, Ben Johns hit 40 third shot drops and 4 drives. That's 90 percent drops, the number every coach who ever told you "always drop the third" would point to as proof. His third shots stayed in play 43 out of 44 times.
Two years earlier, at the Rocky Mountain Open, the same player, same paddle hand, drove his third shot more than 90 percent of the time. Tyson McGuffin, across the net from him that day, drove 75 percent of his own thirds.
Same shot. Same player. Opposite instinct. The difference wasn't a change of heart. It was doubles versus singles, and that distinction gets flattened into a single piece of advice more often than it should.
The format changes the math
In doubles, Johns has a partner covering the middle and a net that gets crowded fast once both teams reach the kitchen line. A soft, arcing drop buys him time to get there without handing his opponents a ball they can crush. In singles against McGuffin, half that court is simply undefended. A hard, flat drive through open space does more damage than a drop ever could, because there's no one standing at the net to punish it.
That's the part most players skip past on their way to picking a side in the drop-versus-drive argument. It was never really one debate. It's two different geometry problems wearing the same name.
Even within doubles, the split isn't fixed. Jim Ramsey, writing for the PPA Tour, tracked Ben and his brother Collin through their December 2023 PPA Finals and January 2024 Masters gold medal matches. Both times the brothers dropped close to 40 percent of their thirds (41 percent at the Finals, 39 at the Masters), but the shot selection between them flipped entirely. At the Finals, Ben hit 64 percent of the team's third shots and drove 78 percent of those. At the Masters, Collin took over as the primary hitter, handling 70 percent of the team's thirds, and drove 58 percent of those. Two brothers, two tournaments a month apart, and the player doing the driving switched.
None of this reads like a formula. It reads like two people making a live read on what the specific opponent across the net is struggling to handle that day.
What actually decides the shot
Set the marquee names aside and the mechanics are simple enough to use on a Tuesday night at your own club. A short, high, slow return gives you room to drive it, because you're already close to the kitchen and the ball has time to sit up. A deep, low, fast return takes the drive away from you almost entirely. Trying to muscle a hard, low ball into a winner from behind the baseline usually just hands your opponent an easy put-away. That ball wants a drop, landing soft in that first two feet past the net so your opponent has to lift it back to you rather than punish it.
The kitchen itself is a fixed, legislated space, not a vibe. USA Pickleball's rulebook defines the non-volley zone as seven feet from the net on each side, and it's explicitly two-dimensional: it doesn't rise above the playing surface, so a player can be right at the line and still legally smash a ball that bounces first. That's the entire physics behind why a good drop works. Land the ball inside that seven-foot band and your opponent has no choice but to hit up on it, whether they're standing at the line or not.
The uncomfortable answer
If you came here hoping for a rule to memorize, the data won't give you one. What it gives you instead is permission to stop treating the drop as a mandatory ritual and start reading the ball in front of you the way Ben Johns reads whichever format he happens to be standing in that week. Drive the short one. Drop the deep one. Test your opponent's backhand early, the way Johns tests his, and adjust from there.
That kind of split-second reading takes a body that isn't fighting its own gear on a hot court. The Matrix Burst tee and tank tops are made with premium ultrasoft 3.8 oz tri-blend of polyester, combed cotton, and rayon that sits closer to a broken-in favorite than anything fresh off a rack, light enough that a lunge for a low, skidding drop doesn't feel like dragging fabric behind you. It won't read the return for you. Nothing but reps will do that.
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