Thoughts on the Third Shot Lob

 A wise man once said that if you pay attention, you will learn something every day.  I'm not going to argue with that!  Today I was introduced to the third shot lob.  "Eh?  What's that?"  We have the drive, the drop, and I'll write up about the droop down the road, but a third shot lob? Hmm...

As several of you might know I have some strong feelings about lobs.  Perhaps "about" is the wrong word.  I could be called anti-lob and not have a real objection to it.  

This, one must realize, is not a technical argument, but one of aesthetics.  As I wander through this game, I find the soft shots to be of more interest than the lobs and fire fights to me, your feelings may vary widely.  Give me a soft spiny shot to handle and I'm happier than chasing down the top spin lob.

Thus I'd prefer to see a drop shot allow servers access to the kitchen line and not by having pushed net folks back with a lob.  The drop shot provides the opponents with an interesting puzzle to solve.  Should I let it bounce, or lean in and try to volley it, and how will the apex height compare to the 34 inches of barrier between the player and the opponents?  Whereas with a lob, it's just run back and then hit a high, low, or drop shot from the baseline.  

And we can't forget the fourth shot if the opponents managed to handle the third shot drop.  Now we have the opportunity to move in a bit or a lot and if the drop is less than wonderful, we may get the chance to defend from the baseline.  All good stuff, clearly.

So a person with no bias, disinterested, (or as my calculus teacher in high school put it when doing proofs, "entirely obvious to the most casual observer") can clearly see that a third shot drop provides more entertainment for everyone and should be the shot of choice for any player who has moved their feet to allow them to hit said shot.  

I have been known to lob myself solely for intellectual curiosity and to judge the wind properly for later shots of course.  But as a main weapon, I have to draw the line.  I would much prefer to be known as a great dinker, drooper, driver, or dropper than a great lobber.  (Would we call such players lobsters?)

Now I will admit that on occasion, caught in a terrible spot, where panic or a lob seems the only two ways out, well then, go ahead and lob.  It would be polite, but not necessary to apologize to the game for such a shot.  Perhaps a humble, "Sorry, it's all I had" would be sufficient and reasonable.  Actually, I think I heard Larry say that exact thing one time...

I realize that my views on this and many other topics do not conform to much of the world.  Perhaps the world will come around and see the light, but I doubt it.  I also understand that on rare occasion, I might be wrong.  Not a problem, one must be willing to change as the data roll in...  (Family motto: Saepe in errore sed numquam in dubito"

And there are players who lob a lot.  In fact they seem to get a lot of satisfaction from it.  I hear chortles and out right laughs when then drop in effectively.  but rarely do I hear an anguished cries of despair, regret, and depression, when they sail long and if I am to judge it, they do that fairly often.  Perhaps I'll collect some data on that.  Who knows it might change the game for those folks who practice this habit.

So folks do it, pros do it, folks like it, and enjoy it.  There are many reasons to play any game and I can be open enough to accept that.  But it's not my favorite way to play, either win or lose.  I want the mental puzzle.  Chasing down lobs is boring, dinking and out thinking is where my interest lies.  Your views may differ!  And that's all right.  

Update: I'm watching a California PB tournament with the usual pros and by golly one guy is using the famed third shot lob.  He was a hockey player in his hay day, maybe that explains it.  It worked about 40% of the time...