Well I've only been playing about a year now; I'll get better as I play more. Plus, I'm going to a D3 school, so I'll still get a fair bit of playing time.
Well then you aren't a 4.5... :shock:
If you hit a good drop shot and a good moonball I don't think they would really control the point, plus your point about public courts
At a 5.5+ level, you easily could. The thing is, against the faster 5.5s with better passing shots at that level, you would probably lose the point either way because no matter what shot you play, unless you caught them off guard with your shot selection, they can chase the ball down and hit a great passing shot off of it. Then again, you're at the net so you can cover about half of what they throw at you if you guess right.
The thing is I'm always ticked off when I see high school players face a drop shot and put up a weak "just get it in" reply... If they only anticipated a little, split stepped, and focused, they'd realize they have more time than they think, and can easily put in a great reply. At the net, you open up many options. You can play the deep one down the line, a deep one crosscourt (and easily get both of those shots into the corner), a sharp angle crosscourt, or a dropshot to either side. Now, if you get there even faster, you have the option of playing with topspin and rolling the ball into those corners or at an angle with more pace.
People try to drop shot me all the time and most of the time I get a winner or force an error from that position because I focus on depth and placement. When you think of it that way, you really have so much room to easily hit into, creating a lot of court for your opponent to cover (and most of the time they don't expect to cover that much court because they stepped inside the court looking for the short reply). In a big point during high school varsity tryouts, my friend (former varsity; new coach so EVERYONE had to try out again) played a drop shot on me. Had he won that point the whole match would've gone his way. I ran up there as fast as I could, and got there early enough to roll the ball deep down the line. He was in no man's land looking for the weak response, and he barely got a racket on the ball and sent it way out. It wasn't even a bad drop shot. I was well out of position behind the baseline, he kept the ball short and had plenty of underspin. But I wasn't off balance so I could easily get to it quickly enough and do something with it.
The only time I don't win a point after someone drop shots me is when they played it at the right moment (when I'm off balance) and disguised it very well. In this case, I'm off balance so I can't explode into every direction as easily, I wasn't even looking for the drop shot or any kind of slice, and as a result I'll be lucky to get a racket on it unless I was already inside the baseline. A moonball isn't going to put your opponent off balance, and a good response will give them plenty of time to recover their balance if it actually did upset their balance.
It's not just about using a drop shot when the opponent is out of position, but when they are off balance. When people are balanced and determined to get to every shot, they can pretty much easily get a racket on any ball they put their minds to. In addition to that, they'll find that they actually have more time than they think, and can do a lot more with the ball. As long as I'm focused, I can even get to balls that hit the net and land on my side, and have even gotten winners off of those because I got there so quickly. It's all about paying attention, and using that first quick reaction step.
Granted, I learned this general response to drop shots from Federer. I saw him easily get to one or two and roll the ball in for a winner from below the net or push it deep. This is why Federer and Nadal can reach so many balls and put something on them - their incredible sense of balance. I've never seen anybody else who's looked so balanced on the court while moving and chasing everything down. You look at Federer when he moves, and it looks so simple and easy. That's because it is! When you're always on balance, moving at full speed isn't that hard because you're in full control of every part of your body. And when Nadal moves, it's more difficult to see it, but occasionally you'll get glimpses of how great his balance is (like him hitting winners off his knees and *** against Federer). I have never been so amazed by anyone else's ability to move to the ball. I mean, have you ever noticed that a lot of shots where he seems to be on the full run for his racket is already back when he's maybe 5 to 10 feet away from the ball and he's still moving at full speed? Then when he gets to the ball he comfortably hits a clean shot. If you look at most other people, they're pumping both arms when they run then when they get there (or are 5 feet away), they stretch out their hand and racket and just reach for the ball and pop it back into the court. There's no real racket movement there. It's just a block or a snap. For Federer it's a push or a roll.
And I REALLY wish they'd make public courts bigger... It's a pain in the ass when you can't back up all the way to hit a moonball, forcing you to hit a shot you shouldn't have to, or when an angled shot gets to the fence when you could've easily gotten it back when nothing else was in your way. Whether you'd still win the point is unclear, but at least you'd've had a chance if those stupid fences weren't there. I mean, it's great running your opponent into fences on serves and wide shots, but you kind of feel that things would be better (and more fun) if you had more room to play with.
