"3 Tips For Hitting a More Effective Drop-Shot."

[thomas daniels]

Hey guys!!

What's up?

Getting ready to go to a Cherry Blossom party in Kyoto today, so it should be a GREAT day for me.

In this post.

I am going to give you 3 tips for hitting a more effective drop shot in your tennis matches, so make sure you start working on them as soon as you can in your practice matches.

Okay, here they are.

Know when to use it during the point!!

"This has to be the most important tip for executing an effective drop shop, because most players don't know when to use the drop shot."

And as result of this, they end up losing the point.

If your opponent is 5 feet behind the baseline and you are at the next, guess what, that's a good time to use it on them. I know I am stating the obvious here, but hopefully you get my point.

But, if you aren't in control of the point or have them out of position on the court.

Don't even think about using it.

The best advice that I can give you here is to... "Play the percentage and go with your instincts".

Use the same preparation, that you use for your strokes.

The other mistake that most juniors and adults are making is not disguising the dropshot enough.

What they want to do and you want to also do this, is set up for the shot as you usually would when hitting your strokes, and then at the last moment, shorten your swing and drop the ball in the court.

NOTE to the reader- use backspin if you can.

I like to teach my students to really sell the same shot preparation before hitting it, because the key to a deadly drop shot is all in the deception of that shot.

So, always use the same contact move and preparation before using it!!

Last one.

You need soft hands!!!

If you hands aren't soft while hitting this shot.

You are going to pop the ball up in the air and they will chase it down.

To develop soft hands.

Have someone toss you the ball and touch volley it to yourself and catch it with your non-racket hand.

This is agreat drill to develop soft hands by the way.

First, catch it off one bounce off your racket, then two and then later.

Catch the ball with your racket!!

It may take a while before you can do this one, but keep working on it in practice and you will be able to do it!!

In summary.

You have to know when to use the drop shot during points, you have to use the same shot preparation move before you use it and you have to use soft hands, while you are hitting it!!

With that being the case.

Work on those 3 tips and your drop shot will be more effective in your future matches!!!

Just so you know.

I wrote this post because, I was just talking to a coach the other day about this and we were both agreeing that... the drop shot is one of the most under used shots by juniors and adults in their tennis matches!!

So.

I hope this post helps!!

 

[onehandbh]

I never thought of catching the ball with my racquet as an exercise that helps with dropshots but I've been doing this since I was a junior whenever someone hits the ball back to me after the point has ended and it reaches me before bouncing on the ground.

 

[thomas daniels]

I never thought of catching the ball with my racquet as an exercise that helps with dropshots but I've been doing this since I was a junior whenever someone hits the ball back to me after the point has ended and it reaches me before bouncing on the ground.

So you have already been working on doing it....

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

I never thought of catching the ball with my racquet as an exercise that helps with dropshots but I've been doing this since I was a junior whenever someone hits the ball back to me after the point has ended and it reaches me before bouncing on the ground.

I would argue it's even more relevant to a drop volley because the concepts are more closely aligned. However, if you can do this, your DSs should be better than average also.

I've only pulled this off in a match a couple of times. To be successful, you have to be able to absorb all of the incoming momentum. If you think about it, a DV is absorbing less than 100% of the momentum so it's easier.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

I wrote this post because, I was just talking to a coach the other day about this and we were both agreeing that... the drop shot is one of the most under used shots by juniors and adults in their tennis matches!!

Very informative post!

I think the reason that it's under-used is because the margin of error is very small: hit it too softly and it doesn't clear the net; hit it too hard and your opponent gets a putaway opportunity. A lot of people don't like that risk/reward ratio so they stick with the more conventional shots. And their touch might not be so great.

Me, I don't have much patience and my BL consistency is average at best. I love attempting the DS.

 

[onehandbh]

I would argue it's even more relevant to a drop volley because the concepts are more closely aligned. However, if you can do this, your DSs should be better than average also.

I've only pulled this off in a match a couple of times. To be successful, you have to be able to absorb all of the incoming momentum. If you think about it, a DV is absorbing less than 100% of the momentum so it's easier.

Does not teach or train you to use underspin, though. This is a big part of drop shots.

Catching an incoming ball in mid-air is relatively easy.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Does not teach or train you to use underspin, though. This is a big part of drop shots.

Catching an incoming ball in mid-air is relatively easy.

I think the video is more applicable to a DV than a DS, although both are using the same concept of absorbing most of the incoming momentum; DV is just more extreme [and the drill is even more extreme].

And while it doesn't explicitly teach underspin, I think that's secondary. The most important thing is to have good touch. Back or sidespin is icing on the cake for the average player; he'll be able to win the point without it. I'm thinking 3.5 level against an opponent who is behind the BL and is only an average mover.

Also, I would think that someone who can do what Ian demonstrates could fairly easily introduce backspin.

And I disagree that catching the ball is easy: I know very few people who are good at it. I play this 9+ UTR and he does it very well. I do it OK. No one else tries it because they don't want to look foolish or it just never occurs to them to try because that's not their strong point.