Let’s show some classy touch to the opponent with your drop shot. Most tennis player enter the court to show their strength by hitting the balls very hard and try to win the game by using and power or hitting winner. This type of mundane and one-dimensional tennis fails to provide the complete range of tennis skills. Observe the Game of Roger Federer closely he has a range of drop shots in his arsenal. That’s why he is known as the GOAT. We will explain how to hit a drop shot in this article.
3 Techniques to hit a drop shot
Let’s break the drop shot technique into following points:
1. Grip Rules the point
Drop shot requires a proper grip and swing path to get the maximum effect.When hitting the drop shot, it’s important hold the racquet with a continental grip, as you would do while hitting a slice or hitting a volley. This allows you to hit the ball in front and maximizes control of the placement and spin.
2. Short swing
The perfect drill is to shorten your backswing, open the Racquet Face, and swing Under the Ball. We believe you already have a good backhand or forehand slice, the swing path is very similar. However, compared to a normal slice, the drop shot has a much shorter backswing. Big backswings generally allow for more power, while short backswings create better timing and feel, helping you to hit the ball softly.
You will open up the face of your tennis racquet a little bit more as well. When making contact, you should come under and slightly across the ball so that it spins backward and a little bit sideways. This will help the ball spin away from your opponent after it lands.
3. Disguise it
Watch and learn from Nick Kyrgios. The notorious but highly talented tennis player. He has the extraordinary skills of disguising the drop shots.
How to Disguise the Drop Shot in Tennis
In order to prevent the opponent from anticipating the drop shot, the best players disguise their drop shots by faking a normal topspin groundstroke. They will switch quickly from their topspin grip to a continental grip for the drop shot
This technique is helpful on both the forehand and backhand. Novak Djokovic, for example, is very good at hiding drop shots on his backhand side and Nick Kyrgios is extremely good at disguising forehand drop shots. Nick Kyrgios – Top 10 Touch/Angle Shots [HD]
When to hit a drop shot?
Now we are into strategic decision about when to hit a drop shot. Drop shots are an extremely useful tactic on the tennis court if used with perfect technique.The timing of the drop shot must be perfect in order to hurt your opponent. If you are not in the correct part of the courtwhile hitting that drop shot then it may result in an error or an easy short ball for your opponent. However, we can identify multiple instances when it is perfect time to hit a drop shot.
- Opportunity 1: At every level—beginner, intermediate, advanced, or professional—the drop shot is a viable strategy if your opponent is tired, slow, or out of position.
- Opportunity 2: Late in a third-set, for example, the drop shot is an especially useful tool because your opponent isn’t as fresh as they were at the start of the match.
- Opportunity 3: Additionally, if you’ve pulled your opponent off of the court with an angled shot, it’s often effective to play a drop shot back behind them while they are trying to recover. This change of direction will throw the opponent off balance.
- Opportunity 4: If you can hit with power and push your opponent behind the baseline, then the drop shot is extremely effective.
That’s the reason why extremely aggressive players like Nick Kyrgios and Daniil Medvedev hit so many drop shot winners. Be smart and at the exact moment when your opponent is expecting a hard shot, deep in the court, the drop shot is a perfect winner.
When to avoid hitting a drop shot?
In this section we will understand about the situations in which we should avoid the drop shots. You are at a high risk of losing a point by giving the opponent an easy ball to hit a winner. Always keep below points in your mind:
- Please never try to hit the drop shot on every second forehand of the opponent.
- Never hit drop shots when you are out of position or moving backwards.
- If you use your strategic weapon more often, it may become predictable. If your opponent is able to anticipate your pattern and predict the drop shots, they can get to them quickly and attack the short ball.
- Never hit a drop when you are not in position until unless you want to feature on “Top 10 drop shots of the decade.”
These are very risky shots even by the standards of Federer and there is high probability of the losing the point. That’s why you will see many ridiculous shots by Nick and Roger however if it gets you the point you will be famous however you can’t win matches with such shots.
If you want to hit great drop shots, you need to have your feet balanced and positioned firmly below you.
Let’s summarize how to hit a drop shot:
Add the drop shot in your regular game, it will be a great strategy to add. The more strategies you can use, the better you will be able to handle different opponents.
Go to the court and sweat it out to perfect your drop shot. Below steps will help you to excel in this strategic shot.
We can use a ball machine or go play a practice match and work on your drop shot using the techniques discussed above.
- You should try to use a continental grip, keep a shorter backswing, swing the racquet in a cupping motion going under the ball
- You have to disguise the drop shot to improve the effectiveness otherwise an opponent with fast pair of legs will get you into trouble. Disguise as and when you can by faking a groundstroke.
- It’s a strategic shot not a regular routine. Use the drop shot with elegantly at the perfect and don’t over-do it.
- Drop shots has multiple dimensions you can use it as an approach shot, to shock your opponent or to change the pace of the game.
- Keep an eye on your opponent to identify the deadly drop shot from the other side the high take-backs are the key to recognize when your opponent is hitting a drop shot.
Keep practicing hard and you are just few steps away from the becoming the next big thing on your local tennis court.
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