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Week 73
Welcome back to the Road to Pro!
Let's get to it.
Picture this: you just served, the return is on its way, and both of your opponents are already established at the kitchen line. What you do next decides most rallies.
The job of the third shot drop is not to try to win the point. It's a soft shot that lands in the kitchen so your opponents can't attack, buying you time to move forward in the court and even the playing field. Here are three techniques that will make your drops a whole lot harder to attack:
Make contact in front of your body. When the ball is out in front, you can see the ball and your paddle at the same time, and you can move forward into the shot. When you let the ball get beside your body or behind, you lose sight of your contact point. And if you're moving backward as you swing, your drop is ending up in the net or popped up high.
Peak on your side. The flight path of the ball matters more than the speed. You want the ball to peak around your own kitchen area (roughly head height of a player at the net), so it's already falling as it crosses the net. A ball that's still rising over the net is a ball your opponent can attack out of the air.
Aim away from the sideline. The net is two inches lower in the middle, you have more court to work with, and in doubles a middle drop forces your opponents to figure out who takes it. The sideline drop looks like a great aggressive play, but it mostly just hands out free points because it's hard to hit consistently.
I put literally everything I know about the third shot drop into one video, including the footwork, the spin rules, and when to drive instead. So, if you want to really improve your drops, go check it out.👇
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I challenge you to pick one of these three techniques and focus on it for every third shot in your next game.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to your doubles partner!
See you in the next one.
- Shea
