When your team has captured the net and your opponents (or at least one opponent) are at the baseline, it is usually very wise to keep them back with deep, hard driving volleys until eventually you hit a winner or they make a mistake.
However, it is also smart to sometimes do the unexpected because it will catch them off guard, get you an easy point, and keep them guessing for points to come.
In today’s video, we’re going to be talking about the drop off of a drive.
Typically when you’re up at the non-volley zone line and you’re receiving a drive, you’re going to want to keep that person/opponent back. You’re going to want to hit firm volleys back deep.
Alternate Option – Drop Volley
However, there are instances where you’re going to want to hit a drop.
For example, let’s assume that me or my teammate pushed our opponents (or one of our opponent’s) deep or way off to the side. This puts him in a really bad position and he’s expecting that we’re going to run him again on that next one.
You really want to set it up so that you have them thinking that you’re going to drive that ball deep again but instead of that, we’re going to hit a drop shot.
Very often, that ends up being a clean winner because your opponents are so committed already to having to chase a difficult ball down either left, right or back that all their momentum is leaning to that side or back.
They’re really bracing themselves for an attack, not to have to do a full-on dead sprint forward.
So, this is specifically what you’re going to do in that instance where you feel that they are 100 percent expecting you to hit it deep and hard again. You’re going to want to trick them and drop it short when they least expect it.
Live Demo
*see video at top of post*
We’re going to execute/demo that. We will talk about it right now on the forehand side.
If my opponent rips it at me, I’m going to basically stick my paddle out, try to get a little lower. The really important part is to put that racket out and just kind of receive it a little. You receive the ball and you want to absorb some pace off of it so that it just drops over the net.
It takes a lot of touch and it’s a very subtle move. There’s really not a lot going on.
You have to feel it and just somewhat move forward with your body. But, at the same time, you’re kind of retracting your paddle back as you move in to it.
Here we go… Jordan is going to rip some at my forehand.
You really want to try to land that as short in the kitchen as possible. You’re going to have to have some arc on it and a little bit of backspin to keep that ball low.
That’s how we do a drop off the drive and you want to use it again when they’re not expecting that and they have all their weight committed to be going in a different direction.
When you are sure that they are expecting yet another driving shot that will keep them back then it’s a good idea to mix in the drop volley.
Often, it will be a clean winner. The last thing they will expect when bracing themselves for an attack is to have to do a full sprint forward.
Happy Pickeling!
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