Hitting a Drop Shot
The drop shot is all about shot selection, court positioning, and deception. Shot selection means hitting the right shot at the right time—that is when your opponent is out of position and not expecting a drop shot. The court position is simple. Don’t try a drop shot from your baseline. From this position, the drop shot has little to no chance of success. The exception to that rule is that older and highly skilled players may be able to hit drop shots at any time from any position on the court. Deception is the fun part. Hitting a drop shot when your opponent expects something else means you are winning the mental game of tennis as well as the physical game.
Be sure to use drop shots occasionally even if it means losing a point. The drop shot warns your opponent that you have an arsenal of shots and that you are not afraid to use all of them. Just like other strokes and their variations, the drop shot gives you one more option, and for your opponents, one more problem. In tennis, there are great rewards for being deceptive.