Defending the Drop Shot from the Odd and Even Courts

In yesterday's post, we discussed the technique of returning a third-shot drop with a topspin volley. Deb Harrison has 2 more videos showing the strategies of defending the drop shot from specific spots on the court - the odd (left) side and the even (right) side of the court. The concepts of these are similar so they will be discussed together. The videos are called 3rd Shot Drop Defense from Odd Court and 3rd Shot Drop Defense from Even Court.

The general concept of these shots is to hit to space, at feet, or the line of doubt. The shots can be made with a volley when the ball is in the air or with a groundstroke when the ball bounces. They can also be made with either a backhand or a forehand. In all cases, the targets remain the same, but the techniques vary. The 3 targets consist of the crosscourt front corner, down the middle, and down the sideline.

Crosscourt Front Corner

Down the Middle

Down the Line

The point of these specific shots is that they serve a purpose. The goal of these shots is to get the opponents out of their comfort zone.

As mentioned above, the technique of the shot must differ in order to hit the target in widely different parts of the court. Some of the differences from the forehand side are shown below.

Crosscourt front corner               Down the middle                          Down the line

The crosscourt shot requires a very open paddle laid back to redirect the ball from the angle it was hit. The down the middle shot requires a slightly open paddle face (or the wrist flick over the top as described in yesterday's post) with a swing more parallel to the net. The down the line shot requires a closed and over the top the top paddle face with the paddle face pointed toward the sideline.

Similarly, there are differences from the backhand side.

Crosscourt front corner               Down the middle                          Down the line

The crosscourt shot requires a open paddle that slices the ball. The down the middle shot requires a slightly open paddle face (or the wrist flick over the top as described in yesterday's post) with a swing more parallel to the net to poke the ball straight forward. The down the line shot requires an inside-out swing pointed toward the sideline.

The following video shows the above shots and techniques from the odd (left) side.

The same targets are suggested from the even (right) court. The techniques are very similar but not identical to those from the odd court. I won't post pictures of those as the pictures do not show the subtle differences as well as they are described in the videos. Deb is clear that the skill sets are different for each side of the court. (That is one reason that stacking is becoming more prevalent.) Therefore, it is recommended that both videos be studied in order to understand the differences.