What is a drop shot?

• The drop shot is a ball struck with underspin and a soft touch that takes all the speed off an incoming shot and delivers is over the net so short that the opponent has difficulty sprinting from the baseline to retrieve it.
• It is designed to make the ball land short in the deuce or ad court of an opponent so it will bounce 2 to 3 times inside the service court.
• This shot forces the opponent to sprint forward to the net in an attempt to retrieve this no-pace ball – on the dead run.
• The sender of the shot moves forward into the court as well to cut off any attempted drop shot back while reducing the angles available by the person running the shot down.

What is the best surface to use a drop shot on?

Clay courts and grass courts are the best surface to use a drop shot on but it is being used more on the hard court as well by all level players.

4 Times to use the drop shot:

1. Against opponents that stand deep behind the baseline.
2. If the opponent is pulled wide off the court and out of balance.
3. To change the rhythm in a point.
4. Great shot to use to fatigue and opponent by bringing them to the net then lobbing over their head, forcing a lot of vertical court coverage.

It is not a good idea to drop shot when:

• The ball is deep in your court.
• The ball is struck particularly hard at you.
• The opponent is near of inside their baseline and in a balanced position.

Who on the pro tour best utilizes the drop shot?

• Fabrice Santoro
• Andy Murray
• Roger Federer

How to best defend against the drop shot?

1. Keep your opponent deep in their backcourt.
2. Keep the ball high as well as deep.
3. Play closer to the baseline to reduce the space you have to protect against the drop shot.

Best Drills to work on the drop shot?

1. Stand near the service line  and have someone feed you a soft short ball and you try to drop it over the net with enough underspin to make it bounce 2-3 times inside the feeders service court.
2. Put a basket or target half way between the service line and net.  When you partner feeds you the ball you try to drop in into the basket with backspin of either your forehand or backhand side.
3. When warming up with short court tennis, use the drop shot to keep the ball in play and slow down the rally so you can “feel” the ball and get a lot of shots in play so you can warm up.
4. The drop shot also will help you develop a chip shot, slice shot, spin volley, return of serve and a defensive shot to keep you in points when out of position.

Conclusion:

The drop shot is a “must have” shot for beginner and intermediate level players who wish to defeat players with “pretty” strokes and more experience.

It is the perfect shot for high school players who are playing on a team for the first time and do not have consistent deep strokes.

It is also a keeper for club players who want to keep their opponents off balance.  It is an important shot to grow your tennis game and add new “weapons of mass confusion” for your opponent.

It is used more and more by the professionals and advanced players as an option to just keeping the ball deep and allowing the opponent to run side to side for shots.

It is considered one of the “ugly” shots in tennis – mostly by the opponent who has to try and continually run it down in their matches.  Add the drop shot to your game to become a winner at your level of play.

Personal Note:

As an all-court player, I use the drop shot to keep my opponent off guard and destroy any rhythm they might be trying to establish.  I use it often as an approach shot against strong baseliners.  It works great against players who are slow afoot or ones I am trying to fatigue. I also use it to bring baseliners to the net where they feel uncomfortable and then lob over the head.

Like most shots it will take practice and time – but it can become one of your weapons of choice in situations.

Ken DeHart
PTR & USPTA Master Professional
USA High Performance Coach
Wilson Premier Advisory Staff

Photo Credits: JCtennis.com

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Lessons and Clinics as a Boomer Tennis Player

1. Find a certified tennis professional – Trust your investment and game improvement to a tennis professional who has been tested and demonstrated the basics of quality tennis instruction. Try a lesson or clinic to see if you connect with the pro’s teaching style.
2. Take instruction with a friend – That way you have two people remembering what the pro suggested to improve your game. You also have a built-in practice partner with whom you can share experiences, learn drills and practice techniques that can work specifically on your game.
3. Begin your “success journal” – Take notes about what you learned in your lessons or clinics. Write ideas down in your own words reviewing the key ideas to help retain what you learned. When you go to practice, look at your notes so you can approach practice with a game plan. Write what you learned from your practice in your success journal so you are constantly building upon your base of tennis knowledge.
4. Build a 3 tiered approach to practice – Develop a base of tennis friends that allows you to practice and play against players who are weaker than you (to try out your new skills), the same level as you (to measure your improvement), and players of higher skills (to see what you need to add to your game). It is important to play against all 3 tiers if you are to become a complete player.
5. Join a league or team – Doing so will give you a wider base of practice partners and competitive opponents. A league will give you weekly matches against players you do not know. A team provides a base of players with a variety of skills to practice against as well a support system for your ups and downs of your tennis game-improvement.
6. Make a commitment – You did not get successful in your pre-boomer years without continuing education and a commitment to excellence in your career. Take weekly lessons or clinics and practice. Invest time and money in learning TENNIS – a game for a lifetime.

Photo Credits: Pat Groves

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Improve your tennis game.

1. A 5 minute warm up is a must.

• 20 jumping jacks – Puts you on the balls of your feet and stretches out the body.
• 20 alley shuffles – Start in the alley and side-shuffle across the doubles, then singles side lines, until you have crossed a line 20 times.
• 20 quick feet – Step over a line with your right foot then the left rapidly. Each time the right foot crosses the line counts as 1, repeat until you reach 20 quick feet steps.
• 20 helicopters – Extend your arms out shoulder high. Pivot off your right then left foot as your arms swing side to side like helicopter blades.
• 20 practice swings – Go through all your ground strokes, volleys, overheads and serves 20 times to get your body ready to play.

2. Serve into the fence or wall.

Practice serving against a practice wall or even better, into the fence on the court.

• Focus on your technique as you go through your service motion. By serving into the fence while standing on the singles side line, the ball will most of the time come back to you. Therefore you will need only a few balls to practice your serves.
• Next stand on the baseline and face the back fence. Now practice serving into the back fence having created a little more space between you and your target.
• Next stand on the deuce court service line and serve cross court into the opposite deuce service court (you can add a challenge by putting 3-4 balls in the opposite service court to divide it in half – therefore creating a left and right target).
• Now serve halfway between the service line and the baseline with the same challenges.
• Finally, go to the baseline and serve into the opposite service court with the focus still more on the technique than power.

3. Practice with a ball machine – with a purpose.

• Have a remote control or limit the number of balls in the machine to about 50 or 75 balls (most ball machines hold about 2-300 balls – way to many to hit at one time effectively).
• Have a target (one of the 4 squares on the court on the opposite side of the net).
• Focus on control of the depth and spin on the ball rather than power. Your game will improve when you learn not to lose before your opponent does.
• Any balls that do not make it over the net becomes balls that you serve over the net so you practice ground strokes or volleys and serves.
• When you pick up the balls – do wide based squats for each ball you pick up. Personal trainers will have you do squats and lunges to improve your strength and flexibility, so get your work out in while picking up the balls.

4. Use the time between points to your advantage.

• Following a point, you need to return the balls on your side of the court to your opponent so they can serve to start the next point. Use that time when you return the ball to the opponent to practice your forehand or backhand.
• Do a “drop & hit” with correct technique to give the ball to your opponent.
• This can be an “eraser” shot – to erase the feeling of the shot you just missed or a “builder” shot – to add to your successful feeling of hitting the perfect shot.
• You will typically return 80 or more balls in a match to your opponent so they can serve to you. That is 80 chances to erase or build your own strokes.

5. Beat the wall.

A practice wall is the perfect partner. It never gets tired, never talks back and gives you what you give it.

• Use a low compression ball or punch a hole in a regular ball so the rebound off the wall is not so fast as to destroy your technique.
• Set a number of balls you intend to rally off your forehand, backhand or volley’s.
• You can also serve against the wall then rally or move in closer to volley.
• Attempt to use complete swing paths and avoid punching or shortening follow throughs on your strokes.

Photo Credits: Pauline K.

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Tennis Practice

Cindy Lopper sung a song “Girls Just Wanta Have Fun”.  The same is true for adults.  They play tennis because they “Just Wanta Have Fun”.  They take lessons for the same reason.  As a tennis professional you have to know how adults learn so they can have fun.  Lets take a look at some of these key elements:

1. Experience is how they learn best. They want to know how but mostly they want to do it.  Get them involve in doing quickly.
2. They learn when they see a need. Determine what their goals are and capitalize on their desire to meet that goal. Be positive with them and encourage them to step outside the box.
3. Self directed learning is the best. Don’t tell them what you know, help them learn how they best learn and how they can direct their own learning about the game. Provide feedback so they can adjust their actions.
4. Age and experience are key factors in how, when and why they learn. Adjust your teaching to where they are in their life and learning style.
5. “Just like” - because of their experiences they can pick up on things that are just like other things they already do in life and work.  Help them see how they already know how to.

Not everyone learns the same way and adults often learn different from children.  Be aware of teaching to the needs and level of your students not just how you like to teach.

Photo Credits: yonghokim

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5 things NOT to do when using a ball machine:

1. Do not place the ball machine only on the baseline in the center of the court
2. Do not have the ball machine oscillate only from deuce court to ad court
3. Do not use the ball machine to practice only your ground strokes
4. Do not stand still after each of your shots
5. Do not return random shots of the in-coming ball

5 things TO consider doing when using a ball machine:

1. Place the ball machine off center where the opponent might be when making a shot
2. Have the ball machine direct the shots where the opponent might hit based upon their position on the court or particular tendencies of a know opponent
3. If you wish to have the ball machine oscillate, have it direct he ball within the options available if it were playing from that position in a rally.
4. After each shot recover to a new position on the court based upon where you place your return of the ball then recover quickly based upon where the next ball is coming from the ball machine.
5. Direct each ball you receive back toward an intended target. Aim for a direction and depth using the appropriate spin as you send the ball back over the net.

There are many options to consider in planning your practice to improve the quality and effectiveness of you practice time with the ball machine.

5 things to consider when PLANNING your practice:

1. Getting advice from someone on how to adjust the ball machine and how to vary deliveries of the ball
2. The length of time you want to practice – half an hour or an hour based upon your goals, shots you wish to work on and conditioning level
3. Having a friend join in with you to practice volleys off your ground strokes, lobbing off your volleys when at the net or alternating hitting after a certain number of shots or pattern has been completed.
4. It also helps when it comes time to pick up the balls when the machine is empty so you can spend more time hitting.  That may include taking turns putting balls in the machine while either of you are hitting then rotating turns. Consider serving all the balls that did not make it over the net when you do have to pause to pick up the balls to work on your serve as part of your practice.
5. Write down drills you create or ask your tennis professional to suggest some drills that would be good for your singles game.

10 options to make your PRACTICE PRACTICAL:

1. Select real singles targets using the 4 squares on the opposite side of the net.  Square 1 is the deuce service court, square 2 is the space behind the deuce service court, square 3 is the space behind the ad service court and square 4 is the ad service court. This will help you with the direction and depth of your intended target and make your practice more practical.
2. Even though the ball machine is set to send the ball to you as a ground stroke, practice moving forward after your initial shot to play a half-volley and then moving in further to play a volley or two.
3. As you play shots moving in toward the net, select targets for direction and depth that you would actually use if your opponent were on the baseline where the ball machine is located and your were attempting to capture the net.
4. When you get to the net, recover back quickly and retreat back toward the baseline as though you were put on total defense by your opponent.  Pause to make a shot from your position and then retreat further back until you choose to advance forward again.
5. Vary the speed of your shots.  Use the 3 speeds mentioned in other articles: level 1 is slower and has lots of spin, level 2 is a rally speed and level 3 is as hard as you can hit – without missing.
6. Vary the spin of your shots.  Use varying degrees of topspin and underspin to improve your weapons in match play.
7. Vary the frequency of the shots delivered by the ball machine.  Allow little time between shots or too much time like an opponent who plays softly and slowly with their returns.
8. Vary the spin of the shots delivered by the ball machine to help you learn how to receive different shots that may be difficult for you in your matches.
9. Limit the number of shots you make without pausing.  Hitting 3oo balls in a row just because that is how many the ball machine holds is not effective not efficient practice.  After about 40 or 50 balls, use the remote and turn off the machine and reset some feature of the ball you are receiving – change the direction of the in-coming ball, speed, spin or depth of the ball.
10. Change your targets often.  Practice enough returns to specific targets until you feel comfortable with that target then move on to a new target that demonstrates your ability to control the direction, depth, spin and speed of your returning shot.

Ask your tennis professional to use a ball machine in your next lesson to see how it can be used effectively in your practice session.  Ball machines are great ways to permit repetition in receiving particular balls and learning a response to that ball.  Ball machines also assist in developing confidence in your strokes so you can use them in match play without having to think about “how” to hit.  This will allow you to focus more on the strategy of “where” to direct your shots and enjoy playing the game – TENNIS.

by Ken DeHart
USA High Performance Coach
PTR & USPTA Master Professional

Photo Credits: shortCHINESEguy

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Tennis Ball Machine

Ball machines are great for practicing your doubles shots – if positioned correctly.

5 things NOT to do when using a ball machine:

1. Do not place the ball machine on the baseline in the center of the court
2. Do not have the ball machine oscillate from deuce court to ad court
3. Do not use the ball machine to practice only your ground strokes
4. Do not stand still after each of your shots
5. Do not return random shots of the in-coming ball

5 things TO consider doing when using a ball machine:

1. Place the ball machine in the deuce court near the singles side line
2. Have the ball machine direct the shots to your deuce court alley
3. If you wish to have the ball machine oscillate, have it direct the ball to your deuce court alley and then toward the center service mark in the deuce court as though you were pulled wide to return a shot and the next ball was directed up the middle to your center of the court.
4. After each shot recover to a new position on the court to keep your feet in motion simulating real match play
5. Direct each ball you receive back toward an intended target. Aim for a direction and depth as you send the ball back over the net.

There are many options to consider in planning your practice to improve the quality and effectiveness of you practice time with the ball machine.

5 things to consider when PLANNING your practice:

1. Getting advice from someone on how to adjust the ball machine and how to vary deliveries of the ball
2. The length of time you want to practice – half an hour or an hour based upon your goals, shots you wish to work on and conditioning level
3. Having a friend join in with you to practice volleys off your ground strokes or lobbing off your volleys when at the net.  They can even practice poaching on every other shot that comes out of the ball machine and you can practice switching after the poach.
4. It also helps when it comes time to pick up the balls when the machine is empty so you can spend more time hitting.  That may include taking turns putting balls in the machine while either of you are hitting then rotating turns. Consider serving all the balls that did not make it over the net when you do have to pause to pick up the balls to work on your serve as part of your practice.
5. Write down drills you create or ask your tennis professional to suggest some drills that would be good for your doubles game.

10 options to make your PRACTICE PRACTICAL:

1. Select real doubles targets:  deep cross court to square #2, short underspin or heavy short angle shots to square #1, down the line toward the net players alley or lobbing high and deep to square #3 over the opposing net players head.
2. Even though the ball machine is set to send the ball to you as a ground stroke, practice moving forward after your initial shot to play a half-volley and then moving in further to play a volley or two.
3. As you play shots moving in toward the net, select targets for direction and depth that you would actually use if your opponent were on the baseline where the ball machine is located and your were attempting to capture the net.
4. When you get to the net, recover back quickly and retreat back toward the baseline as though you were put on total defense by your opponent.  Pause to make a shot from your position and then retreat further back until you choose to advance forward again.
5. Vary the speed of your shots.  Use the 3 speeds mentioned in other articles: level 1 is slower and has lots of spin, level 2 is a rally speed and level 3 is as hard as you can hit – without missing.
6. Vary the spin of your shots.  Use varying degrees of topspin and underspin to improve your weapons in match play.
7. Vary the frequency of the shots delivered by the ball machine.  Allow little time between shots or too much time like an opponent who plays softly and slowly with their returns.
8. Vary the spin of the shots delivered by the ball machine to help you learn how to receive different shots that may be difficult for you in your matches.
9. Limit the number of shots you make without pausing.  Hitting 3oo balls in a row just because that is how many the ball machine holds is not effective not efficient practice.  After about 40 or 50 balls, use the remote and turn off the machine and reset some feature of the ball you are receiving – change the direction of the in-coming ball, speed, spin or depth of the ball.
10. Change your targets often.  Practice enough returns to specific targets until you are confident with that target then move on to a new target that demonstrates your ability to control the direction, depth, spin and speed of your returning shot.

Ask your tennis professional to use a ball machine in your next lesson to see how it can be used effectively in your practice session.  Ball machines are great ways to allow you repetition in learning how to hit a shot.  They also assist in developing confidence in your strokes so you can play them in match play without having to think about “how” to hit.  This will allow you to focus more on the strategy of “where” to direct your shots and enjoy playing the game – TENNIS.

by Ken DeHart
USA High Performance Coach
PTR & USPTA Master Professional

Photo Credits: arsandy.wordpress.com

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Win the warm up.

1. Introduce yourselves to your opponents.
2. Spin the racquet before beginning the warm up so you will be on the correct side when warming up and know the serving order as to who will serve first, second and so on.
3. Immediately be the one who “spins” the racquet to decides who will have 1 of the 4 options (don’t spin the racquet on the ground as it often takes too long, scratches the end of the grip when it falls to the ground and depending upon how it is picked up the racquet you can control the be “up” or “down” call. Just spin the racquet in your hand with the butt of the racquet toward your waist until they make their call, “up” or “down” then show them the butt of the racquet to see who won the spin.
4. If the opponents win the “spin” and choose to serve, make them serve from the sunny side of the court first and prepare to lob them a lot during the first game of the match.
5. In the warm up, the first server for each team will take a lot of practice serves as they will begin the offense for their teams initially. The third and fourth servers will take a lot of overheads, a few serves and focus on returning the servers as the first two servers warm up. This is important as the third and fourth servers will play several games before serving and have opportunities to be warmed up before actually being called upon to serve. However they can play an important part of their teams success by focusing on returning well early in the match.

You and your partner need to have a plan before the match starts. This gives you confidence and a purpose for what happens early in the match.

Photo Credits: GeoNando

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5. 7 Tips to practicing the lob

1. Practice tossing the ball up, letting it bounce then directing the lob to a 9 foot by 9 foot area in the corner of the court near the baseline and sideline.

2. Practice tossing the ball up and away from you so you have to run wide or back up to lob to a 9’x9’ target near either alley and the baseline.

3. Have a friend feed you a deep slow high ball and you attempt to lob to your deep targets.

4. Have a friend feed you a wide or deep challenging ball that you must run down and place into your deep targets.

5. Have a friend serve to you from both the deuce court and ad court while you practice lobbing the return into the deep targets near the baseline

6. Have two friends play against you. One serves form the deuce court baseline while the other one is at the net. You practice returning serves deep over the net players head to the targets. This forces the server to retreat to track the lob down and play the ball to your half of the doubles court. Repeat form the ad court as well.

7. Remember – when you can’t see the sun – they can – lob into the sun! You will see the difference – they will see the sun.

Photo Credits: 1

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They say practice makes perfect. I say “perfect practice makes perfect.” Practice is just the first thing you have to keep in mind when you’re aiming for that win on the court. This begs the question then on how do you improve your practice? Look to the four tips below as a place to start:

1. Create a roadmap for success with the “The 5 W’s”

• Who – would use these skills
• What – are the skills needed
• Where – would these skills be executed
• When – would you use these skills
• Why – would you choose to use these skills

2. Vocabulary tips to create a “Common Language”

• 3 Speeds – level 1 slow and spinny, level 2 rally speed and level 3 as hard as you can hit without a miss
• 7 Targets – the 4 squares on the court and serving to A B C – alley, body or center
• 10-12 Steps between each shot – the average for the pros
• 5 Tactical Priorities – in play, direction, depth. spin & speed
• Paying Attention to Tension – on a scale of 1-5, play at level 2 or 3
• Paying Attention to Attention – on a scale of 1-10, compete at 8, 9 or 10
• Watching vs Seeing – 3 tips to seeing the ball – the spin on the ball, the shadow or count as you contact
• 3 kinds of underspins – drop shot, chip shot & slice
• 3 kinds of topspin – drive, loop & lob

3. The “Thrill, Drill & Skill” or the “Skill, Drill & Thrill?”

• 3 Doubles Games to improve the Thrill of competition

1. Attack
2. Getto Tennis
3. Doubles my way

• 3 Singles Games to improve the Thrill of competition

1. 3 to win a major
2. 7 up
3. 1 point – king of the court

• 2 Drills to Improve Doubles Skills

1. The doubles dance – ow to move when you are the server’s partner and the receiver’s partner
2. Knock out – compete cross court on a half court, lose the point and your knocked out and someone else comes in to play against you

• 2 Drills to Improve Singles Skills

1. I’ll take that shot – knowing when to go for a change of direction shot
2. How long can you last – set a target number to rally for before you can try to win the point

• 2 Skills for Improved Doubles Play

1. Double touch volleys – must touch the ball up in the air then play the shot
2. Doubles by hand – no racquets only use the hands to play

• 2 Skills for Improved Singles Play

1. Level 1-2-3 – the speed a player can use to play out the point and decide on a speed for the opponent to use against them
2. 12 step and level 2 of 5 for tension – determine the # of steps a player can use to play out the point and the grip tension they must use to play out the point

4. Wining in Practice – the benefits of altered play

• Playing the score – create scores that a player would face in a match to create pressure in practice
• Situational Tactics – control play by dictating the style a player must play against or use in practice

1. Doubles
2. Singles

Photo Credits: 1

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Doubles Situations

1. The receiving team must lob the return of serve and try to take the net at least twice in each game. This is especially effective when the serving team is serving into the sun.
2. The serving team must play out of the “I” formation or Australian formation.  Get use to using the formations so you will have confidence to use them in a match as well as experiencing how to return against the formations.
3. The receiving team starts with both players back. This takes the pressure off the receiver to make a great return to avoid getting their partner killed by the poaching player of fast charging net player
4. The serving team starts both players on the baseline. This formation helps when the receiver is killing the net player because they cannot volley or the serves are too weak.

Singles Situations

1. Players must serve, return and rally 6 balls cross court before the point can begin.  Serve to the deuce court and rally deuce court then serve to the ad court and rally ad court cross court.  Keep score like in a regular match.
2. Player serves and rally out the point.  If the ball lands inside the service line the striker loses the point.  You can also play that the short ball requires the receiver of the short ball to go to the net to play out the point.
3. “3 to win a major” – (with 3 players) one player will serve 3 points.  If the server or receiver wins all 3 points they win a “major point”.  If they win 2 of the 3 points they stay on the court and a third player comes on to replace the person who lost the 1 point and a new game is played. If they win 1 of the 3 they are the one replaced by the third player who will now play 3 points against the player who stayed on the court.  This stresses the difficulty in winning 3 points in a row.  (*when the score is 30-love there is an 80% chance the person with the lead will lose the next point and 65% chance they will lose the 4^th point as well).
4. “3 to win a major” – (with 2 players) one player serves and tries to win 3 points in a row to win a game.  If the receiver wins the point, they become the server and have 1 point while the former server loses all their points and starts at zero again.  Players keep games won and play out a set.

Situational scoring and match play can help to focus on specific skills necessary to improve ones tactical and mental approach to the game.  They also make great coaching opportunities. The shortened scoring and sets make great challenge match format that can be completed in a short period of time.

This form of altered play helps to make practice exciting and more challenging so players stay focused and do not experience “mindless” practice.  They get use to specific situations and proper responses to the score or situation so they play with a “been there before” confidence in actual match play.

Photo Credits: 1

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