In this blog you will get answer of these questions as you finished this topic about badminton drop shot.Definition,types,Uses,drills and some tips on how to improve your drop shots.

What is Badminton Drop shot?It is a badminton stroke which is played by a player from back of the court to his opponent front net area, and some times players get confused with the concept of drop shot and drops(these are the stroke which is played from front net area to opponent’s front net area).

Types of Badminton drop shot (Forehand and backhand)

• Basic Drop shots (Fast Pace or Slow Pace)
• Slice Drop Shot (Basic Slice and Reverse Slice )
• Deceptive Drop Shot

In badminton to play any kind of drop shot from back of the court racket swing will be same the only thing that is going to change is the angle of your racket face while contacting the shuttle and your wrist movement but position will be same.

Racket pronation for a forehand drop shot

Below is the picture of Lee Chong Wei performing a drop shot in sequence.

(From Left to Right)

Most of backcourt shot body movement is same specially arm pronation only difference hair is the power and contact point coming to technique

Ok so let’s look at the picture here first step is getting ready for shot reach behind the shuttle take offensive stance, and start raising both of your hand as shown in picture 1.

Make sure that your chest is not facing your opponent

Second step shift your body weight on to your dominant leg and take your non racket arm pointing towards Shuttle whereas with racket arm extend it backward as much comfortably as you can because it is going to help you generate power.

Now a question might be in your mind we are playing drops then why would I need that much arm extension? this is because we want to make sure that every shot you are playing looks the same this is the difference between a beginner and a pro player so keep that in mind.

Third step now make contact with shuttle at highest point.

Step 4 follow through.

Backhand Drop shot

Racket swing for a backhand shot in badminton is as follow

Step 1, First thing to do for making a backhand drop shot is hold a proper grip which beginners makes mistake in,

The above picture is an example of how to hold a racket while making a backhand drop shot, as you can notice from the picture that placement of thumb is on side of racket handle and the reason for this is that it provide more room to wrist for making steep and shot and if you will use a basic backhand grip in which whole thumb is placed on handle your racket movement will be limited.

Step 2,After holding the racket with the backhand grip now drop the racket to you back side so that there is gap between your palm and racket, the motive of this is to hold the racket with the fingers and not with your fist.This will help in generating an explosive snap of racket which is important in backhand stroke.

Step 3, The next step is to keep your arm very loose if you are tensing your arm you are not going to be able to hit the backhand shot

Approach Shuttle with dominant leg with your elbow Pointing at birdie and make sure your head of the racket is on your non racket shoulder , as shown in the picture above.

Step 4, Final step is to make contact with the shuttle with a flat racket face and follow through the action.

First is Fast pace drop shot

Definition

When you add speed and angle to your drop shot then it is called fast paced drop shot as you can see in the above diagram shuttle is landing behind the front service line which is the main motive.

Player while playing this shot player always tries to make contact with the shuttle at highest point and sometime using jump also helps in adding more shark angles to those drop shot.

You can see game play of Viktor Axelsen on YouTube he use fast drop shot most of the time to exploit net area of his opponent.

Use Drop shots

If used correctly these shots are very helpful in winning or creating opportunity in rallies.

Let’s understand with the help of an example how you can use a fast pace drop shot to win a rally.

You are having a match against JOHN and after doing some research you came to know that his footwork from base position to net area is slow now as an opponent you can take advantage of this weakness by playing a sharp clear to back Court.

Forcing him to play a loose clear and then after you instead of playing a smash , Jump and play a fast and steep drop shot little bit behind the service line.

Here your opponent might be thinking that you are gonna play a jump smash by looking at your body position and he shift his base position behind Center to get ready keeping his net area more wide open to exploit easily , now a simple fast pace drop shot will win you that rally

How to play a fast badminton drop shot

Grip for badminton drop shot

Hold your racket in a relaxed basic grip. You will need to make sure the racket strings are pointing at the shuttle when you hit it; to make this happen, you’ll probably need to turn your arm inwards slightly.

Do not use a panhandle grip. For most beginners, a panhandle grip feels more natural, Using a panhandle grip will make you hit with a low contact point, and will also cause other problems later.

Technique

• Get yourself behind the shuttle position(when you leave the shuttle it must land before your non racket foot).
• Raise both your arms
• Hit the shuttle with straight racket face by your wrist at the highest point possible
• Follow through

Slow badminton drop shot

Definition

As you have gone through the fast drop shots well in slow drops the player hit the shuttle move slowly and closer to the net so that opponent has to cover more distance than the fast drop shot.

In the above diagram the shuttle is landing before the front service line that is the difference between a fast and slow drop shots.

Use of Slow Drops in matches

As we gone through how you can use a fast drop shot against your opponent now it’s time for a slow drop shot.

If you have some basic knowledge about footwork in badminton you will know that you have to take more step to reach a slow drop shot compared to a fast drop shot.

In simple word you can reach your opponent fast shot even with the single lunge but for a slow short you have to take two steps to return that shot.

So slow drop shot can be effective if you want to make your opponent move more on Court.

Here is an typical example of rally constructed with the help of slow drop shot.

In the video left handed player played a slow drop shot during a fast-paced to create opening for net kill.

So making slow drop shot to opponent net area and quickly rushing towards the net to make a fast shot for changing Pace is a good tactic.

These shots are very effective against tall players , as they are much close to net , it put tall player closer giving you opportunity for attacks.

Be careful in using these shots if you played drop much too slow than your opponent will have time to reach the shuttle , always play shots keeping in mind position of your opponent.

How to play a Slow badminton drop shot

Grip

There is no change in the grip it is same as you hold the racket while playing a fast drop shot(read in fast drop section).

Technique

• Start with an offensive stance keeping your racket foot back and non racket foot forward
• Get yourself behind the shuttle position(when you leave the shuttle it must land before your non racket foot).
• Raise both your arms.( Make 30 degree with your racket arm on your shoulder and Non racket arm is straight)
• Hit the shuttle with straight racket face by whole slow arm pronation at the highest point possible.
• Follow through

Now you have learned what is badminton drop shot, is types and technique after that is the most important concept how to use it during or what is the purpose of it in a match.

Slice Drop Shot

Slice drop shot is an offensive shot where you hit the shuttle in a slicing motion from back of the court to your opponent front service line.

You can fool your opponent by imitating clear or smash action and then playing slice shot and at the last second change the racket motion in into a slicing action to deceive the opponent.

Contact point of slice drop shot is at the possible highest point, hit the shuttle with a sharp and step angle towards at the front side of the opponent’s court.

How to play a Slice drop shot

Movement of racket swing is same as playing a basic drop shot the only difference here is the angle at which you are contacting the shuttle with your racket face with a slicing action

Slice the shuttle at the highest contact point racket face is angled inwards

Slice through the shuttle using about 20-60% power of wrist motion
end your racket swing in front of your Racket foot

Objectives

Help to create smashing opportunities:-

Purpose of drop shot is to make your opponent move from backward to the front Court forcing your opponent to hit shuttle below net level or to lift it, that way you can have the opportunity to gain attack.

The Drop Shot draws your opponent to the front of the court. A good drop could disrupt your opponent’s footwork and by this you can force your opponent to do a short lift and than BAAMM.

Change of pace during game:- This is a popular strategy, when used at the correct time, the Drop can be very deceptive.

The key is to hit the Drop when your opponent expects a Clear or a Smash.

You can then expect your opponent to return a weak shot; hopefully returning the shuttle to your mid court.

Advice for practice

Begin by aiming for the service line while practicing for drops shots, and don’t worry about getting your drop shots to pass close over the net tape.

At this stage you’re learning about how much force to use when you hit the shuttle.

Once this is working, try making the shuttle pass closer over the net tape — say, no more than 30 cm (about a foot).

Don’t try to make it perfect: you need to leave some margin for error.

Although tighter is better, the exact height is not critical for drop shots

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Thank you for reading…….