While watching the AE 2004 finals, I noticed that P.Gade almost never dropped straight from backcourt and went cross 90% of the time. I've heared that straight drops are suppose to be used more common than cross drops, but why would Gade use so many cross drops? Is this strategy more usefull vs fast players like lin dan or is it more generally used?
depends on 1) how accurate and consistantly 'in' your cross is 2) how sharp your cross is 3) the pace of your cross shot 4) how able and willing are you to run the longest distance (ie corner to corner) in the event of a perfect net reply/interception jug
there was a similar discussion a while ago about Gade's drop shots I can't remember whether the game was against Hendrawan or Ji Xinpeng
Might just have been the tactic that Gade and his coach thought would work for him against whoever he was playing and it might have a higher percentage to force an error to give away the half court lift for a smash.
