Mastering The Drop Return

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by magiadam, Mar 14, 2006.

  1. magiadam

    magiadam Regular Member

    Joined:
    Nov 27, 2005
    Messages:
    80
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Montreal, Quebec, Canada
    Hi,

    I'm 16 years old, and I'm having trouble beating someone who has no good smashes but has a midcourt clear and very good drop shots. His footwork is pretty good.

    Whenever I'd clear, he'd mostly drop. Everytime I'd drop, he'd mostly drop back. I have problems with dropping where he would drop really short and I'd drop too far or too high and then he'd have me in trouble.

    When he'd clear, I'd drop and then he dropped. When I'm running to the bird, I tend to give it away. How do I make the bird really low and short?

    Do I cut straight as if I was poking the bird to put a little spin? Or instead just clear all his drops?

    Thanks.
     
  2. dkroft

    dkroft Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 13, 2006
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    student
    Location:
    Rochester, NY, USA
    Practice your drop shots, just the finesse. I might be wrong, but I think you can get more control if you DON'T hit with the sweet spot.

    In the meantime, it's not a bad idea to clear his drops, especially if you have a good smash. He'll drop, you'll clear it behind him, he has to run back to hit it with a clear and probably will not make it a very good shot, so you'll be able to smash much of the time. Of course, this advantage will wear off if you use it every time, so definitely work on the drops.
     
  3. CarrotLegs

    CarrotLegs Regular Member

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2005
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    3
    Location:
    Canada
    If he likes to do drops or netshots and has a bad clear(baseline to midcourt?) you should just play farther up and cheat a little. If you have good footwork, you will probably get to the bird when he clears in midcourt for an offensive shot. If he keeps dropping u should keep lift to the back corners and tire him out or make him make a mistake. If you see him trying to cheat and predicting your shots u can do a netshot then or change the pattern according to ur liking.
    If you want to do low net shots, you gotta practice practice and train. Alot of people do different kinds of netshots but i find that my fingers control the height and altitude of the netshot for me.
     
  4. Eurasian =--(O)

    Eurasian =--(O) Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2004
    Messages:
    1,158
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    aujerbajan
    2 words. preloading jump, do a search in these forums you should get lots of information.

    preloading jump is the little hop you do before moving to your destination in badminton and is essentially the key to good footwork.
     
  5. theasiandude88

    theasiandude88 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2004
    Messages:
    349
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    student YAY!!!
    Location:
    Monterey Park
    hmm... my former coach always told me to do something like this, but i never understood why. it only made me tired and slower, but now i think i understand why he told me to do it now :cool:
     
  6. LongReach

    LongReach Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2006
    Messages:
    399
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Electronics Tech, Badminton Junkie!
    Location:
    Melbourne Australia

    Try lifting his drops and advoid doing a drop back to him.......if he clears...you clear back.......drop only occasionally, say 1 in 10 clears/lifts you receive.

    Lift more of his dropshots.............return drop occasionally.

    Your opponent seems to want to take you to the net as he gets most of his points that way..........don't play his game and get into a 'drop shot duel'.

    Play a more defencive game.......if his smash is not good like you said ..............then lift/clear as far back as you can. By doing this his weak smash is more useless!.......and his drops have to travel further to the net......thus giving you more time to see a drop from him coming.

    But you must really pressure him to the back court.......because from what you have said 'He can only clear half court and has a slow smash' Well that leave only a few shots he is good at.....mainly his drop.

    Use these tactics. Play more clears and lifts. play less overhead drops and net drops. Every time you yourself drop, it will be more of a suprise as you are clearing and lifting almost everything.

    Practice your drops.....it seems like the weak part of you game and you opponent knows that.
    Practice doing drops.......not while you are actually playing a game.

    Producing 'killer drops' is very skillfull and anyone who can do them well...........would have practiced to get that good......so you should practice it if you want to get good at them.
     
  7. DivingBirdie

    DivingBirdie Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 22, 2005
    Messages:
    972
    Likes Received:
    4
    Occupation:
    student
    Location:
    Singapore

    personally i have seen differing methods on cutting a net drop. some videos taught of slicing it with a flat racket face. not exactly slice, but 搓球。 however, i've seen a coach telling to cut the bird with the racket slightly slanted at an angle. for me, i slice with a slight angle on my racket head.

    also, it is impossible to 'just clear all his drops'. you need to judge for yourself whether a clearing or dropping return will put you in a better position, considering factors like where he's standing/moving towards. never make it a habit to always 'clear all his drops'
     
  8. LongReach

    LongReach Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2006
    Messages:
    399
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Electronics Tech, Badminton Junkie!
    Location:
    Melbourne Australia

    That is for sure.
     
  9. xkenji

    xkenji Regular Member

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2006
    Messages:
    73
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Toronto
    With what you said, he cant smash well, clear well and only has drops, so you only have to cover the front half of the court, use mostly clears and he'll either clear it back to mid court and you can easily smash or drop to make him run, if he drops it drop it back to him or clear it and soon enough you will get the point, he'll get tired from running and you will have alot of free smashes
     
  10. Cancelok

    Cancelok Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2009
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    student
    Location:
    East Coast USA
    If would be helpful if you mentioned whether you were playing with feather or synthetic birdies. feather birdies tend to drop faster and slow down faster, synthetics tend to clear easier. It sounds like you're playing with feathers.

    Although this is normally a doubles tactic, I would suggest trying a few drives on him. If you hit flat, shallow drives, so that he has to hit an underhand, he will probably clear or drive back instead of dropping. Underhand drops are slower and less steep and generally easier to return.
     
  11. dubber

    dubber Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2008
    Messages:
    79
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Electrician
    Location:
    Sweden
    trying to drop at the net as you describe is for me the hardest shot to play decent so i mostly clear instead or try to drop cross court since its easier to get it low to the net but with the drawback of crossing mid net wich gives your opponent time.

    But as you said that he doesnt have a good smash why dont you just clear it and take move youre base position a little closer to net since he likes to drop it. Only try to move a little closer if your confident in your clear so you can do it with a little worse positioning.
     
  12. blindfury

    blindfury Regular Member

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2006
    Messages:
    698
    Likes Received:
    4
    Location:
    Toronto
    i know exactly what you're up against, i've played many of those good drops players before (mostly experience players, who do VERY good drops, anticipate well, but lack in drives or power plays).

    try this, don't lift high to him, when you're receiving serve, push to sides past front person, or force THEM to lift by a short shot up the net. most important thing is stand your ground in offensive position (you in front and partner in back, be confident to rush the net).

    on another hand, your partner is obligated to back your ass when in offensive position, the rest of the rear courts are all his, if your front play is good and limit where the opponents can return to, your partner should be able to handle it.
     
  13. -Berg

    -Berg Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2008
    Messages:
    320
    Likes Received:
    59
    Location:
    Earth
    dont flick wrist if you really want to counter a drop with a tight, killing netshot. just raise your arm naturally slowly. then the birdie will go smooth, so close at the net. wrist flick makes your drop return tend to fly a little further which your opponent wishing for to do a kill then

    thats if you want to force a netplay. but i agree with people above me, just lift his drop to the backline, crosscourtly so he'll run out of stamina faster and you have time to read his next drop's and kill the shuttle immediately
     
  14. Destricto_Ense

    Destricto_Ense Regular Member

    Joined:
    Nov 13, 2008
    Messages:
    1,229
    Likes Received:
    1
    Occupation:
    Student
    Location:
    Ireland.
    Hold your shot a little longer, and then as he's approaching the net, having anticipated a dropshot, flick it back to one of the corners. Peter Gade is particularly good at doing this.
     
  15. druss

    druss Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,685
    Likes Received:
    37
    Location:
    Edmonton, AB
    There are a lot of factors here that will affect what you do. For instance, do you have very good footwork? How high is the shuttle when you make contact?

    I usually change up my tactics in the game which is as much mental as physical. For guys that like to drop and have little power I will typically get them into a push/drive match and make them move around. In my experience, guys who drop a lot do it to slow the pace of the game down, especially against power players.

    Another tactic is to keep clearing, which is a higher percentage shot than dropping from the back is, regardless of how good you are at them. Eventually, he'll do 1 of a few things. Try to clear, do a bad drop shot, or start to cheat to the back. Either way you've changed the game to one you can play.
     
  16. Gollum

    Gollum Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2003
    Messages:
    4,642
    Likes Received:
    298
    Location:
    Surrey, UK
    Constantly lifting your opponent's drops, in singles, is generally a bad idea. It means that he hardly has to move from the rearcourt, whereas you have to keep sallying back-and-forth from the rear midcourt into the net.

    The result is that you will be under tremendous movement pressure, and he will be under no movement pressure at all. So you will lose.

    I'm not saying a lift is always bad in this situation, but your "standard" choice should be a net shot. This will put you in a good position, ready for the next shot, while he is forced to charge into the net.

    You can read more about this idea in my singles tactics guide, on the page about net shots.
     
  17. druss

    druss Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,685
    Likes Received:
    37
    Location:
    Edmonton, AB
    While you're right that constantly lifting is a bad idea in singles, if you had read his first post you'd see this is specifically for an opponent who can drop but only had a mid court clear. In this situation a clear is the right shot IMO. Either the opponent will drop again, which you can cheat a little on, or he'll only do a mid court clear, which you can smash.
     
  18. Gollum

    Gollum Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2003
    Messages:
    4,642
    Likes Received:
    298
    Location:
    Surrey, UK
    Whoops, that does rather change things, yes. Given that information, I would tend to agree with you about lifting to this opponent.

    However, it's not as cut-and-dried as you might think. If he has very good drop shots, you can be reduced to scrambling from one side of the net to the other.

    There's a practice routine where one player, the "feeder", constantly lifts straight while the other hits cross-court drops. Have you ever tried this? It's surprisingly hard work for the "feeder"!
     
  19. Gollum

    Gollum Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2003
    Messages:
    4,642
    Likes Received:
    298
    Location:
    Surrey, UK
    One more thought:

    Given that this opponent has a very weak clear, we can also assume that his smashes are weak. Personally, all I would do against such an opponent is move my base forwards (so I'm no longer covering the very back of the court). Then, when he plays a drop shot, I'll either kill it, or get there very early and play a nasty net shot. :)

    Essentially, this is the same tactic I use when I've forced my opponent to be late in the rearcourt, especially on his backhand. I move forwards, knowing that a good clear or smash is unlikely. The only difference is that, given that magiadam's opponent is chronically weak in the rearcourt, he can use this tactic all the time.

    I understand that magiadam has trouble playing a good net shot. But really, this opponent is supplying the perfect opportunity to learn. Once you get a half-decent net shot, he's finished.
     
    #19 Gollum, Nov 12, 2009
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2009
  20. Destricto_Ense

    Destricto_Ense Regular Member

    Joined:
    Nov 13, 2008
    Messages:
    1,229
    Likes Received:
    1
    Occupation:
    Student
    Location:
    Ireland.
    A tip : Use more than one shuttle :p
     

Share This Page