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Tips on Tennis Tennis Forehand Grip Tennis Tactics Technique Tennis Tennis Serve

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If your drop shots are tending to go too high, you need to tilt less, and very likely, you need a more Eastern, less Continental grip, which will naturally orient the racquet in a more vertical plane.

If your drop shots are landing too deep, you need to meet the ball more softly.

A good way to practice a softer touch is to toss balls up in the air and try to catch them on your strings without any bounce. Start with small tosses of two feet or so and gradually work your way up to around eight feet. If you get to the point where you can catch a ball silently from eight feet up, try catching balls on your strings that are fed around waist-high, gently, by a partner around 16 feet away. Feed the ball back to your partner the same way. This game of "catch" is difficult, but fun.

Certain conditions enhance the effectiveness of drop shots:

* softer surfaces like clay and grass

* wind blowing from your opponent's side toward yours

* colder temperatures, which reduce the ball's bounce

A drop shot is especially valuable against the steady baseliner -- the one who hardly ever misses a groundstroke from the backcourt. Many of these players don't run forward nearly as well as they run laterally, and if you bring them up to the net, they neither hit short balls well nor cover the net comfortably.

You can also use drop shots to wear an opponent out. The drop shot -- then lob combination can drive an opponent crazy while sapping his energy, and the more tired he gets, the fewer of your drop shots he'll retrieve.

To avoid giving your opponent an early start toward your drop shot, try to hide your intention as long as possible. If you set up with a short backswing just above the ball well in advance, your opponent can see a dropper coming. The best deception is to start with a longer backswing, then shorten it just before actually swinging. This is especially effective if the preparation looks just like that for your slice drive. You'll often make your opponent think you're going to hit a drop shot, then when he starts forward, you can hit a slice drive right past him.