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How to improve your movement to get counter drops back

I always found that having a tall and rather large build meant that I was vulnerable to counter drop or short shots; short shots which my opponent plays in response to my short shot. This was most apparent when I played a short shot from the front of the court and so was required to move into the front corner twice in quick succession; once to play my shot and then again to cover their counter.

How can you improve your movement to deal with counter short shots? 

Weight transfer is the most important thing when you are moving out of the front corner, as if you keep your centre of gravity in the right place you can leave yourself the option to move into the front again. 

The first part of the weight transfer is the lunge, squat or planting of your legs when you go to strike the ball. If you are lunging to an extent – whether it is as full stretch or a fairly shallow lunge – try to make sure you are using your back leg and non-racket arm to help you move out of your shot. This is done by allowing your back leg to drive through towards the ball as you follow through and keeping your non-racket arm back and out to the side. The momentum of the back leg driving through and the non-racket arm’s balance can then be used to help you move out of a shot and back towards the T-Position. 

Now comes the part where you need to really watch your weight transfer. Like a sprinter moving out of the starting blocks, it is really important that you stay low as you move backwards to the T-Position. It is very easy to spring out of a lunge and end up standing completely upright, but by doing this you will shift the majority of your weight backwards towards the T-Position, thereby throwing all of your eggs in one basket and making it very difficult to go forwards again. If you ‘unfold’ yourself gradually and stand upright again only as you get back to the T-Position, you will find it easier to shift your weight and move back towards the front corner again if necessary.

Whilst you are staying low and unfolding, you need to make sure you are taking small steps back towards the T-Position. The lunge might be a big step (of course assisted by the back leg and non-racket arm), but after that, you need to make sure that your steps are small and skimming the floor. Small, low steps also help to keep your weight in a more neutral position, as when you take big steps in any direction, you are committing your weight and therefore yourself to that direction and making it very difficult to change. That won’t help at all here given you need to go back in the opposite direction to which you were previously moving. 

Moving with shorter, lower steps is comparatively easy to practice compared with the lower centre of gravity, which can take a bit more practice and awareness. Ghosting and practicing the movement pattern is a very good way to start so that you can really feel the size and height of your steps, and also where your weight is as you move. You can then build that up by having someone feed you shots to the front corner, then the front corner and the back corner in a fixed order and lastly the front and back corner at random. You can then swap sides and add in more shots to make it more match-like.

One final thing; it can also help to change your grip as you move towards the ball. As you are taking your first step towards the front corner again, shift your hand down your grip to the very bottom of the handle in order to give yourself a touch more reach. You can read more about that on our post here.

Best of luck in maintaining a low centre of gravity and covering the front corners repeatedly! 

Extending your racket in the front corner 

Sometimes when someone plays a really good drop shot, you need every bit of help you can get to return it with interest or even return it at all. Any little extra thing that can help is worth knowing and today we’ll be discussing how you can go full stretch with your racket by changing your grip as you move into the shot, which is an incredibly important skill to practice.



Holding the very base of the racket 

The end goal is to hold your racket at the very base of the grip to the extent that there is only a small amount of the grip between your thumb and fingers. You will of course be surrendering a lot of control over the ball by doing this but when you are at full stretch, keeping the ball in has to be the main aim.

As you move into the front corner, and do try to move very directly straight towards the ball, shift your hand to the base of the grip and the absolute lowest point you can keep hold of the grip without losing control or dropping your racket. You are aiming to essentially bounce the ball off the very top of the strings and into the front corner. It certainly won’t have a lot of pace on it but with a bit of practice and the right body angle – having the body facing towards the front corner – you can keep the ball fairly tight to the side wall.

If you are able to, also try to make sure you are also able to stretch back out towards the T-Position too in order to cover a long shot.

For more information about how to hold the racket, check out our page on the grip. 



Disciplined drop play



Only dropping when you are ready to combine it with another shot.

It is important you get into a stable, balanced position before playing a drop shot, as you need to be ready to follow up whatever shot your opponent hits in response to your drop. Sometimes of course the drop can be the correct shot choice, even when you’re out of position or off-balance, if your opponent is also in trouble. In general though, I believe it is best to go short from a position of strength.

Do you have the ability to hit an accurate shot?

It is easy to try and force a drop shot because your opponent is behind you, but if the there is something making it hard to control a drop shot, it might be best to wait. Perhaps the ball is coming towards you at an awkward angle or it is getting behind you or your body positioning isn’t great for whatever reason. Maybe you can still go short with a less risky short shot such as a kill, but it might be best to use a lob or another length shot to work a better position for the drop.
This is not to say you want to hit the ball back to a player who is behind you but rather that you don’t want to rush an attack prematurely and end up carelessly gifting them an opportunity to attack, thereby wasting the early ground work you have put in building the rally.

This is especially important in the heat, as it reduces the potency of drop shots. It will rarely be your first or most attacking shot that wins you the rally most of the year, but this is particularly true in summer.

Ability to recover the T-Position

It’s really important you play the drop when you are also able to get back to the T-Position quickly, as quite often an opponent will get your first, second and maybe even third attacking shot back. You often win the rally with an easy shot once your opponent is well out of position because of your initial accurate, attacking shots. This is particularly true of the drop shot, as a lot of the time the winning shot comes not through the drop itself, but the shot you play to the back when your opponent is now stuck in the front of the court.

A lot of players play an accurate drop shot, only to be caught out by a horrible, loose length shot because they stayed at the front or were unable to get back to the T-Position quickly enough. If you are back on the T-Position quickly after the drop, you can easily intercept any weak length shot your opponent plays. This might not be the case if you are unable to get back to the T quickly. Therefore, you want to play that drop shot only when it can help to put your opponent under pressure as part of a sequence of shots, not on its own in isolation. If you are not in a position to get back to the T-Position and play plenty more attacking shots after your drop, it might be best to use a shot to buy a bit more time – like the lob shot – and wait for another opportunity.

We all love short shots at The Squash Company so don’t be discouraged from playing short shots when they are on; just make sure when you play a drop shot that you are in a position which won’t negatively impact the quality of your shot or your ability to get back to the T-Position when you play it.



Moving back to the T after a drop shot




Being ready for the long return. 

I’ve heard quite a few people say before that they won’t play drop shots when they’re at the front as they’re worried their opponent will smash their drop shot to the back. This should be seen as a positive outcome though, because if your opponent is just smashing your drop to the back they’re giving you a great opportunity to make them run.

You can read more about playing a drop shot here. 

Why is my drop setting up my opponent? 

There are many reasons why your drop shot might lead to your opponent winning the rally but most commonly it is because players don’t recover the T-Position properly after playing a drop shot. If you’re standing at the front, it won’t even take a very long shot to put you under pressure. It’s not even uncommon for players to linger at the front without moving back towards the T-Position at all. This means that even if your  is effective, you may not be ready to return your opponent’s shots, let alone attack the shot. If you are back near the T-Position, you’ll be in a prime position to volley any loose length and at least return any length with a counter length of your own, forcing your opponent into a sprint from front to back.

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How to move back to the T

After playing a drop, it is important you start to move backwards to the T-Position. If your lunge technique is correct, you will be able to remain balanced and ready to make a quick and smooth exit from the shot, pushing off using the momentum of the lunge itself.

As you move towards the T, keep your steps small and stay low and with your upper body crouched forwards slightly, as you want to make sure you can cover a counter drop if need be.

Quality of the shot itself

If it’s the quality of your drop shots that are lacking, it could be a few different things. The most common problem I see though is people not getting down low enough, which you can read more about here. 

If you get lower, you can be closer to the ball, allowing you greater control and more options and a quicker route back to the T-Position by exiting your lunge.

If your opponent is attacking your drop and winning the rally or putting you under pressure, see if your movement back to the T-Position is of the standard it should be.




Do you get down low enough when you play drops?



Do you get down low enough when you play drop shots? 

Commonly players mess up opportunities to drop at the front because they are too upright and so they end up dangling their racket at the ball rather than playing the shot properly. If you dangle your racket so that it’s hanging down in a straight line, you are unlikely to hit the right part of the ball, which of course doesn’t do your chances of playing an effective shot much good. Usually, the ‘dangle’ results in inconsistent drops with just as many going too high or hitting the tin as going in.

Getting low enough for good technique and to hit the right part of the ball

The simple answer to how low you need to get is that it needs to be low enough to get your technique right and be able to hit the bottom of the ball (or any part of the ball) if you need to. If you are going into the ball with your arm hanging straight down, you aren’t going to be able to achieve a consistently good shot as your swing will be ineffective and if you’re doing this because you’re upright, you also won’t hit the right part of the ball.

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Presumably if you’re in the front corner retrieving a drop, the ball will be low, which means you’ll need to get low enough to be in a position where you can hit the bottom part of the ball so you can gently lift the ball into the corner or for a counter drop or even play a lob shot if you wish. These will typically be your two best options as they will be the toughest shots for your opponent and allow you more T-Recovery time if you play them well.

Cocking your wrist

Cocking your wrist is a little bit frowned upon at the moment (especially since Ramy Ashour came along) but it’s important that your keep your wrist up when moving into a drop in the front corner. This doesn’t necessarily mean cocking it in the traditional sense but you need to get your lower arm back enough in that ‘triangle’ shape you would typically use when hitting a forehand shot, as you can see in the picture below. Doing this allows you to get a bit more control over your shot, which is important in this scenario.

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How do you get low?

Generally, the best way of getting low in the front is to lunge. If you go in with more of a squat or use your back to get down low, it isn’t very easy to get out of the way or get back to the T-Position, or you may find yourself in trouble if your opponent is quick into the front and looking to play long. If you lunge you can stretch in and recover the T-Position more efficiently, get your weight through the ball and also get down low enough to hit the bottom of the ball and swing with quality.

If your drop shots in the front leave something to be desired, check if you are getting down low enough to give yourself the platform for a good swing and to hit the necessary part of the ball.