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.