How to play a Cross-Court Drive
Straight Drive | Cross-Court Drive
A Cross-Court Drive is a length shot that goes from one side of the court to the back corner of the other, either from the forehand to the Backhand side or vice versa.
It is quite an attacking shot and the idea is to try and get the ball behind your opponent, forcing them to turn towards the back wall and play a defensive shot. It is typically played with a lot of pace to help it evade the opponent in the middle area of the court, where it can be vulnerable to being intercepted on the volley.
Just make sure you get good width – if you don’t you’ll find your opponent ready and waiting to intercept it.
Play a good cross-court drive in four quick steps:
- Face the front corner – When playing the Cross-Court Drive, face the front corner of the side the ball is on as you line up for the shot, which should put your body and feet at a 45 degree angle to the wall. This helps you to get good direction on the cross-court.
- High backswing – Bring the racket up as you prepare to hit the ball so that you have a long swing with which to give the ball more power.
- Hit the ball early – Make sure you hit the ball early. When we use the word ‘early’, we mean hitting the ball when it is still in front of your leading foot.
- High to low swing – Make sure you get your racket above the ball and bring the racket in a downward motion so that you can get the ball to go downwards and bounce twice in the back corner.
→ Check out our other related Length Shot pages:
Straight Lob | Cross-Court Lob
→ Recommended posts for those looking at Length Shots:
Death by Straight Drive, The Length Battle, The Battle for the T-Position, Getting your racket above the ball for dying lengths