Learn where to aim your drops from the lead instructor of the Tyson McGuffin Pickleball Clinics
I’m frequently asked by players, “Where is the best place to hit drops?” It’s really an impossible question to answer as we will usually be factoring in the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents when making this decision.
Image via Instagram by @kyle.mckenzie.pb
At lower levels, we will often be dropping to the weaker player or to a particular players’ forehand or backhand if it’s quite error prone or defensive. But as our level advances, high drops are punished regardless of the player or the side we drop to.
Sometimes we can get too focused on a perceived weakness of our opponents and forget about the risk we’re taking when we aim to a particular spot on the court. High level pickleball is all about long term math and finding situations to minimize our own risk. Too often players forget about all the advantages simply dropping to the middle of the court can offer them.
There are good and bad misses in every situation. By dropping middle, we put ourselves in the best position to avoid bad misses. The two worst misses when dropping are missing wide and missing into the net as the point ends right there. Though not ideal, when we miss high, we can usually keep the rally going especially if we don’t move forward after our poor drop.
The net is two inches lower in the middle, so when we hit our drops there, we give ourselves the best chance of the ball clearing the net. Also, since we’re aiming for the middle of the court, we will almost never miss wide. Our misses will mostly be high, and we’ll still give ourselves a chance to clean up our mess and stay in the point.
When we hit drops, for the most part, our job is not finished after that one shot alone. Playing a drop is simply our first shot in our journey to make it forward to the kitchen line. Dropping middle will often make our next shot easier because it can put both ourselves and our partner in a better position on the court.
Dropping middle limits the angles available to our opponents, hurts their ability to attack our line, and hit aggressive angles. Knowing this, my partner can play more in the middle of the court as they’re moving in off my drop and be more of a poaching threat.
My court position after my drop will be improved as well since I’m able to, “follow the ball,” and run directly forward. When I drop cross court for example, my partner has to move over and cover their line. This forces me to take a more diagonal path towards the center of the court. When this happens, the dropper won’t get to the kitchen line as quickly and they will be forced to play defense longer.
As mentioned earlier, many times we will play the player when deciding our drop location and there is nothing wrong with that. We should be using ALL the information we have on our opponents to come up with the best game plan possible, but never forget to look for situations to minimize our own risk. So, if we are in a match and we’re struggling with executing our drops or we can’t seem to get past the transition zone, we should remember the value of dropping middle.
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best solution.
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