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The Power of The Drop Shot

In this page I’ll be introducing the drop shot to you! An attacking shot at the baseline that lands at the front of your opponent’s court! There are many places you can do a drop as well as various ways you can do it! Here is a graph to simplify everything for you.

This move has several basic objectives.

Move your opponent to the front (Opening up the baseline)
Break your opponent’s footwork (Draining their fitness and leaving them vulnerable to smashes etc)

Of course as you get better you can think of several other strategic objective out of the drop shot such as anticipating for the net shot or for a flick shot.

Even though the drop shot is aimed at your opponent’s forecourt, there are several variation of the shot, and they can be summarized into this table!

Of course not forgetting there are both sides at the baseline(forehand and backhand), forehand vs backhand drop, as well as straight vs cross drop shots. Well for understanding purposes, let’s just do a broad coverage of the term drop shot first before we move on!

Below I will share with you resources on the individual techniques that you can watch or read up to help you speed up your understanding, but the most important thing (MOST) is that you have to practice! Not just read and watch all day alright?

First I’ll explain the three techniques (Soft, hard and slice drop) then from the videos let's see if you are able to spot the different techniques!

Hard Dropshot

This shot is aimed slightly after the service line because of the strength used to make the ball to move faster, yet still causes your opponent to reach forward.

The hard drop is usually used in two situations

- When you are in a difficult position at the back, you would use this so as to keep the ball rather than risk making a mistake.

- When the opponent leaves at opening at the front e.g they are at the base court, therefore you need the speed and some angle to win the rally.

Coconut Dropshot

A coconut drop is a soft drop that falls steeply after the shuttle crosses the net, landing in front of the service line.

This is used to make your opponent move right in front of the net, leaving the mid and base court open for the next move. Also, this downward soft shot makes it difficult for your opponent to attack nor counter attack, thus very useful when playing against a powerful opponent.

But if used wrongly, your opponent can take the shuttle and a high point or even do a net kill, putting you in a very difficult position!

Slice Dropshot

The slice drop is a unique stroke that is achieved by hitting the shuttle at an angle and, using your wrist-power to control how much you cut. Note the cutting effect is generated from using the power from your wrist and fingers! (Kinda hard to visualize with words hmmm...)

You can tell that a slice drop is achieved because a distinct different sound is achieved. This is often used as a trick to deceive your opponent into thinking you're going to hit another shot e.g a smash/drop in the other direction!

However the downside to this drop is that it is easier to make mistakes because of the smaller possible contact area, and that slicing effect causes the birdie to spoil faster too.

Video Resources

By Coach Chou

By Chen Weihua

By England Badminton

Let me do a simple analysis with you! From the way they demonstrate you can see the wrist moving outwards

This excellent video itself demonstrates both the hard and soft drop itself! (More of the hard drop shot actually)

So if you want to zoom in at the hard drop, the timing is at 0:17

And the soft drop timing is at 2:45

By Zhao Jian Hua

So are you able to roughly see the difference in the types of dropshot?

However if you’re just starting out in badminton I’d recommend you start with practicing getting the ball consistently in for both fronts of the court first before trying to do the slice or hard drop shot.

Here’s a video on how to do a really simple drop shot for beginners to get you started!

However do note that you need to turn your shoulders (As you get more comfortable with the swing) for more deception and the ability to change to other techniques, e.g lobbing (A high shot over your opponent).

Remember don’t rush learning all the techniques! Take your time and practice practice practice these foundation techniques!

Because building a strong foundation will strengthen the top!

‘Having a strong foundation is like building your house on solid bricks’

Have fun and train hard! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below!