Blogging Fears and Drop Shots

 The main fear I have is that I'll spew some "technical" advice in a post and find out later that it's wrong and my true believers out there will be doing worse than had I not "helped."

I did ask a pro about the technical quality of the blog, and he was a reader and had no problems with the content from a technical perspective.

What a relief.

However there is an issue that I wanted to bring up for those who are trying to apply some of my thoughts to their own game.

I like to hit soft third shots and then aggressively move to the net when I'm on the serving side.  I have always stressed that the player who returns the serve has to move to the kitchen line without exception -- this is accepted in the PB world and you will not find pros who don't do this.  Is the game "King of Kitchen?"  I think it is.

I believe in those "rules" and think they are fully valid.  Now, it came to me the other day that my stressing being at the net requires a couple of skills and not many beginners have them immediately.  Those skills being the ability to hit a soft shot and be able to blocking shots at the net.

I see a lot of beginning and intermediate players who hang at the baseline after returning a serve.  I've asked about that and the reasons boil down to a lack of confidence in hitting shots at the net, or a fear of getting hit, and if we were to look deep into the intermediate skill space we will find a lot of players who have no soft game.  They hit all the shots hard and hope for good results.  Note that the style of hitting the ball hard at all times will work wonderfully for a while, then it won't work at all.  As the skill level approaches 4, most players have no problem with a hard shot and are quite comfortable with it.

I noticed in my early days at Downs that the people coming from racquet ball are more than comfortable with a hard shot.  To beat them you can't feed them hard shots.

The point is that if you are going to adopt the style I advocate, then you need to drop some shots, not be afraid to dink, and be able to hit a block shot or two.  Yah, you need to stop worrying about getting hit, another real good reason to keep your paddle in front of you.  <Insert standard safety glasses reminder here!>

Drop shots can be more effective than a hard shot in scoring points, they will give you more time to get into a good position for the next shot, and a lot of people are not used to hitting soft shots or returning them.  Many a drop shot will win the point outright.  

What a drop shot does is block your opponents from hitting an attacking shot.  By hitting a short ball you are using the net as your third partner.  The opponent's next shot has to be lifted above the net.  If they hit it hard, it may well go long -- prepare to duck.  If they hit a good dink, then you dink back.  If they dink poorly, then you whack it and try to end the point, or at least put them under pressure with an aggressive shot.  

One of the interesting aspects of PB is that trying to win points usually is not as effective as just hitting good shots.  I see many balls going long or wide or both by a player who thought he could hit a great shot and end the point.  A better philosophy is to try to make your opponents hit more and more difficult shots as a rally plays out.  You want to make them move their feet, hit low shots, keep the ball in play, and make your opponents contend with the net.  Longer rallies are also more funner for sure.