Transcription
Today I'm going to show you how to hit the most consistent drop in all of pickle ball. So there's a lot of different ways to drop the ball, right? You can push the drop, slice the drop, roll the drop. You have your two-handed backhand, one hand, forehand roll, whatever it is, right? Then you have all the different grips. So drops can get a little complicated when people teach them.
Today, we're going to dumb it down to the best drop that probably the two most consistent droppers in the whole world, Ben John's and Andre Diescu, used to get to net every time. If you've watched either of those guys play, they just played an epic final yesterday, and they were using this shot to get into net almost every single time. I don't even remember them missing a drop. They played for like two and a half hours.
This is going to be the forehand push drop. So, there's a few technical things that make this drop better and more consistent than almost any other shot. And here's why they can do it against other top professional males who are reaching into the kitchen and applying a lot of pressure. So, if they can do it, so can you.
This shot can be hit from the left or the right side. On the right side, you can pretty much hit it anytime because you never really have to hit a backhand drop. On the left side, it's great for mixed or men's because you can kind of take the whole court, right? So maybe if they hit it right in this corner, you have to hit a backhand. But anything from here all the way over, you can always come over and take those drops. So being able to hit this shot means even if your partner is a little bit tight or missing, you can kind of just come take them and drop, which is another skill that both of those guys use so well because you'll notice when their partners get a little tight, they'll come all the way over and just grab that third and get them up to net.
So the push drop, right? What's the difference between a push and a slice? Right? So, when we're talking push drop, the first thing is your grip. You could do it out of a continental or an eastern grip, but it's a pretty neutral grip, right? We're not going to do it out of anything crazy. So, if you're in one of those two grips, the key with the push drop, the first thing is going to be just like all of our other shots, getting low, right? So, once we get low, and as you can see, I've turned. So, I try to when I can get a little turn and hit it kind of from a semi-open, but I also sometimes hit it out of this stance. So, the stance for this shot actually isn't super important, but if you have the time, let's try to get a little bit closed. It just allows us to be a little more comfortable.
The next thing, and this is the difference between the push and the slice, right? It's our paddle angle. So, with the push drop, my paddle is actually going to be pretty flat, so I'm not going to have it turned back. The players that slice turn their paddles back and come underneath the ball. Now, the great thing about the slice is it moves through the air very slowly and it kind of stays a little bit lower to the ground maybe, but the problems with the slice are one, you still have to time it up, right? So, timing up that shot, whether it's top spin or slice, is where a lot of people make the errors. The push kind of takes a lot of that out of um the question because you're just going through the ball. So, if you're a little bit early or a little bit late, you don't miss, right? With the other ones, if you're a little early or a little bit late, a lot of times you'll miss the ball. the push may just go a little bit deeper, which is fine for what we're talking about. That's why we love this push drop.
So, we're in that low stance. Our paddle is in that flat spot. And then as the ball comes, right? So, here's the next key. You'll see that my shoulder never goes back. I'm not going like this. So, I'm inside of this leg. So, and what I mean by that is here, right? If I took my paddle in, see how it's inside this leg. It's not outside the leg back here. Then, as the ball comes, I'm going to push through laterally. So, this is the second piece of it. My push is either going to be if the ball's a little higher like here, it'll be straight forward, or if it's low, it may be a little bit up. But what it's not is like the slice where I'm coming way up on the ball or the roll where I'm coming way up. The push is going to be through the ball. And why is this so important? Because when you mess up, the ball still stays low. So, it might be a little bit deep, right? They may be able to reach it out of the air, but your opponents are reaching it here, not up here. So, if you're somebody that's popping up, drops shoulder height, this is the fix. So, we're low, paddle in front, pushing through the ball, right? That's the motion. And the other nice thing is if they hit a really good um return and it's deep, we can always just push right through on a short hop because this is a very similar form to how we short hop the ball as well. That is how we hit that Ben John's Andre Dascu push drop.
Thank you for coming back. This is the second part of our five-part simple things series. So today we're talking about the best and simplest drop. We're going to have three more videos to really help those three 0 to 40 players kind of take that next step. So each of these items is going to be something that we see a lot of mistakes in that is actually a pretty easy fix. So today it's just about doing too much on your drops. Instead, I'm giving you the simplest drop in the game that is still effective at the pro level.
So this shot is super useful because of the consistency. So you can see how this ball is traveling through the air. I can go like that and get it to bounce. I can keep it pretty low. If it goes deep, watch if Zach starts reaching and I hit it a little deep. See how it's still low. He can't like take these balls and win the point. I mean, I'm not even hitting good drops here. They're well behind the line, but because they're low, it's very hard for Zach to like put them away. So, what we don't want to do is start doing this where I'm lifting because then Zach's able to really rip into them and maybe even put them away, right? So, we want to make sure we're getting down and staying through the ball. That's the key. So, you can see how I'm really pushing through. The next part about this is going to be what we do next. But you can see I can do this pretty consistently, making a lot of balls in a row. And some of them I'm going to hit out of an open if I'm in that position. Or if I can, I'll get to a closed stance. And if I leave it up, I can just stay back and make the next one. So, this is a drill Zach and I work on a lot.
The last thing with this shot is not going too wide. So, if I go really wide, Zach's going to be able to jump the Ernie, which for some of you may not be a problem, but also the net is higher. So, it's really safe with this shot to try and go at Zach's left foot. So, if I can stay like right over there, it's very hard for him to attack it. It's also his backhand a lot of the time and the net is lower. There's a lot of benefits to me going to Zach's left foot. The first one is going to be that it's his backhand. Obviously, if you're playing a lefty, it's not going to be, but for most of us, we're playing a lot of righties where this shot is going to be to their backhand. The other is the net height is a lot lower. So, I'm a lot more likely to miss in the net going here than when I go wide. So, I try to stay here. And the last thing is you can notice Zach has to kind of take a step when I hit it over there. When I go over here, Zach has lots of time and he just gets to stand still. So, he just sets up and rips it. So, I'm not making him move, which makes it easy for him to be a lot more aggressive. When I go over to his left side, you'll notice he's got to take a step over there. I love dropping between Zach's left foot and his partner's right foot because one of them has to move for the ball, right? That is another advantage. They're more likely to make errors or maybe just concede the line. So, I love going maybe 6 in to a foot outside of Zach's left foot.
The last thing I'm going to mention about this is that there is some backspin on this ball. But the difference between this and the slice is I'm not forcibly generating it. So I'm not trying to go like this and slice it. The backspin is just because my paddle face is open a little bit. The ball is going to go off. So when I push, it does spin a little bit backwards because I'm pushing, but I'm not forcing that spin. So yes, it does have some slice, but it's not a slice drop. And I think that's a very important differentiation to make.
The last thing that I really want to focus on with this drop that makes it so good is it's going to cut out a lot of our transition. So, when we're hitting rolls, especially if you're someone that rolls your drops, a lot of times you're probably going to get caught in this area of the court where you may have to hit one or two resets to get in. If you're somebody that's getting stuck in that zone, this shot, because it moves a lot slower, is going to be a great way to skip over that. Normally, if I hit even just an okay push, I'm going to get all the way to here where a lot of times I can either attack the ball or hit a nice easy reset. What doesn't happen as much is I pop it up and I'm stuck here and I'm losing the point. Right? So, because you have a little bit extra time, you're able to close that gap, be more of a threat, and opponents will concede the line much more often. This makes it much easier for you to be able to get in. So, again, generally, I would say, right, if I just have a math brain, so this how it works. If for yourself, let's say when you hit a roll drop, you normally have to hit one to two resets. when you hit this shot, you might only have to hit half a reset on average, right? So, you might have to reset every other time you hit this. So, it's going to be a lot less time spent in this transition zone, which for a lot of us is where we're making more errors than anywhere else on the court.
So, how we do that is watching our ball. So, what you want to do is tune in to your stroke. And what I mean by that is you want to know as quickly as possible how good it is. For me, the second I hit the ball, I know whether I can go or not. Now, if you're not there, that's okay. But really focus on being like, "Okay, that one felt a little poppy." And then look at it. Okay, it was a little deep. Once you get to a point where you're like, "Oh, yeah, that felt good and it was good." Then you can start trusting yourself following that shot in and skipping this zone in the court.
The last thing is as we're moving in, I would stop just as the ball is bouncing or being touched. So, if it bounces right as it's bouncing, I'm going to stop. or if they're taking it out of the air right as I see it about to hit their paddle, I stop. That's because I'm gonna have a much better chance to fight off that next ball, whether it's a reset or a counter if I've slowed down or fully stopped. That's an easy thing to fix, easy thing to add to your game, and it will make a huge difference in this transition zone. So, right now, we're going to show you what we mean. So, Zach's going to start two steps off the line, and he's going to simulate like he's returning the ball, and I'm going to show you how I come in. So, what I want you to watch is how I hit it. wait to recognize and then I'm either going or staying. If I'm staying, I'm looking to hit another one that's better. And if I'm going, I'm looking to close the space, applying pressure to Zach and getting myself into net. The goal of this shot is not really to get an error from Zack. It's to get up to the line every single time. So, if he was late getting up or anything else, I would look to drive or roll drop it. This shot is really just used to get up every time. I'm not even really looking to win any points in the transition. I'm looking to get up to net and get to neutral. So you can see on that one I pretty much got all the way up by the time Zach hit it. That's how I'm trying to do it. That one it kind of had to stop early. Everyone's going to be a little different. So, that one definitely wasn't perfect. So, I'm waiting trying to get a ball down and then get up. Everyone, like I said, a little bit different. So, you'll notice in the midc court sometimes I'm hitting a ball, but they're really not even resets. If I'm able to get two feet behind the line, it's really just a dink. That's much better than being six, seven feet off the line and having to really hit a reset. So like that one to me is just really a dink. I don't really have to worry about hitting a reset. I'm pretty much all the way at the line.
Richie recap. So, this is the second video in our five videos of simple things. So, here is the simplest, best, easiest drop to get in every time. So, today we covered the push drop. It's a forehand drop. Very easy to hit. You can hit it out of an open stance, a closed stance, semi-open. So, in terms of the footwork, it's much easier. It is very linear, right? Which means that when we miss, it still stays low to the net, unlike the slice or the roll, which allows us to get in or survive an extra shot even when we hit a pretty poor third. How we hit that shot, right? We're getting down in a neutral grip, whether it's eastern or continental. We're turning that paddle face pretty flat, right? We're not going way back and we're not closing it, right? This is our roll. This is our slice. This is our push and we're staying through, right? So, we are rising a little bit, but we're not coming up, right? So, on this push, the ball's going to stay low and it's going to stay slow, right? And we're going to use that slow to our advantage to follow it in. That was the second thing we talked about, right? If we can skip over these deep transition shots, we'll be able to get in a lot easier from the 3 0 to 5 level everywhere in there. The transition zone is where most errors are made. So, if we can take out this back half of the court and we just hit a third and then we get way up, whether we're all the way at the line or just off, you'll make way less errors. And then the last thing was where we should be hitting them towards the middle of the court. The net is the lowest and our opponents have to move to the ball. Aside from the Ernie threat, the middle of the court is easier for us to make, harder for them to communicate on, and somebody has to take a step to hit the ball. Whenever you get your opponent's feet involved, they're more likely to make an error. So, let's hit this shot to the middle. Let's push these drops, especially when we're tight, and let's focus on keeping it simple, right? No reason to try to go for everything crazy and spinny all the time. Sometimes the best thing is the simplest. Thank you for coming back for another video. I will see you for part three of five simple things next.