Basic technique for backhand drop shots

Preparation

Make your preparation the same as for a backhand clear or smash. Your body should be turned away from the net, with the right foot stepping towards your backhand corner. Your elbow should be low and your racket should be pointing in an upwards direction (the racket, not the strings).

Contact point

For a forehand drop shot, I said you should reach up for a high contact point. This doesn’t apply for backhands — at least, not to the same extent.

You should never hit a backhand shot from directly above your right shoulder. Why? Because you should be playing a forehand instead! It’s also physically awkward to make a backhand hitting action in this position.

Instead, the contact point for backhands should be above and out to the side of your shoulder. This does not mean that you deliberately let the shuttle drop lower before playing your shot; rather, it means you only play backhands when you cannot play a good forehand.

So the contact point for backhand drops is lower than for forehands, and is always out to the side. Nevertheless, it’s well above shoulder height and usually above head height too.

Grip

For backhand drop shots, use a relaxed bevel grip or panhandle grip.

The bevel grip is good when the shuttle is level with your body. When the shuttle has travelled slightly behind you, you’ll need to shift towards a panhandle grip instead.

Hitting action

Bring the elbow upwards and forwards and extend your arm as you reach for the shuttle.

Just as with forehands, backhand drops are hit with a soft pushing action, using the whole arm to guide the shuttle gently over the net. You can also think of it as a smooth pulling action. The pulling action comes mainly from the forearm, not the wrist; there is very little wrist movement in this shot.

As with forehands, some arm rotation does occur during a backhand drop shot, and it’s much gentler and smoother than for a clear or smash. Concentrate on the other aspects of the technique and this should happen naturally.

Backhand drop shots are typically played when you’re under pressure, so the shuttle will often be behind your body at the point of impact. In this situation, you need the wrist to be bent back (extended) as you hit the shuttle; this helps make the shuttle travel downwards.

Make your recovery part of the hitting action

As you hit the shuttle, turn your shoulders and body back into court. This recovery movement should not happen after you’ve hit the drop shot — rather, it should be part of the hitting action.

When you’re under more pressure, you need to start recovery even earlier. You can do this by placing your right foot onto the floor slightly before impact with the shuttle, which allows you to begin the turning action sooner.

Variations of speed and angle

Try hitting slower and faster drops, and try directing them straight, cross-court, and to the middle. For obvious reasons, you don’t need to practise backhand drop shots from your forehand corner!

Because you are typically under pressure when playing a backhand drop, it can be difficult to create a cross-court angle. To make matters worse, the shoulder cannot move as far with a backhand action as it can with a forehand action.

To get around this problem, it’s often helpful to adjust your grip farther towards panhandle when playing a cross-court backhand drop. You can also use your wrist to help create the angle, by bending it backwards more (extending it fully).