i am having a little problem with drop shots in doubles. Drop1: when i play singles, i usually play my drops slower and higher so that it would land tighter at the net. in doubles however, such shots can easily be killed. Drop2: i could play a faster and steeper drop, but the shuttle will often land near the service line and wouldnt be difficult for opponents to retrieve. how do i master the art of steep + fast + tight drops? Or unless it is ok to keep playing Drop2 and wait for opportunity to kill.
There is 2 kind of drop you mention. The 1st one is more suited for single as the path a shuttle takes are quite long which mean slow return but on single the pace is slower & there is no one else (obvious... Single) to catch the shuttle. So you want the opponent to run at every corner of the court. 2nd one is more straight path. Its faster but wont be tight close to the net, unless ofcourse it can only happen if you can consistently & purposely doing lucky shot (shuttle hit the net, spin, & fall right next to the net) everytime. For double games, the 2nd one is more suited for obvious reason. 2 person with good footwork in 1 court are quite small, i mean with both player, they can reach every corner easily. So why double had faster pace? I think its due to this very little opening on the court so we play faster tempo to force an error from the opponent. So, i think its fine going with 2nd drop type.
This type of slow drop works well at lower levels of play. At higher levels, unless there is a very convincing deception e.g. looks like a power smash, the singles players move fast enough to kill a drop shot that lands significantly closer to the net than the service line. Drop 2 is fine, as long as it is landing near the service line. The object of the drop shot in doubles is not to win the point outright, it is to upset their defensive rhythm and either get a weak lift, or catch them out of position (too far forward) with a follow up smash. If you want to increase the tightness even more, you can try to add slice to your drop shot (assuming you don't already), but it takes quite a bit of practice to get consistent enough to match play.
IMO you can play both in doubles. I personally think that you need to take your time to practice your dropshots. That's not a shame, I always practice my dropshot in every session. It's important to have a drop shot which has some angle and is close to the net when it pass it. It's important to hit the drop shot infront of you. It's also important to turn your hip and make a scissor kick like for every other overhead shot, to make it look like any other shot. I like to make it look very dynamic and like a fast swing, I have a loose grip, sometimes I slow down the movement or like to slice it. It's important to take it at a high contact point. Sometimes I also jump to make it more deceptive. I experienced in doubles that both shots are possible to hit in doubles. Even in high level doubles you can hit the slow dropshot. Like every shot there must be the right moment to hit it. At this is when you hit hard attacking shots first. If your opponents don't have fear of a smash they come forward. First shots should be a smash or more smash to let them stand deeper and rooted in the court to make it more effective. Examples are Yuta Watanabe or Jung Jae Sung (Rest in Peace) who were both masters to use the slow drop shot very deceptive in the attacking situations. Since Jung Jae Sung is one of my favorite all-time players, here a video how he teach it: As you can see it is possible to hit slow dropshots close to the net which are nearly impossible to kill. Hope it helps and keep on practicing. It seems that you didn't found to give your shots that quality that you want. Good luck!
