Touch and Talent: Are they linked?

Tennis players in the history of the game have been known to be of the "talented" type as soon as they were able to control a pacy ball by caressing it while placing it generally just on the other side of the net: the drop shot.

McEnroe, Nastase, Pecci and Panatta amongst many others but now we have Federer, Murray, Djokovic and Nadal often using the drop shot, trying to add that shot to their arsenal as players tend to stand further back behind the base line.

In fact I suspect Murray built his "talent" reputation at the early stage of his career while using if not abusing the drop shot to compensate for some fitness issues.

So is for you the "touch" game a proof of talent?

When a player stands on the baseline, the ball he gets has lost a lot of its energy and the swing of his racquet coupled with the racquet's weight allows a smooth and powerful shot. Very little impact is felt on the arm despite the violence and pace of the shot.

When at the net, there is no or little time to swing the racquet and the ball is at very high speed meaning the impact on the arm and elbow is very hard. To control such a ball requires taking a lot of the energy away from the ball and place it delicately just on the other side, or simply execute a sharp angled volley.

So to control such a lively ball at high speed, admitting the eye/hand coordination is no issue, can be done thanks to 2 factors:

1 - having a very strong arm able to absorb the shock while controlling the ball once its energy has been killed.

2 - seeing the ball earlier and move the racquet with short swings towards the coming ball to give the racquet enough inertia to counter the coming ball.

#2 requires a lot of talent but it's clear that all professional players use a mixture of 1 and 2 but once again, some will be using more 1 than 2 and vice versa. To me it's clear that Nadal's great touch around the net is helped by his very strong arm, plus the high bouncing balls he sends pushes the player far back, allowing him more time to see the ball coming and also therefore doesn't need to put the ball right behind the net. His drop shots are rare but like all his shots contain very little risk, especially helped by that strong arm of his. For Federer, things get a bit tougher. He plays with a heavier racquet and needs a bit more of that short swing to control the ball.

In the past players were handling heavy wooden racquets with a small frame and that required a strong arm but also using the short swings to perfection. It was then a real art and requiring great touch. It was helped by natural strings but also in most cases by lower tension (which absorbed best the ball's inertia).

Nowadays, lighter racquets and bigger frames makes it easier to execute drop shots except that they have to deal with faster and spinier balls.

So in summary, it is fair to say that the stronger the arm, the easier it is to play a "touch" shot and that nowadays saying touch players are talented might not necessarily be as true as then (in relative terms of course). However there are still players who display great "touch" skills without being particularly known to be strong armed: Llodra, Stepanek, Federer to name a few. Those you can say are talented players.

Drop shot is just one of the many shots that can be mastered.
I love watching them as they generally end a point in a spectacular way whether the other player manages to chase it or not.
Another one that people go on about is the "soft hands" , esp Mac as he
had them so I suppose just tries to get a bit of reflected glory.
I can only talk from my limited experience
I haven't dared to try drop-shots but love volleying, esp close to the
net, I'm afraid I'm not a sophisticated tennis jargonist, so will do the
Ivanisevic (remember how he once after listening to a few players
trying to describe the technique of serving in most elaborate details,
said his technique is simple : one (toss) and two (whack the ball) ),
depending on how fast/high the coming ball is just have the ability to
soften the wrist and grip and then try and absorb the power and angle it
away....ideally IN the court :oops:

Drop shot is just one of the many shots that can be mastered.
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It's lot to do with eye/hand coord and a strong arm. It will always be a risky shot unless you have an arm like Nadal. In that respect it is a shot that not everybody will use in pressure situation. It cost Federer the FO11!