Difficult to return penhold hook serve

Gerard Tran Asked 3 years ago

Hi Pingskills,

I'm finding it difficult to return my opponent's penhold sidespin hook serve.  He tends to serve it fast and long either straight to my backhand or to my wide forehand. When he serves it directly to my backhand, I try to return it with my backhand topspin but it mostly lands in the net. When he serves it to my wide forehand, I do a forehand topspin shot which usually results in the ball flying out near his forehand. What should I do to fix these problems? Thanks

Alois Rosario Answered 3 years ago

Hi Gerard,

It sounds like he is generating a good amount of spin what the serve.  Perhaps he I getting some variation of spin as well.

I would try to watch the contact as carefully as possible and also learn each time you hit one of his serves back.  Perhaps the one he is hitting cross to your backhand tends to get more backspin.  If so think about brushing up more to lift the ball up.

The serve going to your forehand has a lot of sidespin which is dragging the ball across to his forehand.  To get the ball down to his backhand side open up your wrist.  If you think about opening up the wrist like opening a gate.  This will get the angle of your racket back to be able to get the ball down the line.