Having difficulty in receiving righties' forehand serve

Abhinav Upadhyay Asked 9 years ago

Hi Alois, Jeff,

As you might know, I am a left handed player. Having played against a lot of right handed players who preferred doing backhand serve to me or the forehand tomahawk side spin serve, I seem to have become tuned and accustomed to those kind of serves. Whenever I see them doing any of these serves, I get ready to play my forehand topspin with a very closed bat angle in order to counter the side spin in the serve. It has become like a built-in response to those kind of serves in my system, I don't even think.

However, I don't know if it is psychological or just that I am not able to adjust my bat angle, but whenever I face a right handed player doing conventional forehand pendulum serve, I seem to be in all kinds of troubles. My forehand topspin seems to take the ball with the spin and usually they do long serves to me knowing my weakness, so a push is not an option for me. How do you suggest I adjust to this? How do lefties face right handed player's sidespin serve because the natural angle of a lefty would go with the direction of the side spin?

Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago

Hi Abhinav,

It is a matter of tracking the ball all the way with the serve.  It will swing away from you which is the spin you are not used to.  Try to get close to the ball.  If you don’t you will find the ball will swing away and be out of reach or out of your comfort zone.