How to return a long sidespin serve

Hi Alois,

When I topspin a long heavy sidespin ball, most of time the ball falls outside the table. Please let me know how to overcome such situation.   

Thanks

but what if the same serve is fast?

I use a topspin sidespin stroke when that happens (I'm a cpen player)

Really helpful video

and what about the longpips return?

I also have problems with any type of sidespin serve,because I cannot read if it is a side/top,side/back or pure side spin

How should I react when I do not know which of these three serves is coming?

(short on FH and long on BH)

>Returning serves is one of the hardest parts of table tennis.

And I bet the most frustrating one.

Is a good idea to return the ball back with a pushing or chopping is you dont have enough confidece with your backhand Topspin?

As a beginner and well into my first year as a motivated player, fast sidespin serves were probably the hardest nut to crack. At this stage of my career, I'm starting to get confident at topspinning back those serves. The breakthrough came when our club's best player said: always expect the serve to be long. Before that, given that our training sessions are centered around short serves (or half long serves), with long serves being merely a surprise weapon, I was always standing too close to the table. The crucial idea is that even if the majority of serves are short at the higher level, you should still expect it long. Why? Because it's easier to step in and play than to step out and play.

Before I could make this crucial step though, there was more ground to cover. In the beginning, when you haven't developed a backhand topspin, you'll meet players who can execute a sidespin serve, even at the lower playing levels. With passive returns, the ball will easily go out if you don't read the sidespin.

For absolute beginners, in order not to get frustrated, the advice is: aim for the middle. Secondly, don't open the bat, despite the looks of backspin action. It's sidespin, so return with a vertical or slightly closed bat and aim for middle.

Next, learn how to neutralize the spin. And that just works the way it does with backspin or topspin, but instead of opening and closing the bat around a horizontal axis, you need to open or close around a vertical axis.

Incidentally I've received advice to "return the ball towards the side the bat started" but I found that not too helpful because the server can generate sidespin with many different types of body action. One should try reading the arch the ball makes and then open/close the bat accordingly. Since it's the same as with back/topspin, the opening/closure on sidespin should be easy to understand, except if you really cannot abstract out the spatial orientation.

Well, I'm afraid this answer is just too verbose. But I think beginners can do with some advice that doesn't require to master the backhand topspin first, because that's quite an advanced shot, while they encounter it in matches very soon.

Sir, my forehand shots are bit weak. If the long side spin serve is far on my forehand side, should I chop or topspin?