Reading spin

Soumya Mukherjee Asked 7 years ago

Hi there. I am a beginner. When i play against my friend who does the pendulum serve i cannot read the spin whether it is side spin or back spin and end up hitting the ball in the net or out of the board. The same thing happens when he does the backhand serve. By luck i could hit it a few times. Please tell me how can i read these spins. Sometimes its frustuating. Please help me.

Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago

Hi Soumya,

This is the most frustrating part of the game to start with.

A couple of things that will help initially are watching the serving action and then watching the flight of the ball.

In the simplest form the ball will go off your bat in the same direction as the swing of the serve.  So if they move their bat from left to right then the ball will go to the right when it hits your bat.

In our Receiving Secrets section you will find a tutorial on Understanding Spin which will help.  There are a lot more tutorials in there as part of the Premium membership.