Receiving side spin and backspin serves

Derrick Henriques Asked 15 years ago

Dear Alois,

Sometimes I play against players who make sidespin and backspin serves with the same action. I normally play the sidespin serves with a blocking action and this works fine. However when the player makes the backspin with the same action I find it very difficult to read the spin and usually put the ball into the net.Can you tell me if there is a way to reading the different spins and what is the best way to play them?

Sincerely,

Derrick.

Alois Rosario Answered 15 years ago

Hi Derrick,

This is a big question. We will be filming a DVD on Receiving serve soon. The basic answer though is to watch the ball and the flight of the ball, the contact of the bat and ball and learn each time you receive a serve. Watch where the ball goes on your return as well, even if it misses the table.

Stay tuned for Receiving Secrets Revealed...

← Blocking fast shots Contact Point →

JuanCarlos Pacheco Posted 15 years ago

Hi Jeff and Alois. It´s great to hear that you are prepairing a new video.

Please don´t forget the corckscrew serve and the backhand tomahawk (Kong Lingui and Kenta Matsudaira) serve return.

Best regards from Argentina

Mike Ivanov Posted 15 years ago

Yes, maybe even show how to do the backhand tomahawk in the first place, that'll help people with recieving it.

Ji-Soo Woo Posted 15 years ago

Ideally, it would be great if you could invite a number of other players to act in the role of the server, and for them to use their full arsenal of serves (including tricky serves, and serves with a lot of deception). And then demonstrate how the principles of good service return you will outline in the DVD is applied to all of them. Every server has distinct actions, and it would be helpful to see a variety of styles.