Receiving sidespin serves with underspin and topspin

Hi Jeff and Alois,

although I studied your receiving secrets dvd very intense,I still have problems with receiving strong sidespin serves.  Often the ball flies to the left or right of the table.  Is it correct that in most cases backhand serves, reverse pendulum serves and tomahawk serves are coming towards me in a slight curve to the right that is from the opponents side the ball is curving to the left?  That would mean I have to move the bat a bit to the left to counter the spin.

The normal pendulum serve has a curve to my left side and I have to move the bat more in the right direction.

But what shall I do and how to react  if I am not able to see any curve of the ball at all.

By the way, I had great joy watching your own match.

It was such fun.Both of you have a great sense of humour.

Thanks a lot

regards

Peter

Hi Peter,

When they serve the Backhand, Reverse or the Tomahawk you know that the ball is going to fly off to your left when you hit it.  You don't need to see the curve just watch the action to make sure the way they are hitting it.

The only thing that you need to watch for and learn to adjust to is the amount of spin that they have on the ball.  This will determine how much of an angle you need to have on your bat.

Thanks for the kind words about the video of our match.