Serve return

Ali Mohamed Asked 14 years ago

Greetings and salutations,

i would consider myself in the beginner-intermediate player phase now and i can pretty much keep the ball going very easily. Straight serves and top spin serves and back spin serves are pretty easy for me to return. But i am having a very difficult time returning very fast and rapid spin serves. Not basic spins but ones which have combinations of either back or top spin and side spin. in the videos section i saw that fronthand and backhand flicks can be used to return different typs of serves including spin serves. when i try using them the ball either goes straight to the net (when the serve are really low) or outside the table (when the serves i receive bounce close to the edge). please help................... is there any other way to return rapid spin serves or should i just keep on practicing with fronthand and backhand flicks? Thanks alot in advance

Alois Rosario Answered 14 years ago

Hi Ali,

The first type of return to work on is pushing rather than flicking.  Work on pushing the ball back with control rather than trying to attack the ball with a flick.

Take a look at the lesson on Pushing.  This is especially important for low and backspin serves.  It is very difficult to flick these serves so work on the push return first.