Third ball confusion

hi Alois and Jeff,

 i have been reading and following all the threads and discussions very religiously for the past 6 months or so. and i must say my game has improved tremendously .

my combination is : blade butterfly michael maze. forehand is andro hexer hd and backhand xiom omega IV Pro.

now my question is with regard to 3rd ball attack.

whenever i serve a heavy backspin or sidespin and when the serve is returned does the ball always have lesser spin than what i had put or is it possible to increase more spin on the ball by my opponent.

this is because i am not able to factor in what amount of spin is there on my 3rd ball. this results in my topspin not being consistent. coz sometime i tend to lift too much and other time too little. in other words not able to judge the spin of the 3rd ball  even though i know what spin i served.

thanks in advance

Hi David,

It is great to hear that you game is improving.

When your serve is returned it will usually have less spin but it may still carry some of the spin that you put on the ball.  The ball will often bounce a little sideways if you have put sidespin on your serve.

It is important to practice third ball after a lot of different serves to get used to the spin effects from your serve.  It is just a matter of getting used to this.  Sometimes it is good in training to just watch the return and see how it bounces.  You will notice it doesn't bounce straight.  Like anything it is a matter of doing and doing so that you adjust to the different things the game puts in front of us.