What is the most effective way to return a serve that has side spin on it?

My coach tought me there are 2 things to do, the easiest ting is to aim depanding on what spin it is, opposing the arm movement of the server. Or you can pick a spot in the middle of the table and hit hard to minimise the spin effect so this is what I do.

-short on bh I flip

-short on fh I push in the right direction, usually strait.

-long top side i smash, long back side I loop

- On my backhand long I prety much just attack anything with my short pimples

The most frustrating thing in table tennis for me is when you can\'t get out of the starting blocks and show what you can do in a rally because you can\'t return a serve!  This happened to me recently too.  It\'s especially frustrating because in a best of 5 you\'ve got plenty of chances to make adjustments, but that\'s really hard to do on the fly and before you know it you\'ve lost a bunch of points without resistance.

 One helpful hint I\'ve read elsewhere is that the ball spins the direction of the arm.  If their arm moves from your left to your right when they strike the ball, your return will tend to spin to the right as well.  This is even true of top spin (arm moves up so your returns pop up) and backspin (arm moves down so your returns go into the net).

The easiest way to adjust is to just to move your aim.  If your returns are spinning way out of the table to the right due to particularly nasty spin, you might find yourself \'trying\' to hit the ball like a meter or two left of the table.  This is rather counter-intuitive and weird.  Another thing, as already mentioned, is to stroke the ball on the inside or outside depending on the spin so you just don\'t LET it spin in that direction (because your racquet is in the way).  I like this way of thinking the most (even though in practice it might amount to the same thing). 

Main thing with vicious soft sidespin is NOT TO BE PASSIVE.  Don\'t just put your racquet there, let the ball hit it, and hope for the best.  Make a judgement of its spin/speed and STROKE IT CONFIDENTLY.  If you are wrong in your reading, too bad, but at least you are giving yourself a chance.  If you just stick your racquet out there and wait for the ball to do its thing, you will ALWAYS fail.

I have a serve the I like to spin the ball sideways, and it fooled my opponent many times at first.  But then, like Kon Lee said, it was easier if they just "kept my spin going."  That not only made their return easier, but now I had to deal with all of the sidespin.

It also depends where you stand and how quick your reflexes are. 

I stand around a metre away from the table If it is a fast serve (sidespin or not) the distance helps me to drive. Plus the itself loses some speed. If its slow I have to rush in and push gently. Been practicing this for a long time and still havent quite figured out the slow pushes. If your using 2.0 or max, it becomes difficult to contain the spin while returning.

Nonetheless keep practicing...

This strategy gives you better control over most serves. However I find it very difficult to return an extremely slow side spin wich practically goes horizontal after bouncing on my side. So all I try to do is see how the guy is serving... some judgement always works... unfortunately that comes with practice : )