How can i read the spin on a serve?

Raniel Raniel Asked 12 years ago

Hi Coach,

I  just want to know more about it, because when i see a different and rare service i start panicking and sometimes I lose because of it .

I am a player of our school and I'm a sixth grade player.

Jeff Plumb Answered 12 years ago

Hi Raniel,

If you've never seen a particular serve before, it is very hard to return it. You need to practice against as many good servers as you can. The more you do this, the more you will start to see patterns in the way people serve and start to pick up what spin they are putting on the ball.

The key factor in becoming a good returner, is to watch the ball extremely closely. You need to watch the ball right onto the servers bat. That way you can see the contact and work out which way the bat was moving when it hit the ball. This will tell you the type of spin. You'll aslo see the contact to tell you if they brushed the ball a lot generating a lot of spin or whether they hit the ball quite flat and didn't generate much spin at all.

So keep on practicing as much as you can and build up that knowledge.