How to return spin

Atanas Atanasov Asked 13 years ago

Hi Alois! Hi Jeff!

I'm Nasko from Bulgaria and I want to ask you how to return side top spin serve. When somebody serve me such a ball I try to push it but sometimes it's falling into the net and sometimes it's going up and my opponent is smashing it. I really enjoy your videos at PingSkills channel and I watch them almost every day! 

NASKO IVANOV 

Alois Rosario Answered 13 years ago

Hi Atanas,

I am glad that you are enjoying the lessons.  You can also see them on our website  which makes it a little easier to see all of the lessons.

To return a sidespin topspin serve you can angle your bat down to counter the topspin and to the side as well to counter the sidespin.  If the ball wants to spin off to the left off your bat then you need to angle the bat to the right and vice versa.

It sounds like they may be serving a variation of the spins because one is going up and one down.  Usually when the ball goes down off your bat it means there is backspin on the ball.  Just watch carefully when they are hitting the ball and also watch the ball in flight to help you to tell what type of spin is on the ball.