Problem with spin

Hello Alois and Jeff,

Thank you for the youtube lessons, they helped a lot. I have a question about how to generate a spin when serving. As I understand it the spin is generated by a fast wrist movement but when I try to do it the ball either has no spin or is has a good amount of spin but goes too low and ends up in the net. I use shakehand grip and right hand so when I try a backspin serve with side spin I would move my wrist from up right to down left closer to my body. But depending on the angle of a bat I get one of the results I described above. What am I doing wrong? Or probably what should I do right?

The other thing that I saw in most of the professional player videos is that they hold the bat almost parallel to the floor but the ball still goes forward. I'm just not getting something, how it can work?

Thank You, Paul.

Hi Paul,

Oh the mysteries of spin! 

Sounds like you are doing a lot of things right here.  Have a try and keeping the angle of the bat steady right through the backhand serve.  Often when we go to make contact we get too safe and flatten out the swing and so get a flatter contact.  This is usually the case.

Don't be afraid to miss the ball a few times to try and get a finer contact.  This almost needs to happen before you can get a good contact on the ball.

The reason the ball still goes forward is because it grips the rubber surface and that throws the ball forwards.  If your bat does not have grip this may cause a problem as well.  If your bat does have grip trust the rubber to grip the ball and keep that angle of your bat really flat.  You are trying to brush the ball right at the bottom to start with and make the ball rotate backwards.

Our Serving Secrets Revealed DVD is close to completion.  Take a look at it in our store on the website.  It would help you to get a better understanding about what is going on.

Hope this has helped.  Persevere with it.