Receiving
Hello Jeff and Alois
I am having difficulty returning a sidespin serve. I had learned that you can just attack to the centre of the table, but this wasn't working. The ball kept on flying out. I tried changing the angle of the bat to cancel out the sidespin, and the ball went in, but it was really high and the opponent just smashed it in. Is it possible to attack on a sidespin serve?
Thanks
Nishant
Hi Nishant,
It is possible to attack the sidespin serve. I think it is important to understand the exact spin on the ball first which you will gain from learning to use the angle of your bat correctly. Apart from using the angle sideways you also need to alter the angle up and down to keep the ball low.
Once you can get this you can also attack the serve. Use your normal topspin but again you will need to adjust your angle slightly to allow for the spin on the ball.
A really important skill in table tennis is to be able to judge if a serve will be short or long. If it's short you won't be able to take a full swing at the ball and hence will need to use either a push or a flick to return the ball. However, if it is coming long then you can make a topspin attack. In this video we give you some tips to help you judge the length of the serve and hopefully this makes you a better returner.
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