Recognizing opponents spin

says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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I remember you saying "this is my best serve," and serving short no spin. Hahaha. I go heavy and then no spin a lot.

It doesn't sound sexy at all to say your best serve doesn't have much spin or break or pace, but it is a reality for me. Sometimes I can do well with the heavier chop serves to control some players options, but when you play vs Div 1 crowd of 2000-2100s and up, they know how to handle a predictable heavy chop serve, so if you can show them the heavy, maybe get a point, then later pull the carpet out from under them, you get some good chances to go on attack 3rd ball. A short no spin ball that looks like it has more spin will set you up time and time again. If you can keep opponents guessing what is coming, or be sudden enough serving something unexpected, you can make an opponent wary to aggressively receive even a serve they know the spin.
 
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Another friend who is not quite as high a level told me that topspin will leave ahead of the racket and backspin will lag behind the racket. I don't know if that is always true but that is a cool one that helps me quite often.

I am sorry I dont quite understand this one..
Probably because the language barrier, please, can you try to explain a little different?
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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I am sorry I dont quite understand this one..
Probably because the language barrier, please, can you try to explain a little different?

When you hit a topspin from under the ball it leaves the racket and the racket does not pass the ball because the racket came up the back of the ball and the ball went forward. Whereas, when you hit underspin you come under the ball and the racket will pass the ball so that as the ball is leaving the racket, the racket is closer to the net for a moment (until the follow through ends) than the ball.

I guess it is hard to explain.


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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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I do the same topspin serve Carl describes (it uses same motion as underspin serve, but I pull back or up on racket at impact). With this impact, the ball will hit the racket and move forward. the follow through of the bat will be BEHIND the ball in this case.

When you do a normal underspin serve, you make your impact well below the ball, the bat goes under the ball, then in FRONT of the ball, then the ball follows the bat.

To confuse you (or anyone else) when I see an opponent use this as the determining factor whether my serve was under or top spin, I make the impact for chop serve, but do not follow through the bat under and forward of the ball like normal... I give the underspin impact, then either flip bat over and forward to give an impression of a top spin serve... or I immediately change bat angle to 45 degrees and move bat forward and behind to ball to make it look like the serve is no spin. I get a lot of those balls put into the net for an easy point. Even if the player knows the spin, often, the player doesn't want to attack the serve and sends it either shot (often to BH side I LIKE) or long (Really like)
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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I think that is the idea, any of the shortcuts to reading spin can also cause you to be fooled because there are so many techniques to deceive the opponent so you have to try to do all of them at once. Unless your like my friend who is over 2600 who says he can just see the spin. Sometimes I can. Sometimes I think I can. And sometimes I get fooled.

When I am watching and not playing a match, I try to read the spin of the serves too. It helps a bit. But it is easier for me to see when I am not trying to return the serve.


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One of the tricks I learned from working with Brett Clarke and practicing by myself is that the pull up trick is largely unnecessary. Just impacting the ball by hitting it flat on the back/bottom and forward will impart light topspin on the ball. Yes, you won't get that humongous pop-up vs the pullup motion if it fools your opponent but that depends in part on how heavy your underspin serve is. Mine is heavy enough that the light topspin gets a popup.

The advantage of course is that this looks even more similar to your backspin serve.
 
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