Service receive of left/right sidespin

[Opalescent]

​​For the common sidespins I know that the racket has to angle either towards left or right depending on the type of serve they doing.

For example if opponent serve standard pendulum or reverse pendulum or backhand serve or punch serve, also if he is right or left handed, it all produces different kind of sidespins.

When I am receiving service is there any way that's fast and easy to remember in order to familiarize myself/memorize which way i need to angle the racket in every scenario

Being a noob myself, Because of combination of Left right/ hand players and all sorts of different serves sometimes I don't react fast enough and as a result I might angle racket to the complete opposite side and the sidespin makes the ball go out completely, or lands on an awkward spot ready for opponent to attack.

What i do currently is when i see a serve i angle my racket to the direction the opponent BEGAN his stroke. Not sure if there's a better way

 

[bircham boi]

Mirror your opponent's bat at contact.

 

[Lula]

I think you will get better against this when you get more experience. Try to play with as many different players as possible and you will learn faster.

It is hard to give an answer how to return all different kinds of serves, without seeing them. There are also alot of ways you could return a serve. If we try to make it simple you can topspin the ball(loop or flip) or push the ball. If it is sidebackspin, or backspin ball it is proably easiest to push back. It is also possible to loop the ball if the serve is long. If it sidetopspin, nospin or topspin it is proably easiest to flip if the ball if it is short and loop if the ball is long. Many people also forget that you can push with the spin or against the spin. Try to do this and you will proable see that you can return different sidepsin serves easier against or with the spin.

I think that one of the most important things is that you can not make the same mistake twice, you need to change something if you did not return the serve well the first time. It is also important that you try to read the spin, and make a decision and do a determined return, and not do something half arsed(is it called this?).

 

[mart1nandersson]

Many people also forget that you can push with the spin or against the spin. Try to do this and you will proable see that you can return different sidepsin serves easier against or with the spin.

"Pushing with the spin" is probably the best piece of advice that I've ever received when it comes to service return. I'm a slow learner so it took me some 6 months to fully understand/process this tip that was given by Marcus Sjöberg at one of his training camps. The pushes/returns really becomes a whole lot aggressive as you add more spin to the ball instead of slowing it down.

 

[Lula]

"Pushing with the spin" is probably the best piece of advice that I've ever received when it comes to service return. I'm a slow learner so it took me some 6 months to fully understand/process this tip that was given by Marcus Sjöberg at one of his training camps. The pushes/returns really becomes a whole lot aggressive as you add more spin to the ball instead of slowing it down.

He is a good coach! Pretty fun too, likes to talk alot!

Good that it works well for you!
I think waldner did that alot when righthanded players served to his backhand, he went in with the forehand and brushed from right to left on the ball against the opponents backhand. So he tried to go with the spin, since i think he did this mostly when the opponent played sidespin serve or maybe also at backspin serve.

I also have seen Elias Ranefur make sidespin returns with his backhand agains sidespin and backspin serves, so he tries to go against the spin. I think this looks very interesting, and is not used by many. I will try to learn this, i think it can be good to have as an alternative return. I think it is possible to put pretty nasty spin on the ball, that can confuse the opponent. Try to watch some of his matches and see what you think! Not sure how often he does it though.

 

[perham]

I think other people already explained most of it, but I just want to add a clever way to deal with short sidespin serves that land in the middle of the table. These serves, if you take them right off the bounce with the “wrong” angle, you can push them short with a massive angle that really makes it difficult for the opponent to return it. For me, this is still a 50/50 shot, so I only do it if I have no other choice, but I’m getting better at it. The funny thing is that you can always do a banana flick on them as well, or pretend to do a banana flick and push the ball with a massive angle instead. It catches many people off guard.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lightzy]

I agree. Even if doesnt work out at first, make it a habit of always brushing the ball well on service return. Or attack.

The worst thing to do is to just set ur racket static and let the ball hit it.

 

[FruitLoop]

It takes a lot of practice and not much way to take shortcuts once you know how to counter the spin by aiming in the relevant corner or side of the ball contact.

One thing I would say is. At low levels people generally don't have a lot of good service variation. They might use only one sidespin serve, or at most two. Work out which one they are constantly doing and how to counter it. I.e. right handed pendulum serve to you, touch the right hand side of the ball to counter this spin (or aim at his forehand). Then just keep doing it for every serve like this until you get the hang of it, it will become instinctual. Opposite of this for reverse serves.