flick-against-backspin-and-sidespin-serves
Slicepong asked 6 years ago
Hi Dan and Tom, I was recently talking to Dan about a rough time I had pushing against backspin and sidespin. It turns out I had the wrong bat angle. I thought I had it open, but I was hitting it flat, which caused it to go long, along with a too strong grip. I think I go to the push because I’m not confident enough in my flicks yet. I guess I just have to dive in and strike like a cobra. Aren’t flicks the best return as the topspin negates sidespin and backspin? Thanks.
Tom Academy Coach answered 6 years ago
Hi Slicepong,
Yes I remember the question you posted about it. You’re right about diving in and trying the flicks especially in training because you’ll only improve by trying it more and getting more confident 🙂
Flicks are very effective against sidespin serves as you said because the topspin negates the spin from the serve, but using flicks against backspin can be more difficult as it requires you to generate more spin, have a good use of the wrist and correct timing. But when you get confident with picking up backspin balls it can be a a very good way of opening up the rally and attacking early as you see with the top pro players very often. Still sometimes against heavy backspin balls there is nothing wrong with pushing as long as you play a positive shot and try to get the ball low and deep!
Slicepong