Receiving serves with or against the spin
martink asked 6 years ago
A concept I find difficult to grasp. Let’s use left pendulum (left sidespin) and reverse pendulum/backhand sidespin (right sidespin) as examples. It is said that it is easier to go “with the spin” than “against the spin” when receiving a serve. I do know that you have to take account for the sidespin bit, but does “with the spin” mean going in the sidespin direction the ball wants to travel to, or is the spin itself? Are some serves easier to receive with a bh, than a fh? Examples?
Dan Academy Coach answered 6 years ago
Hi Martin,
Good question. If you go with the spin, you can sometimes shoot the ball off the corner of the table, depending on which side spin was on the ball. A great way to learn how to return side spin serves is to return your shots to the middle of the table. Playing to the middle will compensate for both side spins. Have you seen this video yet: https://tabletennisdailyacademy.com/videos/return-tricky-long-sidespin-serves/ We really go into great detail on penulum side spin serves and how to return them. Let me know if this helps Martin 🙂
